On Tuesday, February 7, 2012 the Tennessee Solid Waste Disposal Control Board received a draft rule to consider for public participation through the public hearing process.  The rule’s primarily focus is housekeeping in nature, but addresses, solid waste planning, waste reduction methods and a plan to eliminate reliance on “greenboxes” or  unmanned county disposal sites.  After about thirty minutes of discussion and one comment from B.U.R.N.T. President Bruce Wood, the Control Board passed the measure unanimously allowing the Department to setup public hearings after a few word revisions. This draft rule package should be available for review once they are filed with the Secretary of State’s office.   Larry   To read more about this please visit the following website: http://www.tn.gov/environment/boards/swdcb/#members

PLASTIC Plastics require 100 to 400 years to break down in a landfill. Producing new plastic from recycled material uses only two-thirds of the energy required to manufacture it from raw materials. For every 7 trucks needed to deliver paper grocery bags to the store, only 1 is needed to carry the same number of plastic grocery bags. By using plastic in packaging, American product manufacturers save enough energy each year to power a city of 1 million homes for 3 _ years. As much as 40% of selected plastic parts from damaged or discarded cars are repaired and reused. Over 1.5 billion pounds of post-consumer plastic bottles were recycled during 1999, accounting for 22% (by weight) of all plastic bottles produced in the U.S. PET bottles (soda & water) and HDPE bottles (milk, laundry detergent) are the most commonly collected plastic materials in community recycling programs. 95% of all plastic bottles in the U.S. market are manufactured from PET or HDPE. 56% of recycled PET finds a market in the manufacture of fiber (carpet & clothing). 29% of HDPE recycled bottles go into making new bottles and 18% goes into the plastic pipe industry. Recycling 1 ton of plastic can save 1-2 thousand gallons of gas. Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.   You can view this information and more recycling information at the following website: http://www.headwatersrecycle.com/why.html