Peter Houstle's blog

By Paul Gilman | Covanta Energy Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer

In her response (see Other Voices: WTE plants don´t remove need for landfills) to my editorial published in the Nov. 28 edition of Waste & Recycling News, Caroline Eader not only mischaracterizes my position, but provides inaccurate information with regard to the energy-from-waste (EfW) industry.

By Caroline Eader | Boulder Zero Waste Trips LLC

In a Waste & Recycling News guest column (Nov. 28), Paul Gilman of Covanta Energy Corp. wants us to applaud the United States Congress for ending its composting program in the Henry Longfellow cafeteria. The cafeteria is using polystyrene containers which then go to a trash incinerator for processing. His argument is that this method of choosing single-use foodware and then burning it as "energy-from-waste" is better than that waste going to a landfill.

The results are in and the most challenging issues by category are as follows:

Education - Public education about recycling policies and procedures

Operations - Determining and/or acting on opportunity in food collection.

Markets - International market demand fluctuations

Competition - Public-private revenue sharing

Costs - Rising energy cost

MRN Past President, Chaz Miller, participated in a panel on product stewardship at the American Bar Association Environment, Energy and Resources Workshop in September. Below is an abstract of the paper he prepared for the panel.  Click here to view the full document.

Below is a policy position statement against the use of degradable
additives. Please let us know what you think? Agree, disagree, not sure...?

DEGRADABLE ADDITIVES – DRAFT POLICY POSITION

BACKGROUND:

There are two categories of materials generally comprised under the
broader term "degradable plastics." The first category includes
bio-based resins, those derived from plant materials such as corn, e.g.,
polylactic acid (PLA) containers. The second includes fossil fuel-based

According to a recent article in Resource Recycling, Wisconsin's Gov. Walker is looking to end the state-mandated recycling programs that have been in place since 1995 by cutting approximately $32 million used to fund recycling programs in over 1,000 municipalities across America's Dairyland.