This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which USUALLY means trash and recycling pickup, but because of the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, trash and recycling pickup (should) move to Thursday.

Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup Thursday night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, Central Virginia Waste Management Authority has put out their June newsletter. It contains information on Virginia Oyster Shell Recycling Program, Summer Reading and CVWMA, efforts to Eat Fresh. Buy Local, and CVWMA employment opportunities.

Local environmentalist Emily Kimball recently had a fantastic letter-to-the editor in the Times Dispatch newspaper about moving beyond plastic.

It’s no secret that, during the pandemic, many restaurants relied on take-out orders to survive and that meant a lot of packaging. Now, as things reopen more, is the time to remind our local businesses that we demand better choices in packaging, ones that have less harmful impact on the environment. And not just restaurants!
Richmond, due to several factors, is a national test market for many national and international corporations. We have a responsibility to demand better.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, this past month saw the announcement that a former paint factory situated on 1900 Ellen Road in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition neighborhood will soon be the home of a new manufacturing facility for pipette recycling company Grenova. The $10.6 million investment will bring 250 jobs to the city over the next three years. The company name ‘Grenova’ stands for green innovation. It enables the lab and life science industry to safely wash and reuse plastic consumables.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

Virginia’s recycling rate was 43.2% in 2019, down about three percentage points from the year before, according to an annual report released in January by the Department of Environmental Quality. Figures for 2020 were not available.

The Roanoke Times has a good story on some of the different challenges in recycling in Virginia (click here).

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, New York State Sen. Todd Kaminsky and a host of colleagues have introduced legislation that shifts the responsibility and costs of recycling from municipalities to the producers of packaging and paper products. The legislation is called the Extended Producer Responsibility Act. Extended producer responsibility (EPR) laws, which require the manufacturer of a product to be responsible for its ultimate recycling, reuse or disposal, has become a significant waste management option in recent years in the efforts to increase recycling and landfill diversion rates.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, higher commodity prices boosted recycling revenues for Waste Management, Republic Services and North America’s other largest haulers last year, according to earnings reports.

But the big local news is that a Virginia law that will ban all restaurants and food vendors from using polystyrene food containers by July 2025 is on its way to the governor.

Under the legislation, which has been carried by Oregon Hill’s representative, Del. Betsy Carr, D-Richmond, two years running, large restaurants and food vendors — defined as those that are part of a chain with 20 or more locations — will have until July 1, 2023, to stop dispensing food in polystyrene containers. Smaller businesses will have an extra two years to comply with the law, with a deadline of July 1, 2025. Violations would be subject to a civil penalty of up to $50 per day.

The General Assembly’s senate also amended the original bill to extend the ban from businesses to local governments, schools and nonprofits, a change Carr said would level the playing field. Keep in mind, if the Governor approves the bill, it will still be four years and four months before that takeout carton from your local diner is guaranteed to be polystyrene free. And containers with unprepared foods, like eggs, will not banned.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, Recycling Today reports that interest in beverage packaging and electric vehicles has kept aluminum in demand.

In fact, CBS News says there is a looming aluminum can crisis.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks. (See news item below)
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, snarls in container shipping have slowed global commerce on all fronts, according to RecyclingToday.com.

If the idea that “misery loves company” is any solace, recyclers can take comfort that the container availability, freight costs and shipping date delays plaguing them are being shared across seemingly all business sectors.

A January 25 online article by the Washington Post refers to “disrupted global supply chains” with symptoms that include “fresh shipping headaches” that are delaying United States exports, “crimping domestic manufacturing and threatening higher prices for American consumers.”

“The cost of shipping a container of goods has risen by 80 percent since early November and has nearly tripled over the past year, according to the Freightos Baltic Index,” writes David J. Lynch, the article’s author.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks. (See news item below)
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

The Chesapeake, Virginia-based recycling rewards program, Recycling Perks, has rebranded to EnviroPerks. The company says the new name better reflects its new, extended benefits program. With the addition of its Loyalty+ platform, EnviroPerks says its program has increased its savings potential for customers of waste haulers across the country.

EnviroPerks is a customer loyalty program that rewards its members for being loyal waste hauler customers. By providing added value in the form of discounts and rewards, customers of participating haulers can save more than they spend on their monthly hauling service, according to the company. Using an online interface, members use earned loyalty points to choose from hundreds of EnviroPerks rewards and thousands of no-points-needed Loyalty+ discounts.

EnviroPerks says rewards encourage good behavior and create customer loyalty. By applying this strategy to the waste industry, the company’s loyalty program gives users the benefits of savings on household expenses to encourage customer loyalty.

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

Some holiday season reminders:

Recycling companies do not want tissue paper or gift bags. No ‘tanglers’ like ribbons or Christmas lights, cords, they’re not recyclable at all.

Don’t forget that Richmond’s Department of Public Works announced that the 13th annual “Bring One for the Chipper” recycling event, where city residents can drop off their Christmas trees and other items, will take place Jan. 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

According to a release from the department, the event will give residents an opportunity to recycle their Christmas trees, have up to five boxes of documents shredded and safely get rid of electronics and household hazardous waste.