Neil Seldman, ILSR Waste to Wealth Program, Washington, DC continues to follow the one bin proposal in Houston, Texas. In his January 7th Letter to the Editor, Seldman underscores the fact that city’s pilot curbside recycling program is working well and is quite popular. Can you imagine how fast the program could spread, increasing the materials recovered and … Read More
A unique network of eight social service agencies gathered in Eugene, OR last month. The Cascade Alliance meeting was the coming out event for the network of East Coast agencies along with their anchor organization, Saint Vincent De Paul of Lane County. The agencies located in cities from Lowell, MA to Orlando, FL have become entrepreneurs, establishing … Read More
Community Environmental Services, part of Portland State University, trains and employs students to offer zero waste management services to companies, institutions and public agencies. CES works in the private sector with clients such as supermarkets to establish a baseline for material flow and then deliver specific recommendations for reducing waste. The movement for zero waste in … Read More
Zero Waste is now a world wide movement. The emergence of this effort to turn wasted materials into raw materials was recently documented by Paul Connett in Zero Waste: Untrashing the Planet One Community at a Time, Chelsea Green Books, 2014. In a recent piece for Future Structure, writer Indrajit Basu provides a timely update on … Read More
Changes in solid waste management have indeed made a great social impact in the past few years. However, the Wharton School’s Social Impact report gives only a glimpse of how new expectations have shifted attitudes, technologies and practices about what recycling can do for a local economy in the near future. … Read More
ILSR has been working with grassroots recyclers, Zero Waste Canada and Zero Waste International Alliance to prevent garbage incinerators and improper EPR regulations in British Columbia, Canada. Incineration As is typical in garbage incineration efforts, environmental groups are the first to be alarmed at proposed garbage incineration, followed by business interests that fear increased taxes to … Read More
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance praises Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken of Minnesota for leading the growing list of organizations committed to defending the authority of communities to make their own decisions when it comes to build the Internet networks of tomorrow.… Read More
Last week, the DC City Council unanimously passed two key pieces of legislation: a styrofoam ban by food service businesses and a waste modernization bill. ILSR helped win passage of both bills in collaboration with many environmental and civic groups. Neither bill is perfect but necessary for future development of zero waste programs in the District. … Read More
ILSR and the City of Austin, Texas, have been working partners since the late 1980s, when a coalition of environmental groups, small businesses and progressive City Councilors rejected a garbage incinerator already under construction. The City Council closed down the project and initiated a path toward recycling, composting and use of low cost landfill which would … Read More
