News

On Aug. 1, 2017, Snohomish County cut the ribbon on the first of more than twenty expected secure medicine return kiosks, the second county-level pharmaceutical stewardship program in Washington state.

Clallam County Board of Health voted unanimously August 1 "to pursue a medicine return policy for Clallam County... The Board is expected to discuss the fee schedule at its August 15 [2017] meeting...

In a keynote address to the July 2017 U.S.

CalRecycle will host a workshop on Aug. 15, 2017 in Sacramento to "gather public comments and input on a draft staff proposal for the development of the state mattress recycling baseline amount and state mattress recycling goals," as required by the California Used Mattress Recovery and Recycling Act. This is a public workshop, registeration not required, accessible in person or via webcast.

The changing of TVs from heavy CRT (cathode ray tube) glass to plastic flat-panel displays, or lightweighting, is affecting electronics stewardship programs which set weight-based collection requirements annually.

In Australia, "mattress manufacturers, suppliers and retailers are coming together in a “stewardship scheme”, where they agree to take responsibility for recycling their goods when no one wants them anymore." According to a June 2017 article in The Guardian, members of this voluntary product stewardship scheme held a briefing in June to encourag

"The end-of-pipe approach, recycling end-of-usage products, cannot be the only solution. The industry needs to review the way electrical and electronic products are designed, manufactured, used, and collected to keep them out of the waste stream." A July 6 article in Circulate, which is "curated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation," outlined necessary steps:

In Our Hands, a consumer campaign of the Aquarium Conservation Partnership (ACP), is a coalition of 19 U.S. aquariums, founded by Monterey Bay Aquarium, National Aquarium, and Shedd Aquarium, with the primary goal of reducing ocean and freshwater plastic pollution.

Zero Waste Washington will host a Plastics Summit on Sept. 25, 2017, in Tukwila, WA, 9am-4pm. The goal of the one-day forum is to present scientific, technical and up-to-date information about current issues, challenges and opportunities regarding plastic pollution in the environment, plastic recycling, reducing the use of single-use plastics and packaging, and alternatives to plastics in the Pacific NW.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) intends to award approximately $500,000 in Materials Management grants in 2017 that promote the prevention, reuse or recovery of solid wastes. According to the Association of Oregon Recyclers, "DEQ is expanding the eligible applicant pool to include federally-recognized tribal nations and ORS 190.010 organizations...