In case you missed it: Thoughtful, newsworthy comments from industry professionals, consumers, and legislators.
"People can't hide anymore. It was so easy to hide from the auditors and to keep double books and to cheat, and too many were doing that and it’s very clear."
—Basel Action Network (BAN) Executive Director Jim Puckett on criminal activity across the electronics recycling market. Puckett assisted in an investigation that placed 200 GPS trackers in old electronic devices, finding that almost one-third of them were being fraudulently exported overseas.
"If the world were to reframe how it thinks about waste, it is the delta between the ambition we have collectively to get to a low-carbon world and where we are now."
—Hannah Jones, Nike's chief sustainability officer, to The Huffington Post. Jones told the Post how Nike's footwear now contains 71% of materials made from waste products of its own manufacturing.
"We shouldn't need luck for sanitation workers to go home safely each night."
—John Foust of the Dranesville District of Fairfax County, VA at a recent Slow Down to Get Around outreach event. The event highlighted the importance of SDTGA with remarks and testimonials from various industry leaders.
"I think the waste industry is looking at New York City and saying if New York can figure out how to separate organic waste, then everybody's going to do it."
—Industrial/Organic founder Amanda Prinzo to Fast Company on her startup's innovative method of processing organic waste. Prinzo believes that the company's system will transform organics recycling for space-challenged cities.
"We're having a special retreat to lock ourselves in a room, for a whole day, to come up with a strategy to deal with legislation and the challenges of meeting Act 148...We need to try to figure out how we are going to deal with this, because we don't know."
—Bob Spencer, executive director of Windham, VT solid waste management district, on the district's struggle to make money in recycling. Act 148 is the Vermont universal recycling law that includes a ban on certain materials from the landfill, a hierarchy for managing organic waste, and more.
"We always just duck and cover when we get here."
—Tim Krinitsyn, a local homebuilder in Richland, WA, who works with the city's Horn Rapids Landfill. Krinitsyn explained to KEPR TV that birds are taking over the landfill, posing a health risk for the locals. Richland has proposed a code change to allow workers to use non-lethal devices to share the birds away.