|
For the third
year, The United States Conference of Mayors and Novelis Inc.
have partnered to encourage and reward aluminum can recycling
in America’s cities. “Participating cities should
be excited and proud that they contributed to the recycling
of more than 2 million pounds of aluminum cans,” said
Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart Co-Chair of the Committee,
during the awards ceremony in January. Gary Wygant from Novelis
was on hand to present plaques to the winning cities. Milwaukee,
WI and Mayor Tom Barrett, Fontana, CA and Mayor Mark Nuami,
Bowling Green, KY and Mayor Elaine Walker, Richmond IN , and
Mayor Sally Hutton were recognized for collecting the most
pounds of aluminum cans recycled. Lexington, KY and Mayor
Jim Newberry, Tallahassee, Fl, and Mayor John Marks, Bowling
Green, KY and Mayor Elaine Walker, Columbus, IN, and Mayor
Fred Armstrong were also recognized for their innovative communications
and marketing campaigns, which helped spread the word about
both the Cans For Cash Challenge aluminum can recycling. The
w inning cities that Partnered with local Keep America Beautiful,
Inc. affiliate were Louisville, KY and Mayor Jerry E. Abramson
and Tupelo, MS, and Mayor Ed Neely. Many cities have also
been recognized at local events, celebrating their accomplishment.
The winning cities used a wide ranging multi media strategy,
leveraged community partnerships and captured the enthusasaim
of it’s schools to develop and implement successful
campaigns. Outlined below are some of the winners best practices:
‘Welcome to Aluminaville”
Louisville KY wants to be the “cleanest and greenest”
hometown, so Mayor Abramson welcomed everyone to “Alumninaville”
as the cornerstone of their 2007 Cans For Cash Campaign. Focusing
on students, the campaign set out to educate the public on
the life cycle of the aluminum can. Using the “Coolest
Can” Video, viewers could learn about why recycling
is the green thing to do. The video aired on Metro TV, Louisville’s
government channel throughout the campaign. Brightside, Louisville’s
Keep America Beautiful affiliate promoted the campaign to
each school principal by sending a letter from the Mayor,
providing details about the campaign and the video schedule.
The letters were mailed to all 230 schools. School aged children
were challenged to guess how many cans made up the bale of
aluminum shown in “Coolest Can” video. The bale
was on display at the Louisville Zoo during the contest. The
student whose guess came closest was awarded a laptop computer.
The city utilized local media, radio, television and print
to advertise the campaign. For the record, the Bale weighed
1000 pounds and a 7th grade student came within 761 cans of
the 32,000 that made up the bale. Louisville and Brightside
recycled 240,754 pounds of aluminum during the campaign and
won the Innovative Ideas/Keep America Beautiful Partnership
category for cities over 250,000 populations. Louisville Kentucky’s
2005 Cans For Cash Program ‘The CANtucky” Derby
won the innovative ideas category in 2005.
“Yes we CAN”- Lexington KY Campaign’s Theme
encouraged residents to recycle their aluminum cans during
the challenge. The city used a $10,000 budget to create and
air a :30 second PSA (ran 500 times), 250 radio spots, emailed
announcements and flyers to get the city involved. The Yes
We CAN Campaign gleaned Lexington 105308 pounds of aluminum
and a win in the Innovative Ideas Category for cities with
populations over 250,000.
For the third consecutive year, The City of Milwaukee has
won the total amount collected category for cities with populations
over 250,000. This year, the city partnered with Keep Greater
Milwaukee Beautiful (KGMB) for the “clean and green”
campaign. The 2006 Campaign focused on local schools and emphasized
sustainable recycling, in an effort to that teaches recycling
was a good habit”. Schools collected cans during the
challenge and then could return the cans at local redemption
centers. Each school received durable recycling containers,
and hopefully will continue to recycle long after the challenge
has ended. This year, The City of Milwaukee recycled 1,147,084.00
pounds of aluminum.
Division One cities collected 1,628,272.00 pounds of aluminum
cans during the challenge.
Tallahassee is the capitol city of Florida, so their 2006
entry in the Cans For Cash Contest “CANpaign 2006”
was both effective and appropriate. The city chose to focus
their efforts on a single collection event, held in September.
The city partnered with nineteen organizations which contributed
time talent and over $36,000 in in-kind contributions. CANpaign
2006 created collateral materials to look like campaign materials,
including buttons, posters and bumper stickers. Local schools,
including colleges and universities were encouraged to “elect”
recycling practices. The city of Tallahassee won the Most
Innovative Ideas Category for Division Two, cities with populations
between 100,000-249,999 and recycled 21,872 pounds of aluminum
cans.
In an effort to promote Cans For Cash, The city of Bowling
Green partnered with an established local recycling program,
Drive To A Million. The Drive To A Million program aims to
teach students about environmental stewardship while raising
funds to support local educations. The goal is to raise a
million dollars for education. Nineteen schools participated
in the Cans For Cash program and received blue recycling bins
and served as drop off points for both the schools and the
community at large. The revenue from the cans was returned
to the schools.
The city of Bowling Green used a multi media strategy to
publicize the campaign, including stories on local televisions,
radio PSA’s and ads in the local paper and flyers distributed
to students and parents. This wide spread community outreach
was instrumental in the city winning the Most Innovative Ideas
Category for Division Three cities and most cans collected
categories. The City of Bowling Green collected 78,310 pounds
of aluminum. All totaled, division three cities collected
201,596.10 pounds of aluminum.
Division Four Cities recycled 74,338.91 pounds of aluminum
cans, with Richmond IN leading the way, recycling 29,670 pounds.
Tupelo, MS and its Keep America Beautiful partner won the
Innovative Ideas Category by engaging the community at large,
the public schools and city employees. One classroom in every
grade (from K-12) could compete for a trophy, a certificate
and a cash prize. Classrooms were encouraged to count their
cans daily and report in each week. Once school in the district
was recognized as the top recycler and was awarded the Championship
Trophy. An Elementary school chorus recorded a jingle, to
the tune of the “Beverly Hillbillies”, to promote
the Crunch Time with The mayor Event. City departments were
also encouraged to recycle their aluminum cans to augment
the ongoing United Way Campaign. Five hundred employees from
fourteen departments participated. The City of Tupelo recycled
13,909 pounds of aluminum.
Columbus IN was also an Innovative Idea winner. City residents
who filled a 13 gallon bag with aluminum cans received a free
ice cream cone from Dairy Queen.
Be sure to mark your calendars for October 1-30th and get
your city ready to accept the 2007 Cans For Cash City Recycling
Challenge.
Philadelphia native, Wharton School of Business Graduate
and world traveler are accurate descriptions of 2007 MWMA
President and Philadelphia Streets and Sanitation Commissioner
Clarena Tolson. Public Place recently chatted with MWMA President
and about the 2007 Fall Summit, her interests outside of work
and what we shouldn’t miss in Philadelphia this fall.
Ms. Tolson began working for the city as a policy analyst
and speech writer immediately after college. She became interested
in service delivery and sanitation services while serving
as the mayor’s legislative coordinator, managing policy
and relationships primarily with the city council. She made
the move permanently to the sanitation department in 2002,
while on maternity leave, receiving briefings at her home
beginning 12 days after she delivered her child, until she
returned to the office.
Three years ago, Ms.Tolson assumed the commissioners position,
and has used her business degree to focus on management and
service delivery issues. Her duties include oversight of and
responsibility for garbage and recycling, highway roads and
bridge maintence, street lights and traffic. Her biggest accomplishment
so far is managing and providing exceptional services for
the residents of Philadelphia. In a recent survey, 80% of
the citizens are satisfied with their services. This is up
from when Ms. Tolson started. “We have an on time, on
schedule pick-up rate of 95% and a 100% same day pick up rate.”
You can expect a focus on benchmarking at this years fall
summit. “MWMA membership is a network of free consultants.
You can tap into their experiences and expertise and fins
a solution to almost any challenge,” said Ms. Tolson.
“I’d like to develop a comprehensive benchmarking
tool for member cities, so there’s a resource ready
for us when we need it.”
Ms. Tolson is an avid garner and world traveler, Last summer
she traveled to Uganda on a mission trip and is planning to
return this summer. She’s excited to showcase Philadelphia
to MWMA and SWAC members, pointing out some “can’t
miss sights and attractions, including the Constitution Center,
Reading terminal Market, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
and of course the Philadelphia Cheesesteak.
The 2007 Fall Summit is scheduled for September 19-21st at
the Radisson Plaza Warwick Hotel Philadelphia. The agenda
and registration information will be available this later
this summer. Do you have a challenge of success you’d
like to share at the meeting? Please let Susan Jarvis (sjarvis@usmayors.org)
know by June 1st.
Scott Duboff, an attorney for Wright and Talisman, P.C.,
in a March 14 teleconference, briefed MWMA members on the
environmental issues that have been argued before the Supreme
Court these past few months including the topic areas of flow
control, global warming, and third party liability.
The main focus of the call was on the issue of flow control
and the United Haulers vs. Oneida-Herkimer case. In 1994,
The United States Supreme Court struck down a flow control
ordinance in Clarkstown NY which obliged haulers to bring
their waste to the Clarkstown Recycling Inc. landfill. The
courts upheld the ordinance until the 2nd Court of Appeals
when the US Supreme court ruled the ordinance violated the
Commerce clause by ruling that garbage was considered commerce.
Most state and local flow control ordinances were then overturned
which paved the way for increased privatization.
The courts recently disagreed on two new cases resulting
in their agreement to hear the United Haulers Association
Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Management Authority.
Previously, in the second circuit court decision, the judge
distinguished between publicly owned and privately owned facilities.
The judge ruled that there can be no discrimination against
out of state waste disposal centers. The 6th circuit court,
however, did not distinguish between publicly and privately
owned facilities. At issue was a question of whether flow
control ordinances “impose a burden on interstate commerce
that is qualitatively or quantifiably different from that
imposed on interstate commerce,” said Mr. DuBoff.
The themes of briefs, including Amici Curaie briefs, from
the waste haulers was “local governments are in the
business of selling waste disposal services to private haulers
and use flow control to “shield their market activities
from interstate competition.” The counterpoint is that
in implementing their core governmental activities for solid
waste management, local governments are not engaging in market
activities. Mr. Duboff explained that discrimination between
public and private haulers in relation to the commerce clause
is centered on communities that rely on flow control to provide
considerably more comprehensive services (recycling, household
hazardous waste disposal) than private haulers. A decision
is expected soon.
Mr. Duboff also briefed listeners on Commonwealth of Massachusetts
v. EPA, a global warming case. At issues is whether the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to regulate greenhouse
gases (GHG) under section 202(a) (1) of the Clean Air Act.
Section 202 (a) (1) directs EPA to prescribe standards to
control motor vehicle emissions. Issues in this include, assuming
that regulating GHG is part of EPA’s authority, was
its decision in 2003 not to regulate GHG reasonable.
Also on the Courts docket is the Atlantic Research v. EPA
case which addresses the clean-up of environmentally-contaminated
properties. Currently, a potentially responsible party (PRP)
that voluntary cleans up a contaminated site without being
sued by the government can not seek contribution from other
parties. Contribution is only available to sites where a clean-up
was ordered. There is a concern by the Conference of Mayors
that this might have a chilling effect on the number of brownfield
sites that are currently being cleaned up.
The Conference of Mayors has signed onto amicus briefs for
all three Supreme Court cases.
The MWMA is the environmental affiliate of The U.S. Conference
of Mayors. For more information, please check out www.usmayors.org/mwma.
Recycling That Works: Locally and Globally
Novelis Inc. has once again demonstrated its recycling leadership
in North America by recycling 24 billion used beverage cans
(UBCs) in 2006. Annually, Novelis recycles about 45 percent
of all UBCs collected in the United States and Canada through
its recycling plants in Berea, Ky., Oswego, N.Y., and Greensboro,
Ga. The Berea plant is the world’s largest facility
dedicated to UBC recycling.
Recycling aluminum provides valuable economic, environmental,
and social benefits. Aluminum is infinitely recyclable, meaning
that the cans recycled by Novelis are manufactured back into
new can sheet in a closed-loop process than can be repeated
forever. On a global scale, Novelis recycled a record 38 billion
UBCs in 2006, which translates to more than 500,000 metric
tons of aluminum.
“Aluminum recycling is the cornerstone of the Novelis
commitment to sustainability,” said Kevin Greenawalt,
President of Novelis North America. “Local actions lead
to global benefits. Each and every recycled can on a local
level has global impact by saving energy, reducing greenhouse
gas emissions, and conserving the earth’s natural resources.”
Aluminum produced from recycled cans only uses about five
percent of the energy required to produce the material from
raw materials, so it produces 95 percent less emissions such
as greenhouse gasses and conserves such natural resources
as bauxite and water. Recycling just one aluminum can saves
enough energy to power a television set for three hours.
“Novelis has a long track record of establishing and
sponsoring UBC collection programs in the U.S. to increase
recycling rates and build local awareness that it pays to
recycle aluminum,” explained Gary Wygant, Recycling
Director. “Our multi-faceted approach is through a number
of high-profile sponsorships such as “Cans for Cash
– City Recycling Challenge” in partnership with
the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Keep America Beautiful,
Inc. We also sponsor the highly successful America Recycles
Day every November 15, as well as the Aluminum Association’s
Cans for Habitat and Curbside Value Partnership programs.”
As part of its continued commitment to sustainable practices,
Novelis North America also participates in the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Climate Leaders Program.
Climate Leaders is an industry-government partnership that
works with companies to develop long-term greenhouse gas emission
reduction goals. As a member of the U.S. Aluminum Association,
Novelis supports the aluminum industry’s leadership
position in U.S. climate change policy for environmental sustainability.
Novelis is the global leader in aluminum rolled products
and aluminum can recycling. The company operates in 11 countries,
has approximately 12,900 employees, and reported $9.8 billion
in 2006 revenue. Novelis has the capability to provide its
customers with a regional supply of technologically sophisticated
rolled aluminum products throughout Asia, Europe, North America
and South America. Through its advanced production capabilities,
the Company supplies aluminum sheet and foil to the automotive
and transportation, beverage and food packaging, construction
and industrial, and printing markets. For more information,
visit http://www.novelis.com.
Statements made in this news release which describe Novelis'
intentions, expectations or predictions may be forward-looking
statements within the meaning of securities laws. Examples
of forward-looking statements in this news release include,
among other things, Novelis' expectation to receive benefits
from its aluminum recycling operations and procure similar
amounts of used beverage cans in the future. Novelis cautions
that, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve
risk and uncertainty. We do not intend, and we disclaim any
obligation, to update any forward-looking statements, whether
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Important risk factors which could impact the success of Novelis'
recycling are included under the caption "Risk Factors"
in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December
31, 2006, as filed with the SEC, and are specifically incorporated
by reference into this news release.
Allied Waste is the 2nd largest non-hazardous solid waste
management company in the US. Headquartered residential, commercial,
and industrial customers in 110 major markets within 37 states
and Puerto Rico
Dan Jameson
Vice President of Municipal and Government Markets
Allied Waste
18500 N. Allied Way
Phoenix, AZ 85054
480-627-2700 p
480-627-7084 f
Dan.jameson@awin.com
www.alliedwaste.com
|
