Let's Talk Trash News Archive

MVRS Proposes Residential Food Waste Collection Service | April 21, 2010
Mill Valley Refuse Service has submitted proposals to each area in which we operate to begin a residential food waste collection service. With this service, you will mix food waste with yard waste in your green cans and we will pick it up on a weekly, rather than the current bi-weekly schedule. At The Redwood Landfill and Recycling Center, your green can waste will then be turned into compost, diverting a significant amount of waste away from the landfill.
Read the press release (pdf)

AP Story : A 2nd garbage patch of “plastic soup” seen in Atlantic | April 18, 2010
Did you know that there is a swirling sea of trash and plastic debris known as The Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean floating between San Francisco and Hawaii? It is bigger than the state of Texas and made up of more than 3.5 million tons of trash. As if that weren’t bad enough, researcher’s think they’ve found another one in the Atlantic.
Read the Associated Press article
Read the Wikipedia entry on The Great Garbage Patch

Mill Valley's Commitment to Sustainability | April 1, 2010
Ever wonder what the City of Mill Valley is doing about waste reduction and other sustainability issues? Visit their site to learn about their paper reduction efforts, bottled water ban, green building ordinance, climate protection efforts and other exciting initiatives underway.
Visit their site

Help Phase Out Plastic Bags and Reduce Ocean Pollution | March 23, 2010
Did you know that California retailers hand out 19 billion plastic bags every year? And that the fast food sector alone generates 4 million tons of waste annually in California? You can help support Californian's Against Waste's effort to phase-out plastic grocery bags and other sources of plastic ocean pollution.
Learn more about AB 1998 to ban environmentally-damaging plastic bags
Learn more about AB 2138 which requires food providers to use only recyclable or compostable takeoutfood packaging and bags

County of Marin Bulb and Battery Take-Back Program | March 22, 2010
The county has just rolled out a new collection program for specific types of Household Hazardous Waste. This new program is designed to encourage Marin County residents to properly dispose of and recycle their household batteries, compact florescent light bulbs and florescent tube light bubs free of charge at several local and convenient retail locations. The program is managed by the Marin County Department of Public Works and is funded by a grant from the California Integrated Waste Management Board/CalRecycle.
Visit the program's site
Go to our Hazardous Wastes page

Californian’s Against Waste Legislative Priorities | March 9, 2010
There are numerous legislative priorities on the Californian’s Against Waste website worth a look. From paint and batteries stewardship to a large retail store ban on plastic bags, opt-in only white pages, and a requirement for compostable take out food packaging, you'll find a wealth of information on upcoming legislation that will impact how we recycle.
Visit their site

Mill Valley Refuse Service's longest tenured employee retires after 44 years | March 1, 2010
Congratulations to Bobby Ray Hill on his retirement! Bobby joined MVRS in 1965 and for the next 16 years, he worked on “Route 6” in Mill Valley, which covered most of the city’s hilly streets. He then took over the commercial route in Tiburon and has been a well-known fixture on that route for the past 28 years. We're happy to say we won't loose Bobby to retirement completely, he'll continue to work at MVRS as an independent contractor servicing trucks on a part time basis.
Read the press release (pdf)

Governor signs AB 7 and prevents further cuts to recycling | March 1, 2010
AB 7 will immediately restore roughly $15 million per month in core recycling funding under California's Bottle Bill, one of the nation's most successful litter and pollution reduction programs. Funding was cut last July forcing the closure of hundreds of centers and the loss of several hundred 'green jobs'. As signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, AB 7 restores funding and prevent millions in further cuts to recyclers, local governments, conservation corps and other core components of California's Bottle Bill.
Read more about the Bottle Bill

Marin's Zero Waste Blog in The NY Times | February 18, 2010
This week, our friend and local Zero Waste blogger, Bea, was featured in The New York Times. You can find a link to her blog on the top right of our Zero Waste page and The New York Times article, "A Visit From the Priestess of Waste-Free Living" is also worth a read.
Read the full article

Marin IJ: With help from grants, 'green' home deconstruction takes off in Marin | Jan 24, 2010
You've heard of construction companies, of course, but deconstruction companies? Part of the green building movement, deconstruction companies reduce waste by reusing construction material. This article features Marin Sonoma Deconstruction, a company that specializes in residential and commercial deconstruction, salvage and reuse services in the Bay Area.
Read the full article

Oakland resident's plastic-free resolution | January 5, 2010
Interested in how to live plastic-free (or nearly)? Check out Beth Terry's blog Fake Plastic Fish and learn how this Oakland resident collects and tallys her own plastic waste and blogs about plastic-free alternative solutions. Be sure to watch her end-of-year video report about how in 2009 she only used 3.7 pounds of plastic (4% of the U.S. per capita average).
Visit the Fake Plastic Fish blog

Marin IJ: Marin Sanitary Service to double the operational capacity of its Household Hazardous Waste Center | Dec 20, 2009
To safely manage growing contributions, work has begun on an expansion project at the Household Hazerdous Waste Center in San Rafael. Last year the Center collected 1.7 million pounds of hazardous waste from more than 24,624 households and 526 businesses.
Read the full article

Attention filmmakers: The EPA wants your short video | Dec 16, 2009
The EPA is sponsoring a video contest that challenges filmmakers to produce short, creative videos that highlight the “Three Rs” of individual consumption: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Submit your video short by February 16 and you could win a cash prize up to $2,500.
More information about the contest

Marin IJ: Dump celebrates 50 years, eyes greener future | Nov 17, 2009
Redwood Landfill plans for a greener future by composting food, construction materials, and a methane power project that would supply enough green energy to power about 9,000 homes in Marin.
Read the full article

Food waste composting is coming | Nov 5, 2009
Good news! Redwood Landfill is reporting that they expect to be able to begin receiving food waste by early 2010. In such a program, residents will mix food waste (anything made from a plant or animal) in with yard waste which will then be turned into compost.
What does this mean for you? Organic composting will help all of us do our part to reduce waste. But this also means we’ll have to pick yard waste cans up on a weekly, rather than the current bi-weekly, schedule. We will go before the city councils of each area we service to get permission to make this change in service. We’ll keep you posted as this new program takes shape.

Bottled water – Do we need it? No. | Nov 1, 2009
According to the Earth Policy Institute , 1,500 water bottles end up in the trash... every second! Check out this presentation to learn more about how water bottles are bad for the environment, your health and your wallet!
Download the pdf

Read the full article

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