Why Garbage Incinerators Are A Bad Deal For Communities (Episode 68)

Date: 21 Mar 2019 | posted in: Building Local Power, Energy, Podcast, Waste to Wealth | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Host John Farrell speaks with ILSR’s Marie Donahue and Neil Seldman about the harmful impact of burning trash to generate electricity. The trio dive into ILSR’s recent report Waste Incineration: A Dirty Secret in How States Define Renewable Energy. They also discuss Baltimore’s recent passage of the Clean Air Act.… Read More

The Case for Decentralized Recycling (Episode 55)

Date: 20 Sep 2018 | posted in: Building Local Power, Podcast | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Host John Farrell is joined by Neil Seldman, ILSR’s co-founder and director of the Waste to Wealth program, to discuss how convenient single-bin recycling may have made things easy for the consumer, but harder for cities to capture the economic benefits of recycling.… Read More

ILSR Co-Founder Interviewed on Benefits & Challenges to Local Recycling

Date: 23 Apr 2018 | posted in: Media Coverage | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In an update to municipal recycling, “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” broadcast from WAMU out of Washington D.C. reached out to Neil Seldman, the co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, to detail what has changed in the metro area and the challenges to this vital infrastructure. Seldman details the economic development benefits of local recycling and advocates for greater infrastructure investment.… Read More

Rescuing Materials and Building Community in Berkeley Thanks to “Waste” (Episode 43)

Dan Knapp and Mary Lou Van Deventer sit down with long-time friend and ILSR co-founder Neil Seldman and Communications Manager Nick Stumo-Langer to discuss their successful reuse business and how they fit into the wider Berkeley community.… Read More

Neil Seldman Speaks to Green America in Webinar on “Recycling in the U.S.”

Date: 13 Nov 2017 | posted in: waste - recycling, Waste to Wealth | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

On November 8th, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s co-founder and researcher for the Waste to Wealth initiative Neil Seldman presented to the Green America audience for their webinar, Recycling in the U.S. here.You can stream the presentation from Green America’s website The video of the webinar is available here: Follow the Institute for Local Self-Reliance on Twitter and Facebook and, for monthly … Read More

Letters: Prince George’s residents are making too much of a stink about trash collection

Date: 14 Aug 2017 | posted in: Media Coverage, Waste to Wealth | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

In The Washington Post, Written by Neil Seldman.

The decision to cut twice-a-week garbage collection to once a week is a reasonable response to budget overruns. In today’s world of tight budgets, many cities have made this transition, particularly with the introduction of recycling, which reduces the amount of garbage to be collected.… Read More

How Baltimore can kick the landfill, littering and incinerating habit

Date: 1 Jun 2017 | posted in: Media Coverage, Waste to Wealth | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Strewn in streets and alleys. Dumped in a landfill. Burned in an incinerator and, ultimately, inhaled by residents.

About 20% of Baltimore’s residential trash is recycled. That’s extremely low compared to the 35% national average for cities. Some jurisdictions have achieved 50% and 60%. West Coast cities including Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles have reached even higher levels.

In Charm City, what doesn’t get recycled ends up in some not-too-charming places, including the aging Wheelabrator Baltimore waste-to-energy incinerator, locally known as BRESCO.

But a decision point is looming: the city’s contract to send trash to BRESCO is set to expire in four years. Continuing to use the incinerator means expanding the Quarantine Road Landfill, which is approaching capacity and accepts the incinerator’s ash, as well as residents’ solid waste.… Read More

ILSR’s response to Washington Times Article: A more complete assessment of burning garbage

In response to an article in The Washington Times on the “efficiencies” and “benefits” of burning trash, our co-founder Neil Seldman responded with an editorial piece about how helping communities with recycling-based economic development makes them more vibrant and dynamic.… Read More

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