Dive Brief: Lithium-ion batteries topped the list of materials state officials find most difficult to manage, according to a survey conducted by the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials. Tires and PFAS-containing products rounded out the top three. Respondents were also asked to list the mechanisms they used to address those materials. A majority of state officials, 25, said they used publicly issued guidance documents, while 20 said they used state-level funding and regulations to address the materials. Thirty-nine states responded to the survey. The survey, conducted in June 2023, informs the organization's efforts to support better management pathways for the materials. ASTSWMO has previously weighed in on federal efforts to address several materials, including plastics and PFAS-containing products. Dive Insight: Certain materials have flummoxed state officials who are increasingly looking for ways to divert materials from disposal. Lithium-ion batteries have proven particularly challenging, as the items have been prone to causing fires in recycling and disposal facilities. Last year, the U.S. EPA circulated a memo informing officials that the batteries are "likely hazardous waste" upon disposal, in part because of their "ignitability and reactivity." The memo did not change any federal regulations, and it also clarified that states could regulate lithium-ion batteries more stringently if they choose to. The survey found that respondents most often needed markets, infrastructure and funding to manage difficult materials. One respondent said that their state was home to "a few recyclers for lithium-ion batteries" but lacked collection and transportation infrastructure to shepherd those materials to recyclers. The state also noted “[p]roducer responsibility requirements would help," a view echoed by other respondents who viewed EPR policies as a way to secure ready infrastructure to accept difficult materials. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are also challenging, in part due to uncertainty about the chemicals' health and environmental impacts and shifting regulations. The survey was conducted after EPA's initial drinking water regulation for PFAS in 2022 but before the final version, released last week. PFAS-destroying technologies are still emerging, and concerns around incineration and its impact on the environment have complicated remediation efforts. The Department of Defense is currently partnering with Enviri division Clean Earth on a pilot to study remediation methods, as it first announced in November. The ASTSWMO’s Hazardous Waste Subcommittee generally has been supportive of EPA efforts to address PFAS, including its proposal to list nine of the so-called “forever chemicals” as hazardous constituents. That decision could open up the chemicals to cleanup requirements at Resource Conservation and Recovery Act corrective action facilities. ASTSWMO noted doing so would create new remediation needs for states, and noted the need for increased resources to manage the challenge.  Some materials among the 21 that ASTSWMO surveyed posed unique challenges. Several respondents noted that infrastructure for tires at the end of their lives is scarce, leading to dumping or other improper management. Household hazardous waste was the fourth highest item ranked by states, and plastics, especially #3 through #7 plastics, ranked fifth. 

Dive Brief: Battery recycling company Green Li-ion is launching a new battery materials plant in Atoka, Oklahoma, the company announced Thursday.  The facility is located within an existing recycling facility and will produce battery-grade cathode precursor, lithium and anode materials from used lithium-ion batteries.  Green Li-ion's facility is part of a larger push from the industry to onshore the material processing link in the battery supply chain, which is largely still completed overseas, including in China. Dive Insight: Green Li-ion is one of many companies focused on developing a more circular economy behind battery production, part of a bid to avoid geopolitical pitfalls and snatch Inflation Reduction Act domestic tax credits.  Green Li-ion's equipment focuses on black mass processing — an often overlooked aspect of battery recycling and production. Black mass is created from shredded battery scrap and then processed to recover materials like nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese, which can be recycled into battery-grade components.  While nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals are typically mined, more companies are turning to recycled options as demand for domestically procured material outstrips supply.  Green Li-ion is tapping into this demand with the option for other battery recyclers or manufacturers to send the company black mass for processing or to install the company's equipment in their own facilities.  The company's technology converts recycled scrap into battery-grade precursor cathode active material, eliminating the need to export material for further processing.  In doing so, Green Li-ion is hoping to circumvent China's grip on much of the world's critical mineral mining capacity and offer a domestic solution for rising battery material demand. The Oklahoma plant is expected to produce two metric tons of pCAM per day, or the equivalent of 72,000 smartphone batteries, with plans to quadruple capacity within the year. The site is currently in the final stages of calibration to produce pCAM and lithium carbonate and expects to begin commercial production later this month, according to VP of Operations Stephen Hayward.  Green Li-ion did not disclose the size of its investment in the plant but said it would start with six new positions, with the potential to grow up to 20 as the plant scales production, according to Hayward.  "If you don't have rights to mining, you have absolutely no choice but to start recycling," Hayward said.  What to do with recycled battery scraps is where Green Li-ion and others are hoping to fill the gap in the U.S. Electric vehicle battery recycling could reclaim up to 98% of key raw materials to manufacture new batteries, according to Guidehouse Insights.  Several battery material makers are in the midst of building North American plants to capture the rising demand.  Battery recycler Umicore is building a $1.34 billion plant in Ontario that will combine CAM and pCAM production. And American Battery Technology Co. is in the midst of building a Nevada plant that will process black mass and lithium intermediate material into battery-grade components.

The New York City Department of Sanitation captured less residential and institutional recycling than it did six years ago and encountered more contamination in recycling streams in 2023, according to its newly released waste characterization study.  While the agency attributed some of the shrink in recycling tonnages to shifting trends, like packaging lightweighting and the decline of newspapers, experts say the agency is falling behind on its duty to educate residents and residential building staff members who manage trash, recyclables and organics for buildings of all sizes. “Just mandating a recycling program does not make it successful,” Eric Goldstein, New York City environmental director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said. “It needs additional focus from the department, including a reinvigorated education and training effort.” In response to a question about the role education should play in improving contamination and capture rates for recycling, DSNY Press Secretary Vincent Gragnani highlighted the “massive, multi-pronged education and outreach” campaign the agency did around curbside organics collection. “We remind New York City residents and businesses that we are all required to give recyclable materials a second life by separating them from regular trash,” Gragnani wrote in an email. The study is the first that DSNY has conducted since 2017. Auditors collected and analyzed material from each residential collection stream: paper and cardboard recycling; metals, glass and plastics recycling; and trash. They found that on the whole, New Yorkers discarded fewer pounds of refuse than during any prior study year, despite the pandemic shifting some waste tonnage from commercial streams to residents’ homes. Recycling and refuse collections in New York City Measured in pounds per household per year The study found additional bright spots. The statewide bag ban that took effect in 2020 contributed to a 68% reduction by weight of plastic bags in the waste stream since 2017, a reduction that appears to have more than offset the increased amount of other types of bags that have since found their way into the garbage. A ban on expanded polystyrene foam containers, mostly used for takeout, contributed to that material decreasing 54% by weight in the waste stream. In a note leading the study, DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the effectiveness of the bans lends “credence to the fight to enact extended producer responsibility at the state level.”  But New York is going backwards in its diversion goals, according to the study. It found that even though 75% of materials in the waste stream can be diverted from disposal, just 20.2% of the waste stream was diverted in 2023. That metric includes a decline in the capture rate of paper and cardboard, which dropped 2.5 percentage points, and a decline in the capture rate of metals, glass and plastics, which dropped 2.6 percentage points. A goal set in 2018 to grow the city’s capture rate from 50% to 60% has spawned little improvement, and the city’s goal to stop sending waste to landfills by 2030 seems more and more out of reach. Clare Miflin, founder of the Center for Zero Waste Design, has worked with DSNY to educate architects on best practices for materials diversion and other initiatives. She said she was troubled by a DSNY official characterizing the changes reflected in the study as “negligible” and by the agency’s head, Jessica Tisch, recently waving away the notion that DSNY should encourage residents to reduce the amount of garbage they produce. “There’s just this hole,” Miflin said. “DSNY doesn't think they’re responsible for getting to zero waste.” Organics This year’s waste characterization study is the fourth since 2000, and it’s the first time a study has logged a decline in recycling rates. Samantha MacBride, assistant professor at Baruch College and a former DSNY official, had a hand in a major waste characterization study the city released in 2005 as well as subsequent studies. She said DSNY has made some improvements since her tenure there ended. “Sanitation is better now than they used to be,” MacBride said. “When I worked at Sanitation, if a resident asked us, ‘Where does our stuff go?’ We would give them a vague, general answer about it, but most of our staff did not even know exactly where it was going.” New York City Mayor Eric Adams, DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch and other officials unveiled an expanded Staten Island Composting Facility on Jan. 4, 2024, which increased the facility's capacity by 2,000%, according to the city. (2024). Retrieved from New York Sanitation Department.   The new study also takes a close look at organics collection. Efforts to offer curbside collection expanded haltingly before the pandemic. But the Adams administration, backed by the city council, began a more permanent expansion last year.  Today, DSNY is largely sending source-separated organics to either the newly expanded Staten Island Composting Facility or a codigestion facility at the Newtown Creek wastewater treatment plant in Brooklyn. Those facilities have been touted by the agency as a success, as has the rollout of organics curbside collection in Queens and Brooklyn.  The waste characterization study notes these programs offer additional opportunities for diversion. The study estimated that an additional 36% of organics currently in the waste stream could be diverted for collection after Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx get curbside organics collection later this year. But in a study of organics diversion in Queens during the 10 months the borough had curbside collection last year, MacBride found that a troublingly low 4% of organics were captured. Boosting that rate would require a series of measures, MacBride argued in a policy brief, including an embrace of microhauling, community compost and greater transparency. Such efforts would combat skepticism and lack of participation in organics collection. “People always want to know, where does my trash go, where does my recycling go, where does my composting go? And when you can’t give a lot of answers, it’s no surprise that people start believing conspiracy theories,” MacBride said. “It’s transparency … people have a right to know about the world they live in.” Education Issues with both recycling and organics collection have ebbed and flowed for decades, since DSNY first began separating out materials from the refuse stream. But they’re compounded today by budget cuts that have hamstrung the agency’s education and outreach efforts. Miflin noted that November budget cuts made by Adams have halted a program run by GrowNYC in partnership with New York City schools to teach students sustainable practices, just as schools are beginning to receive organics collection service. The nonprofit itself now faces dire financial straits, as the elimination of funding for the community composting program could result in dozens of layoffs. The November cuts also slashed $4.1 million in outreach and communications spending budgeted for fiscal year 2024, with additional multimillion-dollar cuts planned for subsequent budgets. Those cuts reduce the agency’s ability to message on critical programs, but repeated and sustained messaging campaigns on proper recycling are critical in a city that saw more than 2.5 million new residents arrive between 2010 and 2020, Goldstein said.  “The city has not been paying attention to the need to repeat and reinforce the message about how to recycle and why it’s important,” he said. More education and outreach money should be spent on programs that embrace a zero waste mindset, Miflin said. While some opportunities like the Clean Buildings Training remain for staff, Miflin said the new administration did not renew a contract she had to educate architects on how to design buildings for zero waste. She noted that without planning ahead for diversion, designers of large buildings frequently don’t provide enough space for recycling and organic waste, instead furnishing just five square feet for recycling storage or a separate chute as mandated by code. Miflin said current codes and DSNY’s collection systems are incentivizing trash. “A building like that, of course they're gonna get contamination,” Miflin said. The city could make progress by earning back residents’ trust and buy-in with recycling programs, Goldstein said. But reducing the amount of waste sent for disposal could also save the city money, he pointed out — New York City currently spends nearly $500 million on waste disposal and export.  “That’s not chicken feed, and it’s coming from our taxpayers,” Goldstein said. “The economic benefits of recycling and composting when they are fully embraced and comprehensively publicized could be significant for taxpayers as well as for the environment.” Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information about building code recycling requirements. This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for the weekly emails here.

Edward Humes doesn’t think he’s solved America’s waste crisis, but he has a few suggestions he thinks might help. The author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist takes aim at what he sees as the most wasteful aspects of American culture in his new book, “Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World,” out on April 2.  Courtesy of Random House   The book showcases numerous waste, recycling and reuse advocates and their quest to reduce waste in everyday life. Along the way, he also introduces experts who connect personal responsibility changes with larger systemic solutions, such as advocating for extended producer responsibility laws and curbing greenwashing through changes to packaging labeling and other efforts. The book reads as a how-to guide for people who worry about reducing their waste footprint but aren’t sure where to start.  Humes already has one waste-related book under his belt: the 2012 book “Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash.” For that book, he explored the scope of the waste problem in the United States by visiting landfills, delving into single-use plastic issues and spending time with advocates trying to prevent plastic in oceans. But much has changed in the decade since that book was first published: China’s National Sword policy altered the way the U.S. ships recycling overseas, while EPR and other policies meant to raise recycling rates and reduce pollution have taken hold. At the same time, pollution persists and in some cases is getting worse, he said. For his follow-up book, Humes told Waste Dive he wanted to highlight meaningful steps to reduce waste in everyday life — everything including how Americans source and cook food, how they heat their homes and power their vehicles, what types of packaged products they choose at the grocery store and where they buy their clothes. “Everywhere you look, there's a lot of wasteful things that have become normal to us and they're not normal,” he said.   “Total Garbage” follows people that Humes said are “thinking outside that normalcy box” to advocate for better solutions. In one part of the book, he describes accompanying Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Georgia and an author of leading studies on plastic pollution, as she gathered food packaging data at a grocery store. The trip showed Humes just how confusing it can be for consumers to choose the most environmentally friendly or recyclable food packaging, something Jambeck herself admitted was tough for her — even with a self-described “PhD in trash.” Another part of the book highlights Sarah Nichols, then the Sustainable Maine director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, about her work helping to pass the country’s first EPR for packaging law. “It was so interesting to see how she championed it just one heart and mind at a time — talking to town council meetings, recruiting citizen volunteers to talk up the power of saying, ‘We've shifted to this model of foisting the responsibility for dealing with plastic and packaging waste on to taxpayers and consumers. That’s not right.’” Edward Humes Courtesy of Michael Goulding/Random House   Though much of his book includes ways the average person can make personal choices to prevent waste, Humes acknowledged that personal responsibility is just one part of the puzzle. “It shouldn’t be about blaming the consumer, but our choices do matter. They should also inform and drive larger policies so responsibility can be shared,” he said. He also acknowledged that some of the book’s tips — choosing grocery store foods that come in less packaging, for example — aren’t realistic for people who live in communities without grocery store access, meaning the most feasible daily shopping option are convenience stores that sell pre-packaged items. Larger policies are needed to address similar inequities, he said. “The burden of all that waste falls most heavily on disadvantaged communities… because incentives in our economy allow that,” he said. Still, Humes feels optimistic that there are more tools available than ever to help individuals fight what he calls “the toxic disposable economy.” He highlights “micro-farms” in Los Angeles that transform lawns into places to grow food and high-end restaurants that have converted from natural gas to induction cooktops to save energy and reduce indoor air pollution. He also mentions a farming community in Minnesota that dramatically reduced its energy consumption by switching to solar and LED power.  Humes himself is an ardent supporter of thrift stores, which he said keep clothes out of landfills and fight the rise of fast fashion, which often is made of materials that contain plastic but have limited or no outlets to be recycled. “My argument, in most cases, is that not only are some of these options the less wasteful options, but they are the cheaper options. We’re making the economic case, the social and environmental case,” he said.

The U.S. EPA announced that 45 states and dozens of metropolitan areas submitted priority climate action plans as part of applying for the agency's Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. The program, created through the Inflation Reduction Act, makes $4.6 billion in competitive grant funding available for governments to implement the measures their plans describe. Under a previous program phase, EPA distributed $250 million to governments to help them develop their plans. Recipients included 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 80 metropolitan statistical areas, four territories and more than 200 tribes and tribal consortia. "The diversity of ideas and ambitious initiatives from all across the country reflect the seriousness that states and metropolitan areas are bringing to the work of cutting pollution, acting on climate change, and meeting their local objectives,” Jennifer Macedonia, deputy assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said in a statement last week. “These climate action plans demonstrate substantial progress for states and local governments, in coordination with their communities, to chart their path forward — building healthy communities and competitive local economies where climate solutions can thrive.” Comprehensive climate action plans are due by the second half of 2025 for most grantees. Those plans will include a broader array of measures to reduce greenhouse gases. Many of the priority plans include measures to reduce emissions from the waste sector. While the sector's emissions have fallen 29.3% since 1990, it still contributed 166.9 million megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e, in 2022, according to the most recent Inventory of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and sinks. That count excludes emissions from waste incineration, which are counted in the energy sector. Landfills are also the third largest source of methane pollution, a potent greenhouse gas, per the EPA report. A variety of voices in the waste and recycling industries viewed the CPRG program as a major opportunity and pushed governments to incorporate zero waste, landfill gas mitigation, composting and other policies in their plans. Three of the four largest states by population submitted plans; Florida did not. A selection of their waste priorities and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions impact expected is below. California Food waste prevention and edible food recovery The state proposes leveraging its existing programs to build an entirely new, holistic food waste prevention program. The program would aim to recover at least 20% of currently disposed edible food by 2025 and support current food loss and waste mitigation efforts like food waste tracking software, prevention equipment and training. The state envisions the program aligning with existing goals and efforts created in response to organics diversion bill SB 1383. The state projects additional federal support would result in about 101,000 megatons of CO2e emissions avoided from 2025 to 2030 and 604,000 megatons avoided through 2050. Organics recycling The plan envisions that federal funding would fill implementation gaps in California's existing SB 1383 organics recycling infrastructure programs. The state noted that it awarded more than $130 million in Organics Grant Program funding at the end of last year but waitlisted 10 eligible projects due to lack of funds. It estimates the grant recipients could reduce emissions at an approximate cost effectiveness of $250 per megaton of CO2e. The state further envisions that enhanced funding for organics recycling infrastructure programs could avoid about 80,000 megatons of CO2e emissions from 2025 to 2030 and 479,000 megatons through 2050. New York Organics recycling The plan notes New York has so far received $434,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Composting and Food Waste Reduction Agreement program. While New York already has provided $11 million in funding for food scraps recycling and donation since 2010, the state proposes issuing an additional 20 grants by 2025 and another 20 grants by 2030. It envisions those grants supporting organics recycling in a variety of ways, including "starting or expanding a food scraps composting facility, expanding a yard trimmings composting facility to accept food scraps, starting a food scraps drop-off program, purchasing equipment needed to process food scraps, or purchasing equipment to transport food scraps," per the plan. The state expects 220,000 megatons of CO2e emissions to be avoided from 2025 to 2030 and 1.2 million megatons to be avoided through 2050 as a result of its work on organics recycling. Landfill emissions In addition to acknowledging a need for source reduction, the plan sets a goal to complete 10 landfill gas reduction projects within five years. Those projects could include "installing gas collection systems sooner after waste placement, installing specialty landfill gas collectors for difficult to access areas, or enhancing gas dewatering systems to increase collection efficiency," per the report. It identifies existing programs, like the Section 48 Investment Tax Credit for energy properties and the state's existing landfill closure and gas management grant programs, as potential supporting programs for this goal. The state anticipates its efforts could avoid 630,000 megatons of CO2e emissions through 2030 and 7.16 million megatons by 2050. It also notes sizable co-pollutant emissions reductions the plan could achieve, including 665.1 metric tons of nitrogen oxides, 511.9 metric tons of sulfur oxides, 76.6 metric tons of volatile organic compounds and 10.1 metric tons of carbon monoxide. Texas Landfill energy The plan envisions the state taking several measures to capture more energy from landfills. They include supporting the creation of biofuels through methane capture from landfills and wastewater treatment plants as well as through surplus biomass. The state estimates doing so could avoid 2.38 million megatons of CO2e emissions by 2050. The state also proposes combining solar arrays with biogas at closed landfills to generate energy. Recycling The plan groups together a range of waste-reduction measures that don't fall under industry, transportation or power and puts them into the “other measures” category. These include projects that add recycling infrastructure and projects that increase recycling or composting. The plan anticipates such projects would cumulatively avoid 4.56 million megatons of CO2e emissions.

The National Recycling Congress conference this year brought together local, state and national experts to discuss the importance of recycling’s climate impacts and its connection to environmental justice initiatives. Participants discussed how recycling and reuse groups can build capacity to better understand the areas they serve, while other discussions centered on how to more effectively make space for environmental justice topics. Speakers from federal agencies discussed progress on the Biden administration’s plans to advance recycling- and waste-related goals, while local community groups talked about how to tap into resources designed to help them win and keep grants, including from federal sources. Here are some highlights from the virtual event, hosted by the National Recycling Coalition March 5-6. Progress on federal recycling funding The federal government has worked for the last few years to improve its resources for environmental justice initiatives, “and there’s more to come,” said keynote speaker Nena Shaw, director of the U.S. EPA’s Resource Conservation and Sustainability Division. Environmental justice is a major lens through which the federal government thinks about and funds recycling initiatives, she said. Like other federal agencies, the EPA follows the Justice40 Initiative, which mandates that at least 40% of federal funding and benefits for programs go to disadvantaged communities.  Shaw touted recent progress on projects funded by numerous rounds of multimillion-dollar waste and recycling grants announced in 2023. The next round of funding could be announced by the end of the year for the Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grant and the Recycling Education and Outreach grant. That next round would give more applicants the chance to apply. Meanwhile, recipients are in the process of using funding from the first round of grants, with 76% of the $105 million in SWIFR funding going to disadvantaged communities to improve recycling, organics and waste management systems. Some of the projects include purchasing recycling collection vehicles and building recycling dropoff facilities in rural areas. “We're really excited about being able to see that come to fruition,” Shaw said.  About 74% of the $33 million in recycling education grants will go to projects in disadvantaged communities, Shaw added.  Beyond funding mechanisms, the EPA is working on finalizing the National Recycling Strategy after receiving 91,000 comments on the draft first published in 2021. That final strategy could also come by the end of the year. The EPA is also working on data collection strategies that could give the country a better picture of where and how waste is managed. “The waste stream is changing and becoming more complex, and we're also building for a circular economy, so we have different management pathways that are at play. Planning is incredibly important,” Shaw said. Connecting community groups with federal resources Community-led organizations play a major role in advancing recycling and waste policy and moving environmental justice efforts forward, speakers said. Such groups are key to building more inclusive and equitable recycling and waste policies, but they often have fewer resources and less time to coordinate major projects compared to larger organizations and companies, speakers said. Federal funding and resources are available for such organizations, but accessing it can be confusing, time-consuming and cumbersome, said Sarah Salem of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Salem co-leads the organization’s Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Center, which provides training and support to help communities better navigate federal grant systems.  Some federal agencies are starting to create their own community engagement departments, “which many did not have before,” said Cleophus Lee, managing principal of New Life Development Group. It works with for-profit and nonprofit organizations on revitalization projects that sometimes involve environmental justice and economic development aspects.  The U.S. Department of Energy is an example of an agency that has “been getting into the community, understanding what the real needs are from the people in the community and making themselves available to talk to these community-based organizations,” he said. Organizations must also work on capacity-building to be effective long-term, he added, which means strategically hiring people with the right skill set and cultivating and keeping a broad range of partnerships. “You have to put your ducks in row to make sure ... you have the capacity and infrastructure you need to acquire the grant and then manage the grant, which will help you to keep the grant.” Organizations also can’t lose sight of the community’s priorities and concerns, which means doing the long-term work of “showing up not once, not twice, but many, many times and becoming a beacon within your community and leaning on community leaders,” Salem said. “How do we amplify the voices of those who aren't in the space with us? How do we listen more, and speak up more and ask why is it done this way or push against the norms?” In addition to finding the right funding and resources, environmental justice groups engaged in zero waste are seeking to reclaim the narrative around pollution in their communities, said Elizabeth Balkan, director of Reloop North America.  “One of the things that the plastics industry has been very good at is convincing communities that it's their responsibility to fix the problem, and if it's not fixed, it must be the consumer’s fault, the individual’s fault,” she said. “That translates into these communities that are already bearing the burden [of pollution] now meant to carry the shame of failing to recycle.” Green technologies don’t always mean green communities The U.S. is investing more and more in renewable energy supply chains, but those solar panel arrays, wind turbines and electric vehicle batteries could come with a cost to environmental justice communities, said Bryan Moore, an environmental lawyer and partner at Balch & Bingham.  “Green tech may be the front runner in our efforts to mitigate climate change, but without a robust circular economy for these technologies, our national efforts to address the global environmental crisis will exacerbate localized environmental impacts in already overburdened communities,” he said. Moore advocated for the energy industry to design components with recycling in mind and create end-of-life strategies for hard-to-recycle technologies. He highlighted Solarcycle’s recent announcement that it would build a $344 million solar panel recycling facility in Georgia, which the state expects will create about 600 jobs. “Recycling is key to realizing the full environmental potential of these green technologies,” he said. Moore also called for facility operators to offer communities “multiple meaningful seats at the table to facilitate community participation and siting decisions.” And when communities say they don’t want the facility in their neighborhood, operators must do more to examine and address inequities that might contribute to those sentiments, he said. Reuse strategies can also reduce the impact on environmental justice communities by keeping materials like batteries out of landfills. Electric vehicle batteries that still hold 20% or more of a charge after being used in vehicles can find a new life for residential energy storage systems and other applications, he said. Some state legislatures are also exploring extended producer responsibility laws for solar panels, which could spur further action.

Dive Brief: LA Sanitation and Environment has ended contract amendment and extension negotiations with the haulers that provide service in its recycLA commercial waste zone system, according to a spokesperson. This includes Athens Services, WM, Republic Services and others. The current 10-year contracts expire in January 2027. The agency expects to release a new RFP by this fall, and execute the next contracts by “mid 2026” to allow time for a service transition in 2027. A Los Angeles City Council committee is also considering a motion Friday to create a “recycLA Incentive Program” for the estimated 60% of customers that don’t yet have organics service as required by state and city law. Councilors noted that $4 million in city funding is available to help offset the added cost for these customers. Dive Insight: The recycLA program, described by LASAN as “groundbreaking” for its time, has yielded a significant amount of investment from haulers and boosted areas such as edible food recovery. But city staff feel some aspects of the contract design haven’t aged well, leading to high costs for customers and limited progress on certain environmental metrics. Last year, the council’s Energy and Environment Committee directed LASAN to pursue parallel paths of renegotiating contracts while also preparing for a potential RFP. Chair Katy Yaroslavsky, who directed LASAN to cease negotiations by the end of February unless there was a resolution, did not respond to a request for comment. The recycLA program covers approximately 66,000 accounts, including commercial businesses and multifamily buildings with five or more units. It divided the city into 11 exclusive franchise zones and substantially narrowed the field of waste companies providing commercial service. That list includes Athens, WM, Republic, NASA Services, Universal Waste Systems and Ware Disposal. The companies that won contracts in 2016 for the original program agreed to update their fleets, offer universal recycling and organics collection service, enhance worker safety protections and more. This led to 543 new compressed natural gas trucks and more than $175 million worth of investments in new or upgraded facilities. Companies reported an uptick in recycling activity, but many have not hit their contractually required disposal reduction targets. Cost has also been an issue, with some customers reportedly seeing their bills double from the base rate due to added fees. A 2019 contract amendment ended access and distance fees for blue bins, but it came at an expense to the city.  Adoption of organics collection — which became a state and city requirement since the program began — has also been slow. This is in part because recycLA allows haulers to offer organics as an added service rather than part of a bundled rate. LASAN sought to address these concerns in months of negotiations for five-year contract extensions; haulers wanted 10-year extensions. The companies said at a Feb. 23 council hearing they’d agreed to many changes, such as cutting some fees and investing in electric trucks. LASAN Director Barbara Romero said these offers “came with future impacts or additional costs to the customers.” At the time, LASAN said it had already taken steps toward an RFP, such as submitting a notice of intent to contract to the city’s chief administrative officer for review. According to a Feb. 20 report, the agency plans to make many updates in its new RFP, “including those based on new industry standards as well as all of the program changes and restructuring needed based on lessons learned to date from administering the recycLA program.” One of the more notable changes could be a reduction in the number of haulers. The program started with seven (and shrank to six after an acquisition by Athens) but LASAN feels a smaller, unspecified number would be more efficient. The agency, which services residential customers, could also take on certain types of service for some recycLA customers. Other changes include requiring a minimum level of blue and green bin service for each customer, with education and outreach led by the city instead of haulers, and factoring green bin organics service into a bundled maximum rate. LASAN also aims to eliminate access and distance fees on all bins. The RFP would also eliminate overweight and overfill fees, and limit the amount time of bins can be left on the street. Collection fleets would have to be “all-electric, surpassing state requirements.” The new RFP would also update “uniformity in proof of provision of service requirements.” During the hearing, multiple haulers asked for more time to negotiate and said that amending the current contract could bring the city’s desired changes sooner. Athens declined to comment on LASAN’s decision to end negotiations. A WM spokesperson said via email that the company “greatly values and honors LASAN’s discussion and process, and we look forward to continuing our partnership in servicing commercial establishments in the city.” Republic said via email that it looked forward to “a long-lasting partnership” and supported the city’s sustainability goals. “We respect the bureau’s decision to improve the recycLA program through the development and release of a new RFP. Moving forward, we will continue to perform at our highest level to achieve the program goals and meet stringent new state organics law mandates,” said Melissa Quillard, senior manager of external communications. Teamsters Local 396, which represents certain local employees and backed the program’s launch, declined to comment. In a September letter, the union said it supported possible options that included LASAN issuing a new RFP. LASAN recognizes that many of the same companies would likely bid on a new RFP, but hopes that a reconfigured “recycLA 2.0” could yield new results and more competitive pricing. Dan Meyers, division manager for the recycLA program, said at the hearing that the agency planned to study county and state rates to “begin to benchmark where we need to be, as well as benchmarking services and service rate models utilized by other jurisdictions." He said there was a sense of “urgency” to award contracts by 2026 so that haulers would be ready to start (or continue) service in 2027.  “That leaves us with just less than two years to develop an RFP, release it, evaluate, negotiate and award."