Arlington, VA—  As federal legislatures worked towards signing the health care bill, another government agency, The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosted composting professionals at a two day training workshop as part of the Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC) .  The workshop was held in Arlington, VA on March 24^th and 25^th.

In its fourth year, the RCC workshop is an annual event sponsored by the EPA to give environmental and conservation professionals an opportunity to have an open dialogue on issues facing our natural resources. This year’s focus was around life cycle materials management.

As a part of the life cycle materials management focus, a half day problem solving “round table” was held on March 24^, 2010 to discuss food waste in the United States.

Food waste is the third largest waste stream in this Country behind paper and yard waste. Much of what goes into a landfill can either be used to feed the hungry or can be composted to create nutrient rich soil.

RRS is proud to announce that Principal Nicole Chardoul, who is among the nation’s leading experts on food waste and composting, participated in the round table.  Chardoul says “It was an honor to participate in this year’s RCC workshop.  Recycling and reusing organics like food waste is a vital step in conserving our natural resources. I value the opportunity to educate others on the benefit of composting and participate in an open discussion on how to reduce the amount of food waste being landfilled.”

Ann Arbor, MI—  On Friday March 19^th, RRS Principals Nicole Chardoul and JD Lindeberg attended the a sustainability job fair at hosted by the University of Michigan BLUElab.  BLUElab (Better Living Using Engineering Laboratory) is a student organization that works to conceive, develop, and oversee real world projects locally and in underdeveloped countries.  The program hosts a job fair annually to give engineering students and local environmental companies an opportunity to meet and network.  Read the whole story…

Ann Arbor, MI – The RRS team has grown by one! Beth Apple joins RRS as our new Project Intern.  Beth has a background in technical writing, web administration, information management, and business administration.  Beth graduated from Bowling Green State, College of Business Administration and worked with Applied Dynamics in Ann Arbor before coming to RRS.  She is highly skilled in MS Office and the Adobe Suite.

 Beth’s impressive writing background and desire to learn about the waste and recycling field has made Beth a welcome addition to the hard working RRS family.

Chicago, IL— Windy City, here we come! RRS Principal Jim Frey and Anna Collinson will head out to Chicago, Illinois to attend the  new national business and technology Residential Recycling Conference (RRC) hosted by Waste & Recycling News and Republic Services on March 23,  and 24, 2010.

Over 200 hundred waste and recycling professionals including processors, vendors and government recycling managers and public works directors will gather at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago to attend educational sessions on collection technologies, commodity markets, recycling safety, measuring program goals and success, and increasing participation in your recycling program.  Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about how to grow their recycling program as well as network with an extensive group of recycling professionals.

Jim and Anna will be on hand to talk with you about tangible ways to improve your residential recycling program through positive revenue business solutions, technology and incentive upgrades, best practices for sound contracting as well as essential community education and outreach avenues to maximize the best bang for your municipal buck.  Additionally, they will be sharing information on the Carton Council’s initiative to increase recycling efforts for aseptic packaging like cartons and juice boxes.  Look forward to seeing you in Chicago!

East Lansing, MI – Being green has a double meaning for students and staff at Michigan State University.  The Spartans’ pride of their green school colors can now add environmentally green to their identity thanks to the construction of a new surplus store and recycling center.

Having been in the planning phases since 2007, construction on the 73,000 square foot building began in the spring of 2008 with its grand opening prior to the 2009/2010 academic year. Read the whole story…

Ann Arbor, MI – Boston is going to be hot, hot, hot this August.  Not only will the temperatures be high, but swarms of solid waste and recycling professionals will be making their way to the Boston Convention Center for the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) WasteCon conference.  The 2010 conference will host over 200 education sessions and 600 vendors in a 125,000 square foot exhibit hall.  The air will be sizzling.

RRS is thrilled to have 3 members of our staff speaking at WasteCon this year.  Principals Jim Frey and JD Lindeberg as well as Project Consultant Anna Collinson will be taking to the microphone and podium in three different technical tracks.  JD will be speaking on August 14^th on how carbon offsets enable household organics recovery programs to get off the ground.  Jim will be speaking on August 15^th on enterprise funds and sustainable solid waste management systems.  Anna will be speaking on August 16^th on conversion technologies, recycling and carbon management. 

Look for more information on these speaking sessions as August and WasteCon gets closer.