The St. Louis – Jefferson Solid Waste Management District is a regional agency that was created in 1993 to assist the public, private and nonprofit sectors in establishing and expanding waste reduction and recycling. The District includes the City of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Jefferson County and St. Charles County. For more information visit www.swmd.net or call 314-645-6753.
Medical Equipment Donation Drive
Saturday, May 14, 2016, 9 am – 2 pm
Do you have medical equipment that is not being used? Do you need medical equipment?
Now there is HELP…
Fourteen Designated Walgreen’s Sites
For a list of locations, contact St. Louis HELP
at 314-567-4700 or www.stlhelp.org
FRC Recycling Makes 100% Recycled Plastic Lumber
RC Recycling in DeSoto, Missouri has grown significantly over the years to meet the needs of the community and support the local economy. The local drop-off facility is utilized by residents and business throughout Jefferson County as the most convenient method of recycling.
FRC now operates in the old Fountain City Lumber Company. This much larger facility accepts the same basic recyclables as always; plastic, aluminum, cardboard, etc. One significant change is that FRC now manufactures 100% recycled plastic planks. They have been perfecting the process for several years in order to offer the highest quality product.
Businesses and individuals use the weather-resistant and extremely durable planks for landscaping, parks and recreation, raised flower beds, tie walls, fence posts and warehouses. Development is underway to manufacture a wider variety of materials. Currently, all boards are black and available in 8 ft. lengths of 6” x 6”, 6” x 8” and 8” x 8” and range $40 to $70 wholesale if purchased at FRC’s facility. The planks are also offered through some retail business. These lumber-like planks are versatile and easy to work with. Basic carpenter tools can be used to cut, drill and staple the planks, enabling the use of lag bolts, rebar and more.
Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly known as the University of Rolla) performed product testing during FRC’s research and development stages. Extensive testing included maximum weight limits, durability and functionality under various conditions, such as freezing temperatures. Findings indicated that the planks can withstand substantial amounts of weight and can last for 100 years. The breaking point for the 8” x 8” showed solid capacity for 4,000 pounds with the 6” x 6” handling 1,400 pounds. Consumers have reported the added bonus of no longer being confronted with splinters, snagging and scratching when working with plastic as opposed to wood.
A huge volume of recycled plastic is required to manufacture the product. Once the plastics are separated from FRC’s incoming recycling, on-site machinery is used to grind, mix and re-grind. The extruder is heated to thousands of degrees before the finely ground plastic added. Molds are immediately filled with the hot mixture until full. The planks are then cooled, extracted from the molds, stacked and ready to sell.
For more information on 100% recycled plastic planks, please email frcrecycling@sbcglobal.net or call 636-586-2158.
There’s A New (Recycling) Team in Town Teaching “Blue Bin Basics”
The opportunities to incorporate recycling into your daily routines are endless and a new recycling team is here to show St. Louis how!
In partnership with the City of St. Louis and Brightside St. Louis, a new Recycling Education and Outreach Team has been formed to help reach Mayor Francis G. Slay’s Sustainability Action Agenda goal of doubling residential recycling by 2018. For over 30 years, Brightside and the City have partnered on cleaning and greening initiatives to make St. Louis more livable. The new recycling team is expanding on those initiatives and has developed a plan to ensure every St. Louis City resident has the knowledge, tools and motivation to make reducing, reusing and recycling a part of their daily routine.
Thanks to the St. Louis – Jefferson Solid Waste Management District’s generosity, new tools and projects aimed at increasing recycling participation will soon be unveiled.
This new effort is focused on teaching residents about the “Blue Bin Basics” of recycling. These include: (1) Always recycle common household items like paper, cardboard, and food or beverage bottles, cans and cartons; (2) Never put plastic bags, Styrofoam or food waste in your recycling bin; (3) Keep recyclables loose, clean and dry; (4) Always flatten your cardboard. Following these steps can create tremendous benefits for the city and the entire region as recycling is proven to create and maintain jobs, protect the environment and provide health and social benefits.
To help share this information, a new recycling website will be launched this Spring showcasing interactive learning, helpful resources and opportunities to take action. Soon, you’ll be able to become a Recycling Ambassador for your block, look up where and how to recycle items not accepted in your blue bin and even request a recycling expert to visit your school, workplace or special event. An announcement about the launch will be posted at www.brightsidestl.org so stay tuned.
Brightside is also hitting the pavement with Blitz projects that engage the community in cleaning, greening and recycling. Brightside’s Blitz program makes it easy to get the tools and resources needed to clean and beautify your neighborhood. Projects include picking up litter, cleaning vacant lots and planting flowers in public green spaces. To help Blitz volunteers keep recyclables out of the landfill, they can now borrow recycling carts through Brightside’s Tool Loan program!
For information about organizing a Blitz project please visit online at: www.brightsidestl.org/what-we-do/cleaning/project-blitz. To learn more about recycling visit: www.stlouis-mo.gov/recycle.
Lens Masters Salvages Hazardous Materials For Reuse
Hazardous materials continue to be banned from landfills as laws are passed to protect our environment and conserve resources. When properly disposed of, hazardous materials contained in many discarded items can be salvaged and reused. This is especially true for mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal that should never enter any of our water sources. Processed properly, mercury can be extracted from waste materials for reuse. The availability of local service providers is imperative to safely and effectively handling mercury and other hazardous materials.
Lens Masters, Inc. has been a local resource for these specialized services for nearly 20 years. The company focuses on fluorescent bulbs, ballasts and batteries, which contain mercury, PCBs, acids, etc. In the St. Louis area, more than a ton of these hazardous materials are handled daily, the bulk of which is through the lighting and electrical industries, property managers and building maintenance providers. General businesses of all sizes also are responsible for the proper handling of hazardous materials.
“Lens Masters offers convenient collection, logistical consolidation and safe shipping. A variety of collection and drop-off services address the needs of clients of all sizes. Lens Masters provides specially-made collection containers for clients and free pick-up service for major generators of product,” says Bernie Brader, president of Lens Masters.
Lens Masters and entities generating larger quantities have discovered a mutually beneficial service method. Lighting businesses, for example, accumulate large quantities of fluorescent bulbs. They have found that it is more efficient to recycle bulbs for shipping during site visits. They box, bundle and load the recyclables on their trucks for delivery to Lens Master’s St. Louis Consolidation Center, saving time, effort and money. In addition, battery collection is often offered to clients as a complimentary service, increasing the amount of material being recycled.
Lens Masters currently diverts more than 1 million lamps containing mercury annually. Each month, 20 tons of lamps, ballasts and batteries are diverted from landfills. Lens Masters expects to increase diversion by 20 percent to 30 percent over the next three years, increasing its yearly waste diversion to nearly 300 tons. Of the tonnage processed through Lens Masters’ St. Louis Consolidation Center, 95 percent is generated within the St. Louis area, with the remaining volume from throughout Missouri.
Recycling takes place after hazardous materials are properly transported to Veolia’s main Resource Recovery Facility in Wisconsin. Here, a comprehensive process of extracting mercury is conducted which enables the marketable reuse of mercury.
For more information on recycling these items, please email lensmasters@yahoo.com or call 314-427-1660.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECYCLING INFORMATION
- City of St. Louis – www.stlouis-mo.gov/government (Departments & Agencies, click Recycling)
- Jefferson County – www.jeffcomo.org (Services, click Recycling)
- St. Louis County – www.recyclesaintlouis.com
- St. Charles County – http://health.sccmo.org/health (Environmental Division, click Green Programs)