Federal authorities slap a Georgia plastics recycling company with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, and officials in New Mexico get their hands dirty in a waste composition study.
OSHA penalties: A Georgia plastics recycling company has received $317,814 in penalties from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Columbia Recycling Corp. of Dalton, Ga. received five repeated, three serious and one other-than-serious safety and health violations for failing to protect workers, according to OSHA.
Dirty study: The Los Alamos Monitor provides a down and dirty look at a waste composition study in Los Alamos County, N.M. aimed at determining how much and what types of material could have been diverted from landfill. Members of the local Environmental Sustainability Board and staff from the county’s Environmental Services Department suited up and dug through 3 to 4 tons of garbage collected by one truck.
Dense EPS: The Niagara Region of Ontario has installed a polystyrene foam densifier at its municipally owned recycling facility. The Niagara Region collects EPS both curbside and at drop-off centers.
Entropex struggles and sale: Two veterans of the recycling industry have purchased the assets of Entropex, an Ontario, Canada-based reclaimer that specialized in recycling mixed non-bottle rigid plastics. Plastics Recycling Update, sister publication to Resource Recycling, published a story last week covering the sale and past financial difficulties for Entropex.
Bill banning bag bans: The Pennsylvania House of Representatives made changes to a bill banning local taxes and bans on plastics bags before sending it back to a committee. The bill, House Bill 1280, would still prohibit local bag bans, but wording was changed so that it specifically prohibits bans and fees on plastic bags “that can be recycled.”
