SCRAM Newsletter - Fall 1995

• SCRAM Turns Five - Receives DEP Grant
• Recycling Roller Coaster
• Earth Day in Hardwick - Household Hazardous Waste Collection
• SCRAM Meetings & Field Trips
• REGIONAL PROFILES
  • Sturbridge Recycling
  • Hubbardston Recycling
• Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation
• Call Your Legislator Ask for Their Support
• Talbert Trading Corp.
• Nature's Backyard - Brave New Composter
• SCRAM Compost Grant
• State Recycling Report Cards

SCRAM Turns Five - Receives DEP Grant

SCRAM has been hosting regional recycling meetings every other month for five years now. We have been an active participant in the growth of recycling in the region and have received a $10,000 DEP Technical Assistant grant for general cooperative development in recognition of our success and a strong 1995 grant proposal. The board of directors spent three months putting together a grant proposal and has hired John Alphin after an advertised search and interview process. John is a founding member and an active leader in SCRAM which has been to our advantage.

Some of the grant goals are:

OUTREACH

John has identified the region's recycling coordinators, set up a membership databasethat expands our group from the core 11 towns we are used to seeing to 24. He has designed a SCRAM brochure and done an outreach mailing that he followed up with phone calls. This has brought us new paid members, new participation and direct phone support to the region.

NONPROFIT FILING

SCRAM is in the process of incorporating and filing for non-profit status. John is working with a lawyer to make the necessary changes in our by-laws for the incorporating and filling out the paper work for the non-profit filing. He will update us at the Nov. 16th meeting and we will vote to accept SCRAM Inc.'s new by-laws.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANT

John has coordinated our meetings for the next six months, produced this newsletter and prepared all mailings. He has been able to attend day time recycling meetings across the state with other regional coordinators and state officials, visit new recycling markets, provide technical assistance to SCRAM towns on DEP equipment grants and the Mass Highway Dept. landfill capping assistance program, and answer numerous other solid waste questions. He may not know the answer but he is there to find one for you so call him at (508)867-9491

MARKET DATABASE

John has visited new markets for plastics, textiles and paper. He is compiling a list of our local markets and bringing this information to the group through this newsletter ,mailings and our meetings.

SCHOOL RECYCLING PROGRAMS

John is working with North Shore Recycled Fibers to start and expand School recycling programs to include mixed paper. A regular regional pickup is already in place. Call him if you do not have a program at your schools.

PREPARE GRANTS

John has written SCRAM's 1996 DEP technical assistant grant to expand the work started here and is already looking at other funding sources. You will be hearing more about this grant in the near future.We can only hope that the next five years are as much fun and rewarding.

Recycling Roller Coaster

We are all down in the dumps after an exhilarating high in the paper and plastics recycling markets. Bob Heffernan from North Shore Recycled Fibers noted, when asked about the recent swing, that "recycled paper markets follow the world economy. We just went through 18 months of an upswing in the economy, which means more advertising, larger newspapers, magazines and more packaging driving up demand for paper products. When the economy levels off the paper markets see this immediately. Massachusetts Recycling Associates Limited has a new paper recycling mill opening in Fitchburg Mass. that will be recycling 220,00 tons of office waste annually. This will help to stabilize that end of the paper market but it will not help the lower grades like OCC and boxboard." Ben Harvey from E.L. Harvey & Sons agrees with Heffernan that the simple answer to the recent crash in prices is supply and demand economics adding that "along with the strong economy a number of new paperboard mills went on line competing for the lower grades of paper, driving up the price for these grades. All this overproduction with little demand for their product has depressed the recycled market price." Neither dealer sees it getting better until February or March due to the current over stock of product and raw material and because of the annual increase in recycling collection of paper around the November, December holidays. However they both see the number of new mills on line as a long term stabilizing factor. Harvey also reminds us that the economy usually goes up on election years and that this will help to pick things up in 96. Want to know about the world economy? Ask your paper broker!

Plastics have been through a similar roller coaster ride but for their own reasons. Recycled HDPE resin prices are dictated by the price of virgin HDPE. Virgin HDPE resin is tied to the price of ethylene which is a by product of natural gas processing. There are 20 natural gas processing facilities in U.S. , and two of them had long term shutdowns in the spring that effected the supply of virgin HDPE. At the same time in Southeast Asia the cotton crop was a failure which increased demand for synthetics, bringing U.S. exports of PET and HDPE up to new highs further increasing demand on a smaller than usual supply. The economics of supply and demand sent the virgin resin price of HDPE soaring from 13 to 60 cents a pound, in turn driving HDPE recyclable bottles to their high in May of 36 cents a pound baled. Tom Whitcomb of Enviro Plastics of Auburn had difficulty getting enough bottles to keep operating and had to pay the inflated price or shut down processing. In June the price started its drop, and in July the price started rapidly falling to where we are today back at 13 cents a pound for baled clear HDPE and 7 cents a pound for baled colored HDPE. Whitcomb expects a slight increase in price in January and February due to an annual decrease in bottle collection from volunteer recycling programs in the cold months. Enviro Plastics is now taking baled PET from customers for resale and is paying 19 cents a pound. They are not processing the material but started taking it as a courtesy to their customers.

Earth Day in Hardwick

Household Hazardous Waste Collection

by Linda Paquet

The Hardwick Recycling Commission conducted its first household hazardous waste collection on Saturday April 22, 1995 and it was enormously successful. It proved to be great public relations for our recycling program particularly with the elderly who said they had been storing their "stuff" in basements or barns for years, not knowing what to do with it! Amazing stuff came in-DDT, asbestos, PCB's and the like!

We approached this project with no prior experience or knowledge of how much material might be gathered. Clean Harbors conducted the collection and advised us what to expect in terms of population and amounts. Ultimately we decided on a $10,000 contract for 3 hours of collection. (Clean Harbors would keep a running estimate as the material came in and advise us if and when we needed to shut down.) Additionally, we provided a police officer, eight members of the commission to welcome and direct people and answer any questions, and a 30 yard dumpster for empty containers. We were open from 9 am to noon.

Prior to the collection, Clean Harbors visited the site (the Hardwick Elementary School Parking Lot) and made recommendations about traffic flow, etc. They were at the site at 7:30 am on Saturday with staff of nine. They set up traffic barriers, put down plastic, set up the work space and opened promptly at 9:00. There was a steady flow throughout the morning with the busiest time from 9:00-10:30. The longest wait seemed to be about a half hour but nobody seemed to mind waiting. We checked licenses for residency, and used the opportunity to hand out literature on an up coming tire and automobile battery collection, as well as information about alternative cleaning and gardening methods that are hazard free. We were so busy that we did not use the opportunity to conduct a survey or count vehicles. (Clean Harbors estimated the collection at about 200 cars.)

Our only real problem was over automotive batteries. We had advertised "batteries" meaning household types. When many car batteries started coming in, it was prohibitive for Clean Habors to pack them in barrels. We made a quick executive decision and sent people to our recycling center 2 miles away where a volunteer took the batteries at no charge. We collected 80!

Paint was by far the biggest volume item. In retrospect, we should have had our own crew inspecting the cans of paint at the check-in point, taking anything good enough for swap or use by local theatre groups. I think we could have saved some money here.

Because we did so much advertising (articles in local papers, handouts to all elementary school children and a bulk mailing to residents), I believe our participation was higher than normally expected. The estimated 200+ households equals approximately 22%. From the questions we received, it became obvious during the week prior to the collection, that we were going to have a good turnout. We decided to increase our contracted amount to not more than $15,000 in the hope that we wouldn't have to turn anyone away. Our bill was $14,410. We shut down exactly at noon and nobody came late!

Everyone-the commission, the public and the environment-was extremely happy with the results. Clean Harbors staff was courteous, professional and efficient. By 4:00 PM they had sorted, poured, packed and loaded 2 trucks with drums, cleaned the site, given me a report with promise of a bill and departed. It was a great Earth Day celebration.

SCRAM Meetings & Field Trips

REGIONAL PROFILES

STURBRIDGE RECYCLING

By Ginny Belforte

The Sturbridge Recycling Committee was formed in 1987 after the Town Engineer informed the Board of Health that the landfill had approximately two month's life left. The Board of Health immediately started a volunteer recycling program and asked the Town Meeting to approve one million dollars to start a recycling center, cap the old landfill and open a new lined landfill. The request was approved and construction of a recycling center with a permanent household hazardous waste facility began. The center became operational on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on May 13, 1989.

There is no fee charged for use of the recycling center, but a numbered sticker is required on each household vehicle that enters the center, and the number should appear on clear plastic bags and oil containers left at the facility. There is a nominal fee for items such as demolition debris, tires and white goods. The center holds an annual amnesty and clean up day during which fees are waived and residents swap labor or landscaping materials for compost to help beautify the facility on Arbor day.

At the present time approximately 74% of the Town's households, more than 2,800 single family and apartments, use the center along with over 300 small businesses. The center has recycled over 400 tons of material so far this year and composts over 100 cubic yards of leaves and yard waste a year. George Berry from the Board of Health estimates the combined recycling/composting rate at over 50% of the total solid waste. 360 tons of waste a year is landfilled and Berry projects the life of the landfill to be at least another 16 years. Habitual abuse of the rules at the center result in loss of the right to use the center. Items currently being recycled include:

aerosol cans; batteries-auto and household; clothing; demolition 4' lengths (fee); Fluorescent light tubes; Furniture-mattresses, sofas etc. (fee); glass-green-brown-white and window pane; Household hazardous waste-3rd Saturday every month; all metals; paper-old news-mixed paper-cardboard;, plastics-milk jugs-mixed plastics-styrofoam; tires (fee); leaves and yard waste.

Sturbridge has been using a downstroke vertical baler for baling cardboard and plastics and plans to add another baler to their facility. The ability to bale two products while they are open will reduce handling and labor costs associated with baling on off days. They have retrofitted a roll-off container to accept a compactor for mixed paper recycling.

Join us on Nov. 18 9:00 for a tour.

HUBBARDSTON RECYCLING

By Bradfield Lyon

The Drop-off Recycling program in the Town of Hubbardston (pop. 3,400) was established in 1990. The program is overseen by the town's Recycling Commission whose members are appointed by the Board of Healrh. Over the past five years, participation and collection rates have steadily increased and a number of improvements have been made to the drop off facility. Materials currently accepted include #1-#6 plastic ( including shopping bags and foam peanuts), glass, paper (all grades), steel cans,aluminum cans and foil, white goods and scrap metal, lead-acid batteries, redeemable containers and tires (annual collection). In terms of volume, the drop-off program currently handles about 1,250 cubic yards of material per year.

The dedication and determination of a core group of volunteers has played a key role in the development of the Hubbardston recycling program. Through a combination of volunteer labor and donated building supplies the basic drop-off facility, consisting of an enclosed collection sorting area and two storage buildings, was built at absolutely no cost to the town. The installation of electricity, a telephone and answering machine "hotline" (from a touch tone phone call 508-928-5008 and try it) were also achieved completely by donations and volunteer help. There are currently 90 volunteers in our "200 Club" (4 volunteers per week times 50 weeks per year equals "200") who staff the center along with a paid recycling assistant.

The town's program has benefited greatly through equipment grants obtained from the state Department of Environmental Protection. Four roll-off containers, educational materials and 50 home composting bins have been awarded in the past three years. These items have increased both the awareness about recycling and the efficiency of the drop-off operation. SCRAM has also played a very supportive role in Hubbardston's program, especially in the area of recycling markets. A program currently established for recycling paper at both the local school and town offices was a direct result of SCRAM's influence.

We currently have plans to double our hours of operation Saturdays and have enough in our budget to pay for the extra recycling assistant hours.

Join us in Hubbardston Jan. 20 9:00 for a tour.

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation

By John Alphin

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) is in the process of introducing a national collection/recycling program for rechargeable nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries. Ni-Cd rechargeable batteries make up about 10% of the 4 billion batteries sold annually in the United States. They are usually sold with consumer products such as a battery operated drills, camcorders, portable computers, remote control toys, and cellular and cordless phones. The battery industry is under great pressure to recover these batteries in order to minimize the amount of cadmium in the waste stream. RBRC has started recycling programs through retail outlets in several states. In a successful pilot program in Gloucester County New Jersey, Wheelabrator Technologies, Inc. teamed up with RBRC to coordinate the collection of rechargeable batteries. Wheelabrator is interested in reducing the amount of cadmium in the ash residue of their trash energy plants.

Now these two companies, in collaboration with MassRecycle, are implementing the collection program in Massachusetts. The batteries are collected in small UPS cardboard mailing boxes which also serve as display boxes. Once full, the boxes are shipped back to RBRC, who pays for the postage and recycling of the batteries. The boxes are set up in retail establishments that sell rechargeable batteries such as hardware stores, building supply outlets, department stores, lighting supply houses, portable cellular phone, computer stores, electronics stores and drug stores. You may already have seen these boxes and accompanying promotional literature in Radio Shack stores across the state.

One of SCRAM's goals for this year is to implement battery recycling in the region. We hope to support RBRC's program by helping identify retail establishments that sell rechargeable batteries in our towns. We are asking that a coordinator from each SCRAM town compile a list of a couple of potential collection sights. The list should include the name, address and phone number of the stores, and should be mailed to SCRAM, P.O. Box 461, Brookfield, MA, Attention: Batteries by December 12, 1995; or call John at (508)867-9491 with the information. SCRAM will forward this information to Pat Scanlon, Recycling Director of Wheelabrator, so they can get collection boxes out to these stores. Coordinators should also identify a person in their community to assist in the initial implementation and local oversight of the program. At most this would mean being available to help introduce the idea to a store owners, or help them get a replacement box if needed. Normally, the replacement of boxes will taken care of automatically.

The next phase of the RBRC program will be to include a County/Municipality collection. Many towns that have Wheelabrator disposal contracts in our region, such as East Brookfield, already have collection boxes in municipal locations. We would like to see this service offered to all towns and will push for this while helping with the retail program.

Call Your Legislator Ask for Their Support

Battery Bill: H4351 Requires that battery manufacturers create plans for recycling household batteries. This bill is already putting pressure on the manufacturers and along with other legislation nationwide has encouraged theRBRC recycling program. Passed Favorably by Natural Resources Committee, and is currently in the Science and Technology Committee.

Recycled Content Labeling Bill: H2231 Requires that information about recycled content of packaging be displayed on the package. Passed favorably by the Natural Resources.committee. It is currently in the House Ways and Means.committee.

Recycled Packaging Bill: H2618 Requires packaging be reduced, reusable, recycled, or contain recycled content. Bill is currently in Natural Resources Committee.

SLAPP Bill: H1520 Protects citizens from frivolous law suits being filed against them to keep them from protesting. Passed into law.

Talbert Trading Corp.

Textiles Recycling

by John Alphin

Where do all the old clothes go, people put in Goodwill, Salvation Army or other clothes recycling boxes? Sooner or later they end up at a company like Talbert Trading Corporation of Worcester, a 60 year old business headquartered at 300 Southbridge Street in two huge 130 year old woolen mill buildings retrofitted 50 years ago. This is where they receive tractor trailer loads of clothes and material of all types, usually baled, from other commercial institutions like the Salvation Army. The bales are opened and the material goes by conveyor up to the third floor where it is sorted from one 30 foot conveyor onto three 150 foot long conveyors.

Here 36 people sort clothes and material by type e.g. all the men's cotton shirts on one, pants on another and all the damaged cotton shirts in another. These sorted piles are dropped down shutes into ten foot high wooden cages that are wheeled over to a baler when full and the material is baled. They sort 100,000 pounds a day of material. 59% is still wearable; 19% is cotton clothing that is not wearable (ripped, missing buttons etc.) which is sorted by color to be made into cloth rags; and 19% is nonwearable synthetics, some of which can be used for rags but most of which goes to their textile mill to be processed into fiber for remanufacture.

There is 3% of waste by-product, nonwearable raincoats, plastics, books, belts shoes etc. that get landfilled. At this point the material is brought across the street to another building for storage and a number of options. Some of these bales are exported as is.The better clothes go through another sorting and grading process by another 35 employees who sort the materials into more detailed smaller bundles such as 250 plaid flannel shirts or 250 Hawaiian shirts. Some of these clothes get sold at a small retail store on the premises but most get baled in small bags and are exported at a high price because they are a known quantity and quality. Some of the cotton clothing that is not wearable is cut into cloth size rags here, but the majority is sent by the bale to another branch of the company, Beacon Wiper Corp., to be processed into wiping rags for industrial use.

All the material left over from the above processes is sent to their Millbury plant, Mill-Tex Corp., where 25 employees work in shifts around the clock to process the material into fiber. Here bales from their plant and other industries are selectively put through huge French designed shredding machines which have what look like thousands of steel bear claws on shafts shredding the material being held and moved along by drums covered with steel pins. The machine has many of these shredding drums and the material is shredded into progressively finer fiber sizes, while metal, plastic buttons and fine dust is continually being extracted as the material moves down the fifty foot machine. The final product looks like colored pillow stuffing and is used to make products such as auto sound insulation and mattress pads after being compressed into what looks like felt padding. They receive cut off scrap material from many industries that they remanufacture into fiber the company can use again. They also make a pillow stuffing from a recycled PET plastic strand material. The material is waste by-product from another company.

Talbert Trading Corp. has experience with collecting materials from municipalities.They will pick up the material provided it is kept clean and dry and meets their list of material specs. They also will pay between 5-10 cents per pound depending on the quality of the material. Bob Mantylla from Talbert Trading Corp. will be our guest speaker at our next meeting on November 16th in Hardwick.

Nature's Backyard - Brave New Composter

by John Alphin

Nature's Backyard is the manufacturer of the Brave New Composter (BNC), the only compost bin made in Massachusetts of 100% recycled detergent bottles collected from local recycling programs. In 1994, Nature's Backyard distributed more than 10,000 BNCs in 60 cities and towns in Mass. under a grant program sponsored by the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The DEP grant program makes compost bins available to residents for $20 or less. This saves the purchaser $39.95 over the retail cost of $59.95.

The Brave New Composter was invented by cinematographer, community activist, and plastics recycler Stanley Shain. Shain heard about the State DEP compost bin grant program and designed a compost bin to meet the State specifications.Shain was intrigued by the compost bin project because of his prior involvement in organizing community gardening and composting projects.

"Our goal is really to reach the kids," says Shain. "If we can teach them about the benefits of composting and help them become earth stewards, they'll teach their parents."

At the same time he was creating a market for his plastics recycling. Shain worked with New England Plastics which has four plants in Massachusetts to develop the process for manufacturing his compost bins from 100% recycled material. New England Plastics was reluctant to use recycled content in their products but the success of the Brave new composter has opened their minds to experiment with other recycled content products.

The Brave New Composter has the largest capacity of any composter in its class. It easily adjusts from 14 to 24 cubic feet and a smaller 11 cubic foot and larger 30 cubic foot model are now available as well. Its snug-fitting top and bottom keep out rodents and other animals. The bin holds up to one cubic yard of material, and features a bottom cone that brings air to the center of the pile, increasing aeration. A top cone that holds in moisture and heat, speeding decay.

Nature's Backyard has grown from a one person operation to six employees handling the growing demand for their composters. They advertise in Organic Gardener magazine and ship all over the country. Much of their success here in Massachusetts has been due to their connection with the DEP grant program and their ability to help towns sell composting as well as their composters. Lisa Yane has been with the company since 1994 and has worked closely with SCRAM explaining composting and their composter at our meetings, much as she has done accross the state.

Lisa is excited about a new project this fall helping towns run large composter sales events at local lawn and garden centers. If you are interested in hosting one of these events this fall call Lisa at (508)995-7008. She will again help us organise some large earthday related sales next spring, so get in touch if you are interested.

SCRAM Compost Grant

SCRAM is applying for a 1996 state DEP compost bin grant with the town of North Brookfield acting as host community. If we get the grant, SCRAM communities will be able to buy a small number of bins at a time, helping the smaller towns participate in the grant program. SCRAM is also helping towns with leftover bins from the 1995 grants, sell their bins. If you are looking to purchase or sell bins Contact John at (508)867-9491

State Recycling Report Cards

By John Alphin

MassRecycle's municipal recycling committee hosted a discussion on the Municipal Recycling Report Cards with guest speakers Scott Cassel from the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and Rob Ingenthron from the Dept. of Environmetal Protection(DEP). Eighteen recycling coordinators from the east and central part of the state attended. As you may remember the report cards were first released in February of last year without any previous warning, resulting in numerous angry phone calls about the whole process. The intent of the report card was to focus attention on municipal recycling and how close the towns were to the statewide recycling goals of 36% by 1996 and 46% by the year 2000. It was also an attempt to encourage some competition and embarass the towns with no recycling program into action.

This year the state is including us in the process through these meetings and the 1996 Recycling Report Card Preliminary Data/ Corrections Sheet. A sample correction sheet has been mailed to each town marked ANY TOWN to solicit feedback on the process. The solid waste/recycling numbers on the Preliminary Data Corrections Sheets will be coming from each town's FY96 DEP recycling grant which contains numbers for FY95. We are all encouraged to make corrections and update these to provide calendar year 95 data for the most current 12 month period available. If you have any questions about the data sheets, get in touch with Erin Walters from DEP at (617)292-5989. If you have any feedback on the process send it in writing to:

As a participant in this MassRecycle meeting I expressed my concerns about the accuracy of the data and the fairness to our rural, lower income communities. Our communities produce less trash per capita and have composted at home for years but neither are reflected in the report cards. We should be getting A's for reducing our trash even if its not through some municipal program but an old rural ideal. Reduction is the top of the State's solid waste management pyramid of reduce, reuse, recycle, yet it is not factored into the report cards. Composting seemed to be the one item that was most problematic. It varied dramatically from 5 to over 20% of some high income suburban towns' recycling totals. Take away these high composting figures and some of these " A" towns don't look so good. It was even suggested that composting be graded seperately as the Sprinfield MRF communities are doing. Low income rural towns with landfills without scales to weigh their trash, that are using state averages to estimate their tonnage by population, may be off by as much as 100%.

Many at the meeting expressed the need for standard ways of converting cubic yards of different materials to tons. Erin Walters hopes to have conversion ratio's available to be mailed out with the actual Data Corrections Sheets. These sheets will be due back by January 30, 1996.

There is a clear attempt to address as many issues as possible this year ahead of time , so speak now or forever hold your peace.

Two more report card discussion meetings planned :