ICSC & EPA Announce Winners of America's
Marketplace Recycles! Awards Program
In recognition of Earth Day celebrations, the International Council
of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
announced the winners of their "America's Marketplace Recycles!"
Awards program, which recognizes outstanding efforts and achievements
by ICSC members to conserve resources, recycle, and purchase recycled
content products at shopping centers across the country. U.S. shopping
centers generate a wide variety of materials that are prime candidates
for recycling; including corrugated cardboard, mixed paper, glass, plastic,
metals, food waste, landscape trimmings and shipping pallets.
In announcing the winners, ICSC President and CEO Michael P. Kercheval
said, "This awards program has provided both the EPA and ICSC the
opportunity to not only highlight those shopping centers and retailers
who are leading the way in regards to recycling but has given us another
avenue to get the word out about the importance of recycling."
The EPA provided technical assistance and guidance to ICSC through
its Resource Conservation Challenge program. Tom Dunne, EPA Deputy Assistant
Administrator, praised ICSC for its leadership, "EPA is pleased
to have assisted ICSC in the establishment of this important initiative.
We believe improvements in recycling at America's shopping centers will
have a significant impact. More importantly, shopping centers are a
crucial venue to help educate our nation's consumers of the value of
recycling."
The "America's Marketplace Recycles!" Awards program was
designed to increase public awareness of the benefits of recycling and
featured seven categories in order to fully encompass the diverse nature
of the shopping center industry. The featured categories were: Best
New Recycling Program; Best Expansion of an Existing Recycling Program;
Outstanding Retailer; Outstanding Mall Owner/Developer; Best Public
Awareness Campaign/Promotional Event; Best Community Partnership/Beneficial
Use of Funds; and Most Innovative Recycling Program. In addition, from
among the overall nominations, a single outstanding program was selected
as the "Recycler of the Year."
Founded in 1957, ICSC is the global retail real estate trade association
of the shopping center industry. ICSC directly benefits more than 50,000
members in over 96 countries by assisting in the development of their
businesses through professional education, conferences and conventions,
publications, research and legislative action.
Winners of the 2004 America's Marketplace Recycles! Awards
Outstanding Retailer (Local or Regional): Giant Eagle, Inc., Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Giant Eagle maintains an extensive plastic bag recycling and waste
reduction program. In 2004, over 322 tons of plastic was recycled system-wide.
At the store level, cashiers credit customers with 5 cents for each
bag reused. Giant Eagle is a national leader in conservation efforts
and has been an EPA certified Energy Star Leader for two consecutive
years.
Outstanding Shopping Center Owner/Developer: King of Prussia Associates
(Kravco Simon), King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
King of Prussia Associates has instituted a comprehensive recycling
program - including food court waste, plastics and paper - throughout
its three properties. In recent years there has been a steady increase
in both the volume of materials recycled and the percentage of total
waste that is recycled rather than landfilled.
Recycling In Pennsylvania Tops 4.4 Million
Tons, Saving Materials Valued At $68 Million Avoided Disposal Costs
Save More Than $240 Million
On behalf of Governor Edward G. Rendell, Environmental Protection
Secretary Kathleen A. McGinty has announced that Pennsylvanians recycled
a record 4.45 million tons of municipal waste in 2003, according to
reports filed by Pennsylvania counties. Aside from the environmental
gains of diverting waste from landfills, the economic benefits of recycling
are estimated at more than $68 million.
"Residents continue to show their commitment to ensure the health
of Pennsylvania's environment and economy by taking advantage of more
recycling opportunities," Secretary McGinty said during a tour
of Blue Mountain Recycling. "Families and businesses, churches
and schools are sending millions of tons of recyclables to manufacturers
to generate new products rather than sending materials to landfills
or burning them. Because of the commitment made by Pennsylvanians, our
recycling and reuse industry leads the nation in creating jobs and in
sales."
Blue Mountain Recycling was founded in 1999 as a material recycling
facility in Philadelphia. Blue Mountain, with three operating centers
and more than 80 employees, is the only company in the area to have
invested millions of dollars to provide the technology required to execute
a single-stream recycling program. The single-stream process enables
the generator to easily combine all of their recyclables together with
no hassle, and the company sorts it out.
In 2003, the state diverted 4.45 million tons of municipal waste from
disposal at landfills and waste-to-energy facilities. Municipal waste
includes typical refuse from households, businesses, schools and institutions
as well as industry offices and lunchrooms.
While many understand the importance of recycling to preserving our
natural resources, recycling is also an engine of economic growth in
Pennsylvania.
The Commonwealth's recycling and reuse industry includes more than
3,200 establishments with total annual sales of $18.4 billion. The industry
employs more than 81,000 people and has an annual payroll of $2.9 billion.
The employment, payroll and sales numbers are more than any other state
in the Northeast and are the second highest in the nation.
In addition, Pennsylvania's recycling and reuse industry has an indirect
effect on the economy estimated at $1.8 billion, and a direct impact
on the tax base, contributing $305 million each year.
- The economic benefit of recycling in 2003 can be assessed in part
by using published commodity prices for goods such as steel cans,
glass, plastic bottles and corrugated paper. An analysis of 1.4 million
tons of Pennsylvania's 2003 recycling reveals the materials were worth
in excess of $50 million. If the remaining 3.3 million tons of other
materials were valued at even half this amount, the total would be
more than $68 million. This does not include the estimated value of
avoided disposal, which can be calculated as more than $240 million
at the estimated statewide average disposal cost of $54 per ton. Of
course, recycling has a profound effect on Pennsylvania's environment,
as well.
- Greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by Pennsylvania
recycling: Pennsylvania recycling reduced greenhouse gas
emissions by 2.1 million metric tons of carbon equivalents per
year, which is equal to 6 percent of all industrial carbon equivalent
emissions from fossil fuel combustion in Pennsylvania and 2.6
percent of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane,
nitrous oxides and other emissions.
- Pennsylvania recycling saved energy: Pennsylvania's
recycling efforts saved 75.7 trillion BTUs of energy, equal to
nearly 5.9 percent of all energy used by industry in Pennsylvania.
This is equivalent to 610.7 million gallons of gasoline. It represents
the amount of energy that would be required to power 739,969 homes
for one year in Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania recycling reduced air and water pollution:
The recycling of paper, plastic, glass, aluminum cans and steel
cans in Pennsylvania resulted in reductions of 8,230 metric tons
of water pollutants and 285,430 metric tons of air pollutants
(not including the greenhouse gas reductions already discussed).
Recycling reduced emissions of sulfur oxides, an important ingredient
in acid rain formation, by 7,295 metric tons - an amount equal
to 0.8 percent of all such emissions from electrical utilities
in the state. Nitrous oxides were reduced by 7,712 metric tons
- an amount equal to 5.1 percent of emissions from Pennsylvania
electrical utilities.
- Pennsylvania's recycling conserved natural resources:
By recycling 1.02 million tons of scrap metal in 2003,
Pennsylvania's recycling efforts reduced the need for virgin materials
by twice that amount, including 1.3 million tons of iron ore,
716,167 tons of coal and 61,386 tons of limestone. By recycling
577,601 tons of mixed paper, newsprint, phone books and office
paper in 2003, Pennsylvania reduced the need to cut more than
7.6 million trees. On average, a live tree removes 60 pounds per
year of air pollution from the environment.
Pennsylvania recycling first eclipsed four million tons in the state
in 2002, and in 2003 its residents, businesses and institutions continued
the upward trend.
The Governor's Growing Greener II initiative will ensure the continued
success of recycling in Pennsylvania. The General Assembly continues
to demonstrate that ensuring the highest standards of environmental
protection while revitalizing communities remains bipartisan. Recently,
the state legislature agreed to put a $625 million bond question to
make significant investments to improve Pennsylvania's economic and
environmental health before voters. The bond question appeared on the
May 17th primary ballot.
For more information on this topic, visit DEP's Web
site keyword: "Recycling."
You are familiar with the recycling economic benefits data, for the
environmental benefits data we used the NERC model at this link:
http://www.nerc.org/documents/aboutcalc.html.
- Upcoming Electronics Recycling Events in
Luzerne County
- Butler Township, June 4, Butler Township Road Department, 14
W. Butler Drive, Drums, PA 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.
- Hanover Township, June 18, Hanover area Junior Senior High School,
1600 Sans Souci Parkway, Hanover Twp. 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.
Pre-registration is required for 10 or more computers and/or televisions.
Contact Ed Latinski or Beth DeNardi, contact numbers 1-800-821-7654
or 570-820-6300, for more information.
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