{"id":19189,"date":"2016-02-03T13:06:10","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T18:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=19189"},"modified":"2016-02-03T13:06:10","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T18:06:10","slug":"time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/","title":{"rendered":"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"can<\/a><\/p>\n

Many of us have engaged in some level of waste sorting<\/a> for so long now that it’s hard to imagine anything else. But it wasn’t that long ago when\u00a0we really used a single stream for waste disposal. Everything went into the trash can. \u00a0The trash can went out to the curb for pick-up. Nothing got separated out or sorted.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s time to return to this model?<\/p>\n

Now, before you assume I’ve gone over to the dark side, I’m not actually suggesting going back to the “good ol’ days” of waste management. But I’m very intrigued by Medina County, Ohio’s proposed shift to a “waste mall” approach to handling residential and business trash<\/a>. Everything would go to a central location, where, according to the Optiva Group<\/a>‘s\u00a0Edmund Kwiecien, it would be transformed “into recyclable materials, energy<\/a> and new products…” So, while residents and businesses would return to the old practice of tossing all of their wastes into one receptacle, 70 to 80% of that trash would be put to further use rather than going to a landfill.<\/p>\n

How does that happen?\u00a0That’s where the “mall” concept comes into play. This single facility would house a number of different businesses that deal with different kind of trash and approaches to handling it. Optiva’s already lined up Quasar Energy Group<\/a> (which produces energy from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes), and Sherbrooke OEM<\/a> (a manufacturer of recycling equipment) to participate in the project, along with four other companies.<\/p>\n

So, the trash would arrive, get sorted, and then shunted to the company that could make use of the material… all in one space.\u00a0Kwiecien told county council members, “It never has to leave the building. It comes in as garbage and goes out as a product like a mailbox.” Other potential products include “plastic pellets, carbon to make ink for printer cartridges, mulch and oils.”<\/p>\n

Not only does that deal with wastes in more creative and environmentally-responsible manners, but it could also produce lots of jobs. Kwiecien is convinced the county’s trash alone could keep one shift of workers busy, but that the facility would have the capacity to handle much more input. That would result in 50 to 100 jobs – not bad for a rural county.<\/p>\n

While this concept reminds me of the old “industrial ecology<\/a>” model – in which one company’s waste becomes another’s feed stock – I’ve never heard of waste management taking this form. No doubt, the residents of Medina County would love to return to a single stream approach to sending out their trash… and some would definitely benefit from the work that the “waste mall” could create. I’m intrigued. If you see red flags with this model, share them… this sure seems to me like a smart means of cutting some costs out of the current recycling model.<\/p>\n

via Waste Dive<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo credit: Shutterstock<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model – the “waste mall” – could remove the need to separate our trash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":19190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,13],"tags":[6594,8821,8816,11,8818,8819,39,8820,689,8817],"yoast_head":"\nTime To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash? • Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model - the "waste mall" - could remove the need to separate our trash.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash? • Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model - the "waste mall" - could remove the need to separate our trash.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/sorted-trash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"426\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"anaerobic digestion\",\"Edmund Kwiecien\",\"medina county\",\"ohio\",\"optiva group\",\"quasar energy group\",\"Recycling\",\"sherbrooke oem\",\"trash\",\"waste mall\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Sustainability\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\",\"name\":\"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash? • Sustainablog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model - the \\\"waste mall\\\" - could remove the need to separate our trash.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\",\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\"},\"description\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainablog. You can keep up with all of his writing at Facebook, and at Google+\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/jeffmcintirestrasburg\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash? • Sustainablog","description":"Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model - the \"waste mall\" - could remove the need to separate our trash.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash? • Sustainablog","og_description":"Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model - the \"waste mall\" - could remove the need to separate our trash.","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":426,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/sorted-trash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30"},"headline":"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash?","datePublished":"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/"},"wordCount":483,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["anaerobic digestion","Edmund Kwiecien","medina county","ohio","optiva group","quasar energy group","Recycling","sherbrooke oem","trash","waste mall"],"articleSection":["Business","Sustainability"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/","name":"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash? • Sustainablog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-03T18:06:10+00:00","description":"Could single stream trash disposal work without filling up landfills? A new business model - the \"waste mall\" - could remove the need to separate our trash.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/time-to-return-to-the-single-stream-of-trash\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Time To Return To The Single Stream Of Trash?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30","name":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/36b723ef9244464afe2e59d68b238a07?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg"},"description":"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg is the founder and editor of sustainablog. You can keep up with all of his writing at Facebook, and at Google+","sameAs":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org"],"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/jeffmcintirestrasburg\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}