The med bins are part of the state’s Drug Take-Back Program, which sends unwanted or unused medications to waste-to-energy plants.

The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the California Product Stewardship Council (CPSC), working through State Opioid Response (SOR) grant issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), have completed installation of approximately 250 safe medication disposal bins across California, expanding the statewide network of med bins for the public to use for free.

The med bins provide safe disposal of unwanted, unneeded, and/or expired medication and were provided as part of the federal grant-funded California Drug Take-Back Program.

The program, which helps in keeping California communities safe from the harmful effects of opioids and other prescription drugs, includes detailed publications explaining how the public can use the med bins, a comprehensive med bin locator map and education around the benefits of using the med bins, such as:

“Due to the ongoing pandemic, this expansion of the med bin program couldn’t be more timely. Unused medications that are not disposed of properly can cause a myriad of serious public safety concerns,” said CPSC Executive Director Doug Kobold in a release. “Fortunately, the network of med bins in California helps to solve issues related to the opioid crisis and, more particularly, a lack of safe and convenient disposal options.  With the addition of these nearly 250 new med bins throughout the state, consumers are afforded more convenience within their own communities when they want to dispose of their unwanted meds.”

The program, which ended March 31, 2021, was funded by a $3 million grant from DHCS through the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) program, which in turn was funded by SAMHSA under the SOR grant.

The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas serves as a resource in making recommendations to address critical gaps identified while mapping existing food donation laws and policies across the world.

As more countries join the fight to address global challenges such as food waste, climate change and global hunger issues, The Global Food Donation Policy Atlas,  produced as part of The Atlas project, serves as a resource in making recommendations to address critical gaps identified while mapping existing food donation laws and policies across the world.

Research from The Atlas project, which is produced by the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC) and The Global FoodBanking Network, is now available for 14 countries: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Atlas project, supported by the Walmart Foundation, examines six major legal issues that impact food recovery: food safety for donations, date labeling, liability protection for food donations, tax incentives and barriers, government grants and funding, and food waste penalties or donation requirements. The Atlas project compares the legal frameworks impacting these issue areas across participating countries and provides policy recommendations for countries to overcome common barriers to food donation. The results have sparked dialogue among country leaders who are now drawing on best practices from other countries to inform their own food recovery policy development. 

"Hunger is a longstanding and completely solvable problem made worse by the pandemic. We produce more food globally than we need to feed all those suffering from hunger. There is no time better than now to implement policies and laws that eliminate senseless barriers to food donation and align incentives to encourage this beneficial practice," Emily Broad Leib, clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School and director of FLPC, says. "We have heard from policymakers around the world who are using the Atlas analyses and recommendations to inform efforts in their home countries. We hope that our research empowers our food bank partners and their community allies and encourages more governments to systematically work toward closing the gap between surplus food and rates of food insecurity."

"The Global FoodBanking Network is honored to be a partner in this important research identifying policy solutions to stem food loss and waste and promote food recovery for hunger relief," Lisa Moon, president and CEO of The Global FoodBanking Network, says. "Food banks are a community-based solution to effectively redirect safe, wholesome surplus food to people in need. With more than 1 billion tons of food wasted each year, the Atlas offers stakeholders a policy roadmap for greater food security and sustainability." 

One-third of food produced across the globe is lost or wasted, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, while global hunger persists at crisis levels exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Atlas project addresses this asymmetry while contributing knowledge to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, which includes zero hunger, good health and wellbeing, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and climate action.

"Walmart Foundation has a longstanding commitment to increasing access to healthier foods in communities around the world, and we are pleased to support the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas, because of its potential to accelerate effective and sustainable solutions," Eileen Hyde, director of sustainable food systems and food access for Walmart.org, says. "This project provides not only groundbreaking research to address the complexity of public policy relating to food donations, but it also presents clear opportunities to improve how surplus food gets to communities that need it."  

An interactive map, legal guides, policy recommendations, and executive summaries for 14 countries are available at atlas.foodbanking.org.

The state’s Department of Environmental Quality is distributing about $500,000 in grants to reduce the state’s dependence on landfill disposal.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has announced that its recycling program has provided $492,937 in recycling business development grants to 16 North Carolina recycling companies.

According to a news release from the department, the grants are projected to create 108 new jobs and generate more than $1.3 million in new, private business investments while reducing the state’s dependence on landfill disposal.

“Recycling businesses provide high quality jobs for North Carolinians and play a unique role in boosting the state’s economy while improving the state’s environmental and carbon footprint,” says Jamie Ragan, director of the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. “These grant-funded projects will create jobs and put recyclable materials back into the state’s economy, thereby helping manufacturers make new products, reducing North Carolina’s reliance on foreign markets and ultimately diverting material from the waste stream.”

For the fourth year in a row, DEQ says it gave priority to projects that improve North Carolina’s capacity to domestically process and use mixed paper and nonbottle plastics. According to the North Carolina DEQ, strengthening local markets leads to more resilient recycling programs and better value for these materials when diverted from landfill disposal. 

The recycling business grantees are from 13 counties, representing both large and small companies. The North Carolina DEQ says types of grant projects awarded include expanding plastic processing capacity, upgrading material recovery facilities and improving recycling markets for other materials. The following companies received grants:

Grants are offered each year, depending on funding availability, to reduce the flow of solid waste into landfills and continue growing the state’s recycling economy. Recipients are required to provide a minimum cash match of 50 percent of the grant award; however, the level of private investment in 2021 is expected to more than double the total grant funding. The combination of grant and private dollars will result in a nearly $1.8 million investment in the state’s recycling infrastructure.

California-based commercial waste equipment provider increases presence in Pacific Northwest with acquisition.

Emeryville, California-based American Trash Management (ATM), a provider of waste and recycling equipment, chute installation, and repair and maintenance services, has expanded to the Pacific Northwest with its acquisition of Portland, Oregon-based RamCoNW.

Existing RamCoNW customers will continue to receive chute and compaction services but will also now have access to ATM’s “full suite of trash management services,” says ATM.

“Adding RamCoNW to the ATM family is an exciting step for us,” says Steven Seltzer, ATM’s chief operating officer. “Clients rave about the service and quality the company offers its Oregon clients, and we’re thrilled to continue that tradition while also providing additional products and services.”

“This feels like the right next step for our company,” says Lisa Menken, president of RamCoNW. “Our clients are our lifeblood, and being able to not only continue providing top-notch chute and compactor services, but also offer next-generation waste solutions is a dream for us.”

In 2021 and beyond, ATM says it is seeking to partner with other “high-quality, well-established and respected regional trash system service operations.”

On its website, RamCoNW has retained its brand name while also referring to itself as “an American Trash Management company.”

Founded in 1990, ATM says it provides sophisticated, cost-saving trash management products and services to private and public sector customers in North America, including waste and recycling equipment, trash chutes and accompanying installation, repair and maintenance services and—through its SmartTrash subsidiary—ongoing waste management services.

The company invested in technology capable of boosting its recovery rates and reducing its reliance on manual sorters.

Every recycler knows that the success of their operation is wholly dependent on the quality and efficiency of their sorting processes.

Melimax, a construction and demolition (C&D) recycler based in Chateauguay, a suburb of Montreal, had been struggling with efficiency issues at their facility in recent years thanks to lackluster sorting system performance that required several passes for the same material and a large number of manual sorters.

“We had quite a few issues with our old system, but the main pain points were the double and triple handling of the material to bring it up to purity standards, while having an enormous amount of pickers. We were aiming to decrease our number of pickers as much as possible while having a ‘one in, one out’ system where whatever came into the system came out as a final product or trash,” Mario Landry, president and owner of Melimax, says.

At the beginning of 2020, Landry began consulting with Sherbrooke OEM about possible solutions for these issues. According to Billy Brasseur, marketing manager at Sherbrooke OEM, the company made the proposition to implement new sorting technology at the Melimax site to increase their recovery rate of both materials exceeding 2 inches in size and fines material, as well as reduce labor costs.

Skeptical at first, the facility’s management quickly became enthusiastic when presented with the first technical sketch and the financial provisions of the project. According to Brasseur, Sherbrooke OEM mapped out the entirety of the project and shared plans in great detail, not only on the technical side, but also regarding the financial implications of the project centered on improved recovery rates.

After initial discussions that allowed the company to see the value in upgrading the site’s equipment, Melimax signed off on a total sorting system overhaul.

Manufacturing and design of the system began in May 2020. Installation commenced towards the end of June and was completed by early October of last year. Melimax began operations with the new system as soon as installation was finished.

According to Brasseur, “The system was built from scratch. We did not use anything from the old system. The core difference between the system’s new equipment, however, was the implementation of optical sorters as well as various equipment to sort the fines portion of the material.”

Up until recently in the C&D universe, only sizeable pieces of wood could be easily recovered, Brasseur says. That has changed along with the advent of more sophisticated sorting methods.

Brasseur says in order to help Melimax better recover its wood, Sherbrooke OEM advocated introducing optical sorters, which had been proven successful at other C&D sites.

Brasseur says optical sorters are ideal for this application because they have the ability to perform hundreds of thousands of ejections every hour. This method of sorting has a capture rate between 95 and 98 percent, the company says.

“Now, every piece that is larger than 1/8 inch in size is recoverable, which represents a huge step forward, as it now allows the recovery rate of wood to exceed 95 percent in C&D facilities,” he says.

According to Brasseur, the ability of optical sorters to differentiate between desirable and undesirable material is one of the main selling points of the system.

“There will always be unwanted material that is ejected with the desired material. We call this the dragging factor, and it is not often considered when talking about sorting, when in fact it has a substantial effect on both capture rate and purity of your material. The dragging factor is caused by the fact that unwanted material is either too close to the desired material or simply attached in some way to the desired material.”

Brasseur says when programming the ejection parameters of the machines used at Melimax, the company made sorting out some of these unwanted materials a priority.

“By replacing quality control done manually with optical sorters, it was possible to increase the quality of the wood, as well as sort out the melamine, embossed panels and plastic, which allowed the production of two distinct wood grades with interesting value,” he explains.

When it came to treatment of the fines material, Sherbrooke decided to design the system in a way it had been doing for years in the southern parts of the United States, which is to remove the 1/8 inch fines from the rest of the 0- to 2-inch portion of material recovered. This was done to recover not only the wood in this fraction, but also the aggregates, which represented a substantial portion of the material.

“The startup of the Melimax facility made us quickly realize that [separating the 1/8 inch fines from the 0- to 2-inch portion] reduced the total volume of the 0- to 2-inch material from 30 percent to less than 15 percent,” Brasseur says. “Furthermore, observations to this day continue to demonstrate that there is just as much aggregate in the 0- to 2-inch fraction than in the 2 inches and above portion, which is not negligible considering that [that portion of the 0- to 2-inch material] is not usually recovered at all.”

Landry says that thanks to the improvements of its sorting system, Melimax is now able to process 50 tons per hour, averaging between 400 tons to 800 tons a day. Not only have improvements at the site enabled better recovery of materials, Landry says the new system has helped the company better market its products.

“The first improvement we saw was that we got our pickers down to five from our initial number of 25—which represented a major expense for us. Not only that, but we get better quality in our products with the Sherbrooke OEM system since it’s fully automated. We’ve also seen an increase in our uptime and our throughput per hour,” Landry says. “Perhaps the biggest benefit we have with this system is that fines materials are sorted. Being able to retrieve both wood and aggregates from that fraction has had a big impact for us.”

This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine. The author is the editor of Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine and can be contacted at aredling@gie.net.