Recycling Opportunities at Highway Rest Areas and Visitor Centers

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Recycling Opportunities at Highway Rest Areas and
Visitor Centers

• Presenter Deborah Hanlon
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Office of Solid Waste
• October 2006

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Presentation Outline

• Mid-Atlantic Green Highway Partnership
• Federal Buy-Recycled Program
• GreenScape Landscaping Practices
• Recycling at Highway Rest Areas

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Green Highway Partnerships

• Focused on
• Partnerships
• Recognition
• Three current Targets
• Watershed Stormwater Management
• Ecosystem Management
• Recycling and use of products made with recycled
  materials including cement and concrete and
  asphalt,
• www.greenhighways.org

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Federal Buy Recycled Program

• RCRA 6002 requirement to purchase EPA
  designated product containing recycled materials
  (10,000 or more per year)
• Procurement requirements apply to all federal
  agencies, state or local government or contractor
  using appropriated federal funds
• Including Federal Highway Trust Funds
• Executive Order 13101

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CPG Transportation

• Designated Products
• Traffic cones
• Traffic barricades
• Parking stops
• Traffic control devices
• Delineators
• Flexible delineators

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CPG Landscaping

• Designated products
• Compost
• Hydraulic mulch
• Garden/Soaker hose
• Lawn and Garden edging
• Landscaping Timbers and Posts

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CPG Construction
Designated Products

• Cement concrete
• Patio blocks
• Building insulation
• Fiberboard
• Floor tiles
• Restroom divider/partitions
• Latex paint

• Roofing material
• - flowable fill
• Railroad grade crossing surfaces
• Modular threshold ramps
• Nonpressure pipe

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More Sustainable Products

• Plastic lumber outdoor structures
• Rubberized asphalt for roads and walkways
• Low-maintenance and native plants/grasses
• Organic, biobased, slow-release fertilizers
• Biopesticides

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• Green landscaping practices at highways rest
  stops
• Use of compost for erosion control
• Plant selection
• benches and signs made from recycled content
  materials
• Energy-efficient lighting

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2003 Municipal Solid Waste Generation236 Million
Tons
Food Scraps 11.7
Yard Trimmings 12.1
Other 3.4
Wood 5.8
Rubber, leather, and textiles 7.4
Paper 35. 2
Plastics 11.3
Metals 8.0
Glass 5.3
EPA Waste Characterization Report 2003
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Why Recycle?

• Saves energy..
• Avoids carbon emissions.
• Creates jobs.
• Saves Landfill space and disposal costs and
  reduces litter

• Enough to provide electricity for 9 million homes
  per year
• Lowers energy use
• Creates over 1 million jobs in manufacturing
  alone
• Tipping fees 11-69 per ton

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Commodity Prices for 2006

• Cardboard
• Aluminum
• PET (plastic bottles)
• Glass

• 95 per ton
• 1720 per ton
• 620 per ton
• 9-24 per ton

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Why Recycle at Rest Stops?

• Large potential to divert and recover waste
• Provides customers with a service
• Very positive public reaction to existing
  programs
• Community and Economic Benefits

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Rest Stop Recycling in Wisconsin

• Wisconsin has 35 rest areas and 168 waysides.
• Wisconsin recycles at all interstate rest stops
  and at waysides that receive more than 1000
  vehicles per day.

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An Overview-- in 1998 Wisconsin rest stops
recycled

• 41,490 lbs of aluminum-
• Est. value 27K
• 50,120 lbs of plastic-
• Est. value 10-15K
• 156,717 lbs of glass
• Est. value600-1500
• 32,922 lbs of newspaper and magazines
• Est. value 1,4000

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Physical Layout and Container Labeling
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Public Education

• Press Release announcing program inception.
• Brochures available at rest stops.
• Radio messages on highway broadcast channel.
• Signs placed by trash and recycle bins.

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Community Involvement

• WDOT contracts with a non-profit organization
  Rehabilitation for Wisconsin (RFW), to run a Rest
  Area Maintenance (RAM) project.
• Under RAM, Community Rehabilitation Programs
  train individuals to clean, landscape, and
  recycle at the rest areas.

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Tennessees I-24 Welcome Center Pilot Recycling
Project
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• The I-24 Welcome Center was chosen due to
• a high volume of visitors (1.2 million a year)
• vending machines with aluminum and plastic
• location in a county with a recycling program
  that takes PET
• easy access to Welcome Center for county
  recycling trucks

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Since the pilot programs inception in January
2004, 977 pounds of PET and 2015 pounds of
aluminum have been collected
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Major Obstacles for Recycling at Highway Rest
Stops

• Contamination in receptacles
• Illegal dumping
• Vandalism
• Lack of funds to sustain program

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Overcoming obstacles

• Brochures for public education and awareness.
• Location and configuration of bins
• Radio messages on highway broadcast channel.
• Signs placed by trash and recycle bins.
• Obtain markets for collected materials

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• For more information see
• www.greenhighways.org
• and

• www.epa.gov/osw