Crunches that are good for us

Add comment August 18th, 2009

No, no sit-ups!

This week at the state fair, a trash compactor is really crunching things up.

From our AP story, with a quote from our former mayor:

Waste Management is introducing the compactor, about the size of a standard, 35-gallon bin, which holds 180 gallons of compacted waste and reduces hauling trips by 80 percent.

The unit is at the corner of Brian Raney Avenue and Main Street, outside the governor’s tent. It includes a bin for recyclables.

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Doug Scott called the compactor “doubly green” — using renewable solar energy to operate and compacting waste so it can be handled more efficiently.

So what happens when the dump is full?

1 comment July 24th, 2009

That’s what I wondered when I saw this week’s story about Winnebago County and William Charles considering a deal to import trash to Winnebago Landfill for about $700,000 a year in host fees.

Sue Grans, spokeswoman for William Charles, would not disclose the amount of waste Groot Industries plans to bring into the county, but several county officials who are familiar with the negotiations said a 1,200-tons-per-day average is what they’ve been told.

Grans would not comment on the current average daily intake at the landfill. Still, reports filed with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency showed the average daily intake of the landfill in 2007 — the most recent year available — was 3,902 tons of waste.

In 2006, the average daily intake was 3,066 tons per day and the intake in 2005 was 1,583 tons per day, according to the report.

“What the engineers tell me is we have an 18-year life on the landfill today,” Grans said. “This deal, if it goes through, would cut that by about 20 percent, so we’d be looking at a life of 14 to 15 years.”

In a Decemeber 2008 story, that capacity was greater. Or at least there was a higher end on the range.

“Garbage, in its nature, is a very long-term business,” said Gary Marzorati, president of William Charles Waste Co., which runs the Winnebago Landfill. “We are always preparing for the future. Right now, we’ve got 19 to 21 years of capacity, probably a couple more.”

‘To the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump’

1 comment December 19th, 2008

That’s a little song my dad sang when I was a girl — back when all of us in rural Wisconsin put our trash in burn barrels and hauled our big stuff to the county dump.

Back then, we were much more aware of how much trash we had because we personally had to take care of it, even it it wasn’t in the greenest of manners.

This article about northern Illinois’ trash reminds you what happens to your bags and boxes after you put them to the curb. It also asks if we’re ready to handle more trash in the future.

“Garbage, in its nature, is a very long-term business,” said Gary Marzorati, president of William Charles Waste Co., which runs the Winnebago Landfill. “We are always preparing for the future. Right now, we’ve got 19 to 21 years of capacity, probably a couple more.”

fourth of july followup: yep, it’s messy

1 comment July 7th, 2008

regular reader hokumboy noted that the fireworks cause a considerable mess downtown.

boy, is he right. here’s the story we wrote about cleanup last year (but the photo above from alan leon is from this year):

Crews make quick work of 4th’s mess

ROCKFORD — About 125,000 Fourth of July revelers spilled out of downtown at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, leaving behind a colorful patchwork of trash. By dusk, the streets were lined with wrappers and soda bottles; trash swelled from packed garbage cans.

By dawn, the scene was dramatically different.

A small legion of street sweepers and garbage collectors hit downtown streets as soon as crowds had departed, Public Works Superintendent Bill Morr said. For six hours, 12 workers cleared trash cans and blew loose garbage into the street for sweeping.

Late-night workers devoted much of their shifts to downtown cleanup, and additional workers were called, Morr said. They started about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday and didn’t wrap up until 4:45 a.m. Thursday, just in time to spare early risers, shoppers and downtown businesspeople the celebration’s remnants.

Morr had not tallied costs of the Fourth of July cleanup, but he said it’s typically more than $1,000.

“That’s how I measure the success of the celebration, by how much trash we have to clean up,” Fourth of July Committee Chairman Joe Marino said.

Hardest hit were Ingersoll Centennial Park, downtown bridges, high-traffic intersections and other prime spots for fireworks viewing, Morr said. Public

Works crews placed about 20 trash cans along the parade route, but by day’s end they were either full or ignored.

“That’s the consequence of people who are very inconsiderate when it comes to trash,” Marino said. “We had containers, and I guess they missed the containers when they threw it.”

The cleanup effort was the product of several weeks of planning and even some precleaning. Crews swept and patched certain streets before Wednesday’s parade as a safety precaution, Morr said.

The Fourth of July is not the messiest downtown celebration, despite its size, Morr said. That could be On the Waterfront, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to Rockford’s downtown streets for three days around Labor Day.

By the numbers

125,000 People in downtown Rockford on the Fourth of July

20 Garbage cans along the parade route

6 Leaf-blowers

3 Street-sweepers

12 Workers cleaning up trash

6 Hours worked

carry your own garbage, please

Add comment May 22nd, 2008

this morning, as i looked at my kleenex box and laughed about how billie on “my name is earl” told earl only to use one tissue at a time, i thought, “should i write down what i throw in the garbage for a week?” would i learn more than i did with my week trying not to buy plastic?

maybe i had the thought because someone told me a while ago about a woman who carried around her own garbage for two weeks.