Dive Brief: Officials in Dane County, Wisconsin, are planning a new 30-acre sustainable campus, a business park it envisions will bring together recycling, reuse and waste management activities under a long-term circular economy plan. The county’s Rodefelt Landfill has less than five years of capacity left, and it’s in the process of building a new landfill across the street. Yet officials say significant new waste diversion infrastructure is also needed, especially because the county’s population is rapidly growing. Dane County’s Department of Waste & Renewables has issued a Request for Information to solicit large-scale waste diversion ideas, such as chemical recycling initiatives or anaerobic digester facilities, among other options. It also calls for ideas for reuse and repair businesses, educational and art facilities, or recycling solutions for “problem materials” such as mattresses and mixed plastics. Dive Insight: Dane County already operates a range of waste management and diversion programs, but wants to consolidate operations to create a cohesive campus with more space for purpose-built facilities, new programs and better coordination across activities. “We want to design this so that we're managing our waste differently in the future,” said John Welch, director of the Department of Waste & Renewables. “That means looking at what's left in the waste stream. What else can we divert, and how do we do it in an economically viable way?” Dane County joins other U.S. localities that are pursuing sustainability business park projects as a way to formalize waste diversion projects while attracting new investments. Kent County, Michigan, is building a similar business park as part of its goal to divert 90% of county-generated waste by 2030. Waste-to-energy and other diversion options are part of the vision.  Phoenix’s planned Resource Innovation Campus aims to include a MRF, transfer station, compost facility and land leases for waste diversion businesses and research. Washington, D.C., added a sustainability business park plan to its latest Zero Waste plan, which envisions MRF, anaerobic digestion and community reuse elements. Dane County operates a household hazardous waste facility, part of a public-private partnership, which also serves as an electronics and appliance recycling facility. There’s also a construction and demolition MRF, built by the county and operated by a private entity, that processes over 60,000 tons of C&D material a year.  In 2019, the county built a renewable natural gas plant at its landfill, which it owns and operates. Last year, Dane County launched a food waste collection program. Residential recycling is handled by the municipalities.  The department expects to begin work on the new landfill in 2026, and could start building co-located campus projects in 2027 or 2028. The county purchased the land from the city of Madison. Deputy director Roxanne Wienkes said the county is “looking at all available options” for projects that can fit with the county’s existing efforts to divert more waste, create jobs or generate materials that can be resold, such as recycled commodities or energy. A larger campus will give projects more space for logistics and storage, which could help launch new projects such as mattress recycling or new drop-off programs for residents, she said. It’s also looking to partner with institutions such as the University of Wisconsin at Madison, which is using grant funding to research a range of waste diversion projects. The Department of Waste & Renewables operates as an enterprise fund, meaning it does not use tax dollars for its projects or operations. “We run a lot like a small business, where our customers pay us to manage their materials, and that has to cover our cost of operations,” Welch said. As Dane County considers new businesses or projects for the sustainability campus, “it needs to be diverting additional waste. It needs to look at the larger environmental input, carbon footprint, aspects of it, but then it also needs to be financially viable.” Dane County’s RFI process for the campus is open through March 21.  This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for the weekly emails here.

Dive Brief: Circular Services, a private recycling company owned by Closed Loop Partners, is expanding into organics through its acquisition of Connecticut-based Quantum Organics last week. Quantum runs an anaerobic digestion and composting facility in Southington. Separately, Closed Loop Partners on Monday announced a new investment from Capricorn Investment Group in its capital management arm. Closed Loop Capital Management has made 85 investments in circular solutions in a variety of sectors to date. The two announcements position Closed Loop's business for growth. "We are excited to partner with Closed Loop Partners and look forward to working with their team as they further expand the asset management business over the coming years,” William Orum, partner at Capricorn, said in a statement. Dive Insight: Founded in 2014, Closed Loop Partners has three main arms. Circular Services is its private recycling and circular economy services provider, Closed Loop Capital Management is its investment group and the Center for the Circular Economy is its research and innovation venture. Circular Services was created in 2022 through a partnership with Brookfield Renewable. The latter pledged an initial $200 million investment with an additional $500 million committed to help the platform grow.  Circular Services includes the assets of previously acquired businesses like Balcones Recycling and Sims Municipal Recycling, which combined in November 2023. The business operates more than 20 MRFs nationwide, including in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois.  Three of those MRFs — in Brooklyn and Rockland County, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey — are close enough to present cross-selling opportunities with Quantum, said Closed Loop CEO Ron Gonen in an interview. With Quantum Organics, Circular Services is taking a big step into the world of organics recycling.  "Most homes ... have very little garbage that would need to go to a landfill," Gonen said. "The more that we can build a service provider that can be a sustainable and cost-effective outlet, the more they're going to be interested in our service." Financial terms of the Quantum deal were not disclosed. The Connecticut organics campus is permitted to process 100,000 tons of food waste and 500,000 tons of yard waste annually. Closed Loop also acquired Supreme Forest Products, a mulching and wood waste company, through the deal. Quantum has been actively exploring growth opportunities, including by bidding for operation of a full-scale composting facility in Preston, Connecticut, as part of a consortium. That bid process remains ongoing. "We are thrilled to join Circular Services," Brian Paganini, vice president and managing director of Quantum Organics, said in a statement. "Being part of Circular Services allows us to scale our vision of turning organic waste into a valuable resource while addressing pressing environmental challenges. Together, we're not just managing the materials, we're redefining their potential." Gonen said Circular Services would continue to look for opportunities to invest in organics recycling capacity, both through acquisitions and organic growth. He plans to do that by continuing to focus on key strategic markets where the company already operates and relying on existing hauling partners. The organics recycling space has gone through growing pains in the last five to 10 years, Gonen acknowledged. Investment appears to have shrunk after reaching a peak in 2022, according to food waste solutions nonprofit ReFed. And some in the sector say investors need to gain a better understanding of the industry in order to scale effectively. “Sometimes as industries grow [they] have to go through those bumps and bruises during that first stage,” Gonen said. “I think the industry is now moving toward that next level of growth and is able to use those learnings.” Gonen also praised Capricorn in a statement accompanying the announcement, saying the investor has an "impressive track record" backing climate-focused ventures over its 12 year existence. Tazia Smith, managing partner and CEO of Closed Loop Capital Management, said the investment is a sign of "market-driven tailwinds behind the circular economy. "Together, we are positioned to expand our proven ability to identify and scale innovations, business models and infrastructure that perpetuate circularity with resilient profitability and net-positive social and environmental outcomes,” she said in a statement.

Dive Brief: City council members in Washington, D.C., have introduced one of the newest bottle bills in the U.S., which proponents say is meant to tackle litter in the nation’s capital. The bill, introduced last week, would add a 10-cent deposit to certain beverage containers. A nonprofit funded by beverage distributors would manage the program, but D.C.’s Department of Energy and the Environment would oversee and enforce the program. The bill calls for the program to begin in 2028 and aims to hit a 70% recycling rate that first year. The bill is also meant to alleviate container-related pollution in the Anacostia River and work toward D.C.’s goal of diverting 80% of the city’s waste away from landfills and incineration by 2032. Dive Insight: Washington, D.C., aims to follow 10 states that have their own bottle bills. Local officials say the legislation would help the district make more direct changes to its recycling system and support environmental justice initiatives in a city where pollution has disproportionately affected communities of color. D.C. “has a significant litter issue,” but beverage containers are a particular concern, said Brianne Nadeau, a D.C. council member who sponsors the bill. That’s because plastic bottles make up about 60% of all the trash collected from the Anacostia River each year, according to environmental organization Anacostia Riverkeeper. The pollution is a major reason why D.C. officials introduced a bottle bill instead of something like an extended producer responsibility bill for packaging, she said. “There were a lot of conversations about what made the most sense for the District of Columbia, but our goal is to get bottles and cans out of the river,” she said. Many of the containers end up going to landfill rather than getting recycled, she said. Trey Sherard, who leads advocacy and outreach work for river protection nonprofit Anacostia Riverkeeper, said in a statement that the bottle bill could cut the amount of river litter in half. The nonprofit has called for D.C. to adopt a bottle bill for several years. D.C.’s proposed bottle bill takes inspiration from several other states’ programs, including in Oregon and in Nadeau’s home state of Michigan. “Return rates are declining in places where the deposits are lower, so starting with [a 10 cent deposit instead of 5 cents] made a lot of sense in the way we drafted it,” Nadeau said. The bill calls for a district-wide disposal ban on covered beverage containers on Jan. 1, 2027. The deposit program would start in 2028 with a 10-cent deposit, but that deposit value could go up to 15 cents by 2033 if certain redemption targets aren’t met.  The bill calls for a 75% redemption rate by Dec. 31, 2028, then 90% by that day in 2031 and 95% by that date in 2034. The bill also calls for meeting a 70% recycling rate by Dec. 31, 2028, then 80% by 2031 and 85% by that date in 2034. Though many of the implementation details would be left up to a stewardship organization, the bill mentions certain deposit infrastructure, such as reverse vending machines and bag drop programs, as possible options for redemption facilities. Many retailers would need to set up return systems, though establishments of less than 2,000 square feet would be exempt, according to the bill.  Each of D.C.’s eight wards would need to have a certain number of redemption centers — an important provision meant to make the program accessible to under-resourced areas of the city where there are few grocery stores, Nadeau said. “We can't rely simply on grocery stores to create an equitable return system,” she said. Environmental justice considerations are a big part of the bill. The Anacostia was once considered one of the most polluted rivers in the country, and that pollution continues to impact the city’s communities of color, particularly Black residents, according to a coalition of environmental groups that back the bill.  They say the bottle bill would also reduce the amount of waste that goes to an incinerator in nearby Lorton, Virginia, “a predominantly Black and Brown community, where the facility emits toxic chemicals,” according to a news release.  Damian Bascom, head of the Black-led advocacy group Zero Waste Coalition, said in a statement that the proposed bottle bill could also help low-income residents earn an income, similar to canners in places like New York or Oregon.  “For residents east of the Anacostia where financial insecurity is a daily challenge, this bill can be a lifeline by creating pathways to supplemental income,” Bascom said. “Bottle bills are not just about recycling – they are about sustainability, equality, and dignity.”  Washington D.C.’s position as the nation’s capital also means tourists, lawmakers and activists visit throughout the year. That means local litter issues can become national news, including during a government shutdown in 2018 when D.C.’s local government temporarily took over responsibility for collecting trash along the National Mall and other federally-operated landmarks while federal employees were furloughed. Nadeau hopes that national spotlight can help propel the bill forward. D.C. in recent years enacted a plastic bag fee and a plastic straw ban as part of its larger zero waste plan. Adding a bottle bill “absolutely fits into all that,” she said.

Dive Brief: The U.S. EPA will investigate a civil rights complaint filed against Baltimore City and its Department of Public Works over their 10-year solid waste management plan. A complaint filed with the federal agency alleged the plan, which anticipated the continued operation of a mass burn combustion facility run by WIN Waste Innovations, disproportionately impacts nearby communities. The EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights is looking into the case. The office enforces federal civil rights law with entities that receive federal funding, which includes the city and its department.   The complaint was filed by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Environmental Integrity Project on behalf of the South Baltimore Community Land Trust. The filers allege that the city has abdicated its responsibility to reduce the pollution faced by people in the South Baltimore communities of Cherry Hill, Mt. Winans, Brooklyn, Lakeland, Westport and Curtis Bay, which are predominantly Black and Hispanic. Dive Insight: Baltimore City leaders supported the development of a zero waste plan that was published in 2020 and included a goal to divert 90% of materials from “burning or burying” by 2040. That plan was supported by Mayor Brandon Scott, but just before he took office, his predecessor closed a deal with WIN Waste to keep the mass burn facility running into 2031. The contract renewal was the latest in a decades-long debate about whether the city should move away from incineration. Most recently, the city passed a law that would have enacted strict air pollution controls on the facility, only to have it overturned later in court. The resulting settlement agreement led to the upgrades made by WIN. Environmental justice advocates in Baltimore have long fought the impacts of the WTE facility, commonly known as BRESCO. Their complaint argues the latest improvements made by WIN are insufficient to address the harms experienced by disadvantaged communities. “As a lifelong South Baltimore resident and someone who loves my community of Lakeland, I’m thankful for EPA’s action to accept our complaint,” Carlos Sanchez, a youth outreach specialist, said in an emailed statement. “Everyday, we live with the consequences of our city’s ongoing missed opportunity to budget for a just transition to zero waste away from toxic trash incineration. The good news is this is a fixable problem and we are confident that our city leadership, who understand the importance of equity - will step up and do the right thing and begin to treat this environmental justice issue with the urgency it deserves.” The complaint takes aim at the city’s 10-year solid waste management plan, approved last year. The filers particularly take exception to the document’s outlook on the WTE facility, which reads: “Until there is universal, coordinated adoption of waste diversion practices across public and private sectors, it is likely that the facility will continue to operate at or near its current throughput.”  The complaint argues that this approach “resigns the City to continued reliance on and operation of the BRESCO waste incinerator at its historical rate.” Instead, the filers say, the city should lay out a path to adopt strategies already laid out in the city’s zero waste plan. They note that waste facilities are concentrated in South Baltimore, which has about 70 industrial sources of air pollution. Removing BRESCO, they say, would reduce the overall burden. WIN Waste has long denied that its facility has a disproportionate impact on South Baltimore, noting emissions from heavy truck traffic also contribute to the air quality of the area. The company says its facility helps Baltimore manage its waste safely and operates “well below strict federal and state emissions limits that safeguard public and environmental health,” according to an emailed statement from WIN Waste Senior Director of Communications & Community Mary Urban. While the complaint specifically cites the incinerator, it also notes that the communities in South Baltimore face a variety of pollution sources that combine to create a significant burden. The nearby Quarantine Road Landfill accepted 355,000 tons of solid waste in 2021, about a third of which was incinerator ash. Last year, the owner of the Curtis Bay Energy Medical Waste Incinerator, the country’s largest such facility, also had to pay $1.75 million to address more than 40 counts of "systemic, improper, and unsafe handling, transport, and disposal of insufficiently incinerated special medical waste," according to the state’s attorney general. It was one of Maryland’s largest-ever environmental penalties. Marco Castaldi, a professor and director of City College of New York’s Earth Engineering Center, said his research has shown such facilities typically contribute no more than 10% of an area’s total air pollution. He said Baltimore is making rational decisions based on the current levels of waste generation in the city. “These aspirational ideas are very, very good. Zero waste is a very, very good idea. Until that happens, you have to have solutions that are practical,” he said. But environmental groups have praised the EPA’s decision to investigate the complaint, noting its rarity. Most complaints that are filed through this process are rejected without investigation, according to the Center for Public Integrity. “Moving forward with this case recognizes what we all know: that transitioning to zero waste and away from incinerators means following the leadership of local communities, especially frontline, fenceline, and environmental justice communities, which are most harmed by these and other dangerous, polluting infrastructure," Denaya Shorter, senior director of the U.S./Canada Region at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, said in an emailed statement. Leah Kelly, a senior attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project, characterized the EPA’s decision as a “preliminary but encouraging step forward” in the process. She said the groups who brought the complaint have multiple objectives for the process, including waste diversion and increased organics processing capacity through composting. “Residents of South Baltimore deserve to live in a clean and healthy environment,” Kelly said. “We hope that EPA’s investigation leads to real benefits for these communities after decades of decisions to add more pollution sources to this area.”

The Solid Waste Association of North America has joined the Canada Plastics Pact, part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact Network. The organization aims to create a “shared vision for a circular economy for plastic packaging” through a series of 2025 goals.  SWANA has shifted its mission in recent years to emphasize resource management over solid waste management, and its partnership with CPP fits with that vision, said Amy Lestition Burke, SWANA’s CEO and executive director. “Our members provide critical roles in collecting and processing plastics to enable recycling and to prevent plastic pollution. We are building connections to support designing for recycling, strengthening demand for recycled content, and supporting critical infrastructure,” she said in a statement.  CPP has four main targets it aims to meet by 2025: ensure at least 50% of plastic packaging is effectively recycled or composted; achieve 30% recycled content in plastic packaging; and support efforts for 100% of plastic packaging to be designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. It also created a list of “problematic or unnecessary” packaging it aims to eliminate by 2025. CPP, launched in 2021, now has more than 100 members. The group lists numerous major brands and recyclers as “signatories,” including companies such as Emterra and TerraCycle. It also includes “implementation partners” that represent sectors such as recycling, research, local government and consultants. The Association of Plastic Recyclers, Circular Materials, Upstream, the National Zero Waste Council and numerous provincial recycling groups are also CPP implementation partners. “To eliminate plastic waste and pollution, we need a holistic strategy that includes both upstream and downstream solutions,” said Cher Mereweather, CPP’s managing director, in a statement welcoming SWANA to the pact.  SWANA is also a member of the U.S. Plastics Pact, which aims to achieve similar goals as its Canadian counterparts. USPP recently released an updated strategic plan extending the deadline for some of its recycling and recycled content goals to 2030 instead of 2025. It also updated guidance for participating companies and organizations on how to design, use and reuse plastics in packaging. CPP said it plans to announce updates to its own strategic plan in “early summer.” SWANA was also in attendance at recent United Nations meetings in Ottawa meant to negotiate an internationally binding instrument on plastics pollution that’s widely referred to as a global plastics treaty. SWANA said it sees the work as “a key piece to eliminating plastic pollution.”

What can artists gather from a landfill or the people who move waste? An exhibit in New York City collects the work of artists-in-residence from around the country who have drawn fresh meaning from discarded materials and their experiences working alongside waste haulers. The work, on display at the All Street Gallery through May 30, follows a path blazed by Mierle Laderman Ukeles, a conceptual artist who created a residency program with the city’s Department of Sanitation in the 1970s. Ukeles' art pushed viewers to look at sanitation workers in a different light at a time when their work had been devalued by the city’s fiscal crisis. Gabriela D’Addario, curator of the show, studied under Robin Nagle, an author who has worked as a uniformed sanitation worker and served as DSNY’s "anthropologist-in-residence" since 2006. After taking Nagle’s course in discard studies at New York University, D'Addario began researching Ukeles' work.  She found that Ukeles had inspired similar programs throughout the country. Residencies have sprung up in several U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, the latter two run by private hauler Recology. D'Addario decided to bring together pieces from those programs as a means of exploring Ukeles’ artistic legacy.  "I found this one thing that has piqued my interest was actually a small part of a much larger story," D'Addario said. Today, she estimates more than 200 artists have come through the programs, creating pieces in a variety of mediums and disciplines. In the course of cataloging the work, she noticed some trends, like the prevalence of craftspeople working with materials such as wood and fiber on the West Coast and video work, including that of Ukeles, on the East Coast. A wooden sculpture made by Hilary Pfeifer with reclaimed wood and pencils. The piece was made through Recology Portland's GLEAN artist residency program. Courtesy of Eden Chinn/All Street Gallery   "There's all these interesting paradoxes, and I think that continues to be a driving question for me, is why are cities doing this? Why are they sponsoring this kind of thing?" D'Addario wondered. Through the variety of mediums used over the years, the work both documents the country's shifting relationship to waste and casts a fresh light on practices that often occur on the margins of organized society. D'Addario said she finds the work inherently optimistic, as artists reuse materials that are tossed aside and imagine new futures for them in the spirit of environmentalism. "We have these large systemic issues that we're facing and we haven't totally figured out how to fix them," D'Addario said. "Maybe this is a slightly different approach, this artist's toolbox and ways of thinking." Several artists attended the show's opening on May 4, including Jade Doskow, the photographer-in-residence for Freshkills Park in Staten Island, New York. Doskow began her work at the former landfill in 2021. She said she views the site as "a place of infinite possibility" for exploration, in part due to its size — the now-closed landfill is about 2,200 acres and was once the largest in the world. Two prints of photographer Jade Doskow's work at Freshkills Park hang at the All Street Gallery in New York. Between them are engineering images captured by DSNY and Bernstein Associates in 2021. Courtesy of Eden Chinn/All Street Gallery   Doskow's work provides sweeping views of the park that now sits on top of the closed landfill, as well as some of the man-made systems that maintain the waste underneath. She said she largely has free reign to document the site, save for restrictions around the West Mound, which holds debris from Ground Zero disposed there after the 9/11 attacks. By continuing to document the site, Doskow hopes to capture what she describes as "micro moments in the landscape cumulatively over time." "It's this perfect reflection of where humanity is right now in relation to nature, in relation to wilderness and the garbage we make," she said. The show is Doskow's first where her art has been featured alongside other sanitation artists-in-residence. She said she was excited by the variety on display, noting: "There’s so many directions that these very unusual partnerships can take." DSNY's artist-in-residence from 2021 to 2023, sTo Len, said he’s interested in bringing public attention to the agency's long history in the spirit of Ukeles. During his residency, the artist commandeered the agency's defunct screen-printing studio and established the "Office of In Visibility." In that space, Len used old screens to create new interpretive works with the signs and symbols used by DSNY to educate and inform residents for decades. A print by sTo Len hangs at the All Street Gallery in New York. The work remixes several motifs taken from DSNY’s dormant screen-printing studio.  Courtesy of Eden Chinn/All Street Gallery   Through his work, Len also met DSNY employees that held a variety of positions, including collection workers. He said connecting with them was the most important part of the residency. "It was a way of activating an archive and using an older medium in contemporary fashion," Len said. "They were able to see me play with the old imagery, give it new life." Since Ukeles' tenure, Len said the perception of sanitation workers in New York has improved. He also thinks residents today are more "ecologically aware of their own footprint." But he believes the work that sanitation workers do to keep the city clean and free of waste is still overlooked. "They still feel invisible. They still feel unrecognized," Len said. “I was inspired to create a work that gives them visibility and visibility that’s three-dimensional."

New York City environmental nonprofit GrowNYC is shutting down several community programs as emergency funding that's kept them afloat since December expires. Farmer's market food waste drop-offs, a school composting initiative and regular swap meets will be discontinued as part of the move. The programs have been on thin ice since November, when Mayor Eric Adams required all city agencies to reduce their costs in the face of a budget shortfall. The city’s Department of Sanitation zeroed out $3 million in funding for the city's Community Compost Program for fiscal year 2024 as part of those cuts, prompting several nonprofits that have long relied on the program to wind down their activities. GrowNYC was able to continue some of its programming thanks to emergency funding from outside donors, but that money is running out. The funding has supported 53 positions, according to previous statements from the GrowNYC Workers Collective. Courtney Scheffler, a compost driver for GrowNYC, said the nonprofit negotiated with the workers’ union to cut costs by shutting down some low-performing sites and consolidate pickup routes in recent months. Workers were initially hopeful that the emergency funding would support them through the end of New York City’s fiscal year in June. Instead, unionized workers operating the compost program will be laid off by May 20 and those working with schools and the swap meet program will wrap up their work by the end of June, GrowNYC announced on LinkedIn. “It's definitely such a disservice to the communities we serve,” Scheffler said. GrowNYC collected about 2.2 million pounds of food scraps in 2023 and has collected more than 24 million pounds since 2011, according to its 2023 impact report. Its website lists about 50 drop-off sites throughout the city and now features “Last Day Info” for each location. The Adams administration has made organics recycling a priority in its sanitation strategy, rolling out separate bins for organics to most residences in Brooklyn and Queens last year. That program is scheduled to expand to the remaining boroughs later this year. DSNY has also added a number of orange organics recycling drop-off bins on streets around the city.  But environmental activists have criticized the program, which sends most materials to be codigested at an anaerobic digestion facility in Brooklyn rather than composting facilities in and around the city. Scheffler said GrowNYC has routed more of its organic material to composting operations in Long Island rather than in the city, in part because of that strategy.  Members of the New York City Council have been vocal in their support for community composting, rallying in front of City Hall in December and vowing action through the budget process. Shan Abreu, chair of the council’s sanitation committee, called GrowNYC "a fixture of our city" in an emailed statement addressing the shutdown. "Our communities will feel this loss," he said. "These cuts not only hamstring New Yorkers that want to practice environmentally-conscious habits, they upend the lives and careers of GrowNYC workers who are building a cleaner, greener city for all of us."  The council member also vowed to continue pressing the Adams administration to reinstate funding for the program. Abreu said the council's budget negotiations team is making the community composting program a priority. He also noted his committee will hold a joint hearing with the council's finance committee in May "to press the issue once more." "Our communities and our council are resolute: this budget is not complete without full restorations to community composting," Abreu said. GrowNYC workers are still hopeful that the process will lead to a restoration in funding for their composting work, Scheffler said. She’s planning to continue working with the nonprofit’s Greenmarkets program for the time being while seeking outside work to replace the income she made from the composting program. The union will also continue to advocate for the remaining workers and the restoration of funding, Scheffler said. The workers’ union, organized through the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, also ensured laid-off employees will receive a severance package. They’re also negotiating to ensure GrowNYC calls back laid off workers first if the city restores funding for the Community Composting Program, though that procedure is less certain if the nonprofit decides to fund its programs through private donors instead, according to Scheffler. Residents will have to navigate a more fractured organics landscape in the meantime. Scheffler described meeting someone at GrowNYC’s Parkchester food scraps drop-off sites in The Bronx who was excited to find a place to bring their organics, but she had to warn them that the site would soon shut down. “We had to tell them this won’t be here much longer,” Scheffler said. “There will be people that will not be able to compost anymore because of the budget cuts.”

Dive Brief: Gov. Gavin Newsom last week appointed Zoe Heller, a longtime circular economy and zero waste specialist, as the new director of CalRecycle.  Pending state Senate confirmation, Heller will fill the role previously held by Rachel Machi Wagoner. Wagoner was appointed in December 2020 and left the position earlier this year. Wagoner has since started a legislative and regulatory consulting business, RMW Strategies. Heller is CalRecycle’s deputy director of the circular economy division. Industry groups say her industry knowledge and stakeholder engagement experience will help her oversee a department known for undertaking complex, multi-year projects. Dive Insight: Heller will step into a demanding role. CalRecycle is working to implement numerous high-profile policies: SB 1383, the state’s major organic waste diversion law; SB 343, a recyclability claims law; SB 54, the state’s EPR for packaging law; and multiple updates to the bottle bill, among other initiatives.  Optional Caption Retrieved from CalRecycle on May 08, 2024   “Coming from within CalRecycle, Zoe has the experience and knowledge of the complex issues of the many programs and responsibilities facing the director,” said Jeff Donlevy, general manager at Ming’s Recycling and a member of CalRecycle’s Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling, in an email. “Zoe is known and respected by the key stakeholders of the programs, especially [the] beverage container program.” Donlevy credited Heller’s work rolling out grant funding to bolster the state’s container deposit system infrastructure and operations.  Scott Smithline, who served as CalRecycle’s director from 2015 to 2019, also applauded Heller’s appointment. “There has never been more consequential work in front of CalRecycle. Zoe has the experience, skills and temperament to lead the [department] through it,” he said in a post on LinkedIn, in response to Californians Against Waste’s support for her appointment. Heller has been CalRecycle’s circular economy division director since 2023 but has served in several other roles there from 2017 to 2022. She has worked as deputy director of policy development and as deputy director of the Materials Management and Local Assistance division.  Heller worked at the EPA from 2006 to 2017, where she was a manager of the zero waste section, served as special assistant to regional administrator, and worked as an environmental protection specialist. Prior to that, she was a research and policy analyst at the Chicago nonprofit Center for Neighborhood Technology.  Rachel Oster, co-founder of the Recycle Right Coalition, said Heller was already known for her circular economy work under EPA, and has since become “ a respected policy voice” at CalRecycle while implementing aggressive policy mandates for source reduction, reuse and recycling. “Since these policies are now impacting almost every California resident and business, Zoe has built a strong connection and relationship with the variety of stakeholders at the table,” she said.  CalRecycle is formally known as the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. It manages permitting, compliance, recycling grant funding, market development, education and disaster debris management, among other tasks. Heller will oversee a staff of more than 1,000 people, which could expand further under the governor’s proposed FY25 budget. This story first appeared in the Waste Dive: Recycling newsletter. Sign up for the weekly emails here.

The public can now access an online library of environmental justice-related resources through the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Justice Clearinghouse unveiled last week. The purpose of the searchable library is to make it easier and more efficient for advocates and stakeholders to access resources that could propel their work, according to the agency. “Everyone interested in environmental justice will be able to find resources on one website,” Jalonne White-Newsome, federal chief environmental justice officer for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement.  The library includes over 200 resources such as available funding opportunities, screening and mapping tools, federal research and guides and information about organizations with specific subject-matter expertise. The National League of Cities’ sustainability director, Peyton Siler Jones, said in an email that the clearinghouse “offers a navigable set of useful resources that municipal leaders can use to inform their planning, policy, and funding to center environmental justice in their climate work.” Siler Jones said that the information in the database makes an “excellent start” at providing cities, towns and villages with the variety of resources they need for environmental justice work. The Biden administration says it has made environmental justice a central part of its agenda and is doling out billions of dollars for local projects. The clearinghouse, established through an executive order signed in April 2023, builds upon that work. “President Biden tasked the entire federal government with breaking down barriers to resources and information that help communities pursue environmental justice,” White-Newsome said. The resources currently in the online library are based on submissions from federal agencies, but the EPA hopes to add to the library on a rolling basis with suggestions submitted by the public. “It will only be made stronger with suggestions from the American people,” Theresa Segovia, principal deputy assistant director for the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, said in a statement. Submissions must be free, publicly available and link to a non-editable document like a PDF or website. “The opportunity to provide feedback here will allow the tool to evolve over time to address the needs of diverse stakeholders,” Siler Jones said.

Global waste volumes are set to rise dramatically in the coming decades, absent notable changes, according to a recent UN Environment Programme report. The International Solid Waste Association played a lead role in that document and is calling for the waste industry to adjust its model accordingly. UNEP’s updated Global Waste Management Outlook estimates that global MSW generation could reach 3.8 billion metric tons by 2050, up from 2.1 billion in 2023. Managing this waste, when also accounting for “the hidden costs of pollution, poor health and climate change from poor waste disposal practices” cost an estimated $361 billion in 2020. The report anticipates this could reach $640.3 billion by 2050 without corrective action. “Waste generation is intrinsically tied to GDP, and many fast-growing economies are struggling under the burden of rapid waste growth,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen in a statement. The report — which was financially supported by Japan and Sweden — also took a detailed look at the possibilities and limitations of different circular models, the pressing issue of food waste and much more.  ISWA has been increasingly vocal about what this shift could look like at a time when waste issues are gaining traction on the global scale. Last year, the UN recognized the first International Zero Waste Day and ISWA hosted the first-ever waste and resources pavilion at COP28. ISWA has also been part of ongoing international plastics discussions and recently released a report on the issue. Carlos Silva Filho, president of ISWA and former leader of the Brazilian Association of Waste Management Companies, has been active on these issues for years. Waste Dive spoke with Silva Filho in early April about takeaways from the report, what it means for North America and how he thinks the waste industry can adapt to meet the moment. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. WASTE DIVE: Waste has been underestimated as a climate issue in the past, but it’s starting to get more international attention. How have you seen this recognition evolve in the last few years? ISWA President Carlos Silva Filho Permission granted by Carlos Silva Filho   CARLOS SILVA FILHO: We always felt that waste was underestimated in many discussions. The climate aspect was one, also the health aspect and even the pollution one. Waste was always considered as a minor issue that wouldn't be able to change positively the situation. I would say the Global Waste Management Outlook 2024, and the research to prepare it, was fundamental. Because we were always trying to convince people [that] better waste management is useful, is necessary, but without consistency. When we realized that we have data available to support this message it seems that it turned the perception. So when we have countries realizing that it's not enough to tackle CO2 emissions but you need to tackle methane emissions, and then you have many opportunities and possibilities to tackle methane from waste, it changes the perception. And in terms of pollution it's the same thing. We still have, according to the Global Waste Management Outlook, 38% of the total waste in the world going to dump sites or other inadequate disposal. But we have numbers now to say it costs more than if you have the adequate infrastructure available. I know closing dumpsites has been a priority for ISWA, but it’s a challenging issue. Have you seen any notable progress in recent years? Unfortunately no, not too much progress. When we were researching for GWMO 2 we looked at more than 150 countries. Most of them have national laws prohibiting dump sites, prohibiting open burning. And in fact, what happens is that the law is not enforced. We’ve had the national waste law in Brazil since 2010. The law prohibited open dumps. The deadline is Aug. 2, 2024 and according to the most recent research the country still hosts 1,300 open dump sites. I would say the excuses for that are many, and almost the same in the countries where you have the dump sites. First of all, there is no money available to move to upgrade the system. Second, there aren’t alternatives. It takes time. Municipal authorities, local authorities are not really paying attention to this situation of the dump site. Even the citizens don't care about it, because they just want to get rid of the waste from the front of their houses. And if it goes to a dump site or to another place for them it's not a problem because it's out of sight. We are now raising this flag that we need an innovative approach to fund the upgrade of the systems. It stood out that North America has the highest per capita waste generation rate. The report discusses EPR for packaging systems, which are in the early stages in the U.S. In areas that have more established EPR programs, have you seen research showing that they can eventually reduce waste volumes? We have two separate worlds, what we call the Global North and the Global South. The Global North, they don't have inadequate disposal sites anymore but they do keep generating more and more waste over time and this puts pressure into the whole system. For example, in Europe, they are exporting their waste/recyclables to other countries. When China brought the ban, the Green Sword, [European countries] started exporting to Turkey, they started exporting to other Eastern European countries. So they are still not able to deal with the amount of waste they are producing, even though they have good extended producer responsibility schemes. And this is another discussion we wanted to bring. For example, we are discussing the circular economy for 20 to 25 years now. What real examples of circular economy can we find in place in practice, at the commercial scale, to really put the system into a closed loop? There are several pilots. They are very good ones, they are very successful ones, but I don't see it expanding.  That’s been a notable point of discussion lately, how in areas with EPR for packaging the overall waste generation rate hasn’t necessarily shifted. Many people came to me and said, “Look, but we could reduce the waste generation here and there.” Yes, but it's very tiny movements. If you're looking to the graphs and the data from the last edition — the previous edition in 2015 of the Global Waste Management Outlook — and this one, the waste generation has grown in every region in every continent, in every country I almost dare to say.  And we do have legislation in place, we do have directives, but it's not really being implemented. So we are not dealing with this topic as we should. Because we are not changing the paradigm. We are still seeing waste as trash, as garbage. There are efforts to make packaging more recyclable and use more recycled content, but it's still single-use packaging. Reuse-refill is gaining more attention, but it’s harder to do at scale. How have you seen that trend evolve? There are many initiatives for refilling, for dry shampoos because you don't need packaging. But most commercial brands, are they turning to this approach? I don't see it. The big brands and those who really drive the market forward into changing the whole production system, [they say] we are using recycled content in our new packages. They are creating a market for the waste that is being produced from the previous cycle. But again, as you say, it's still single-use packaging. There is a length in this cycle that you can use recycled content, because the fibers get stressed, they cannot be recycled infinitely. Turning to food waste, another big topic in the report, how should we think about the priority of focusing on that upstream versus downstream? Here in the U.S., downstream collection is gaining more traction but it’s not as widespread as other areas. At ISWA we've been approached a lot with this question. I truly believe that we need to shift our focus to upstream measures, because the time of the end-of-pipe industry is over. We cannot be the ones that are really there just waiting to receive what the society discards. We are part of the transformation industry. Transformation, not only in terms of materials, turning waste into resource, but also in terms of transforming the society. So trying to be the ones who lead this agenda. So in terms of food waste, it's a huge concern because [recently], there was this food waste index report launched by the United Nations with impressive numbers. One billion meals are wasted every day. And in a world that we still see some regions suffering from hunger, we really need to approach this problem in a different way. And not only saying we can transform food waste into a fertilizer or into a gas. But really, how do we improve the process so that we don't have that much food waste at the end? What we are advocating for is the waste sector, the waste industry, [to be] the ones who can assist the whole value chain in order to improve the process.  Part of the waste industry’s financial model is built around waste volumes continuing to go up. What is ISWA’s message to for-profit companies about how they can be part of your goals while still having a good business? This is one of the obstacles to really change the system, because we do have consistent and professional players in the market who rely on the current waste management system. So the more the better, the more waste we have the better for us for our profits. But it cannot be that way anymore. Our vision is a world where waste doesn't exist. Because you don't need to make profit out of waste, you can make much more profit out of resource, out of the transformation. So what I mentioned during the launch of GWMO 2 was the era of this linear waste management approach — discard, collect, dispose — is over. We really need to change into a new system where the intelligence of the sector will make more profit from the materials that are discarded.  We need to change from the previous three-R approach to a three-D approach — decarbonize, decouple and detoxify. So having the waste sector not only recycling, not only promoting recovery, but really promoting what the new world, the new century expects from us — a decarbonized, a low carbon economy.  According to one of the articles we presented at COP28, despite the waste sector representing only 3% of the total emissions, we can mitigate up to 20% of the global emissions. So this is something that can be monetized, that can be explored. We can be the ones who assist the whole cycle to decouple economic growth from waste generation.

A report from the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment found that the public-private partnership’s signatories collectively lowered their unsold food rates by 28% between 2019 and 2022, reducing the tonnage of wasted food in the region by 24.8%, or nearly 190,000 tons. Those participants include the West Coast operations of Albertsons, Kroger, Walmart, Fresh Del Monte, Aramark, Sodexo and others. The findings point to the successes of a program designed to address food loss and waste across the supply chain with an emphasis on source reduction, a priority that the U.S. EPA continues to emphasize in its messaging on sustainable materials management. “This is hands-down the largest progress in reducing food waste that we have ever seen reported,” Dana Gunders, executive director of ReFed, said during a webinar discussing the report Tuesday. "This is a really big deal.” The report, published April 4, drew together high-level takeaways on how grocers, suppliers, growers and other food stakeholders were improving food loss metrics across their supply chains, breaking down data by grocery department and end-of-life destination. The PCFWC was first organized through outreach from state, provincial and local governments to private businesses to meet the EPA’s goal to halve food loss and waste by 2030. Since 2019, the report found a 28% increase in unsold food going to composters and a 20% increase in unsold food getting donated. Anaerobic digestion also continues to be a common destination for unsold food on par with donation, though the proportion of unsold food it's seen has remained roughly level over the past four years. The percentage of food going to landfills or unknown destinations was 46% combined, though those numbers fluctuated year over year based on how much data the report's authors were able to capture, Jackie Suggitt, ReFed's director of capital, innovation and engagement said on the call. The purpose of the report is to help stakeholders identify which practices are working and how they can make the most impact on their food waste. Toward that end, it also breaks down food loss by grocery department to identify where grocers can make the greatest impact.  Suggit said that focus enhances not just grocers’ bottom line but the climate benefits of addressing food loss and waste as well. She noted that about 94% of all emissions from food waste occur upstream before the material reaches a landfill or other disposal option. “We really try to lean prevention-heavy and start adjusting this before we have to start discussing other destinations,” Suggit said. The climate impact of the PCFWC's efforts was significant — the report charted a savings of 2.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and 141 billion gallons of water over the four-year study period. Those savings meant a 30% decrease in the carbon footprint and a 37% decrease in the water footprint of unsold food. Despite the progress made via the PCFWC's voluntary nature, Gunders said ReFed remains a strong supporter of organics diversion laws across the country. She noted that while the stakeholders in the PCFWC represented about half of the regional grocery market share across member jurisdictions, that still left another 50% of businesses that had yet to realize the benefits of implementing those best practices. "We really think that those types of policies are a critical part of progress on this because they reach everyone," Gunders said. "There's a long tail of businesses that are harder to reach." While the PCFWC is a regional body, ReFed, the World Wildlife Fund and other partner organizations have looked to take the strengths of that partnership and expand. Last year, they launched the U.S. Food Waste Pact committing national leaders to meet the EPA’s 2030 goal. On Tuesday, they said they hoped the takeaways from the report could be applied nationally to ensure continued progress toward that goal. “Food waste often doesn't have a single owner, or a person who is accountable on their own across the food business,” Suggit said. “The solutions are many.”

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.