RE: [greenyes] Single-stream composition

["Pat Franklin" <pfranklin@no.address>]

AMEN Jerry!  Aluminum  beverage can sales vary from region to region and so
do glass and plastic beverage bottle sales.  This is due in part to climate,
marketing and regional preferences, but also because beverage sales vary by
region.  There is a much higher per capita consumption of beer and soda in
the southeast and southwest and higher per capita consumption of bottled
water and other non-carbonated drinks in the northeast and pacific coast.

RE:  Resource Recycling...is it really America's thinnest magazine?  It may
be thin in size but it's thick in substance.

******************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Powell [mailto:jpowell@no.address]
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2004 3:30 PM
To: greenyes@no.address
Subject: [greenyes] Single-stream composition


Recycling planners need to be cautious when using composition data due to
the wide variance in materials consumption among communities.  Numerous
examples exist of problems in comparing data from outside a local region.
For example, the Los Angeles Times is America's thickest newspaper (as an
aside, Resource Recycling is America's thinnest magazine).  Using data from
Southern California will over-report the percentage of ONP in a
single-stream program.  Houston and Birmingham, Alabama are said to have the
highest per-capita levels of aluminum can consumption (heat, humidity).  As
a result, UBC percentages in the Southeast will be high.  Some major dairies
in several regions have moved away from using plastic milk jugs, thus
resulting in a decline in percentage for HDPE in these areas.  Religious
restrictions regarding alcohol consumption result in lower percentages of
glass in some regions, such as in the Mormon-dominated Rockies (about three
quarters of glass production is for packaging beer, wine and liquor).  These
are only several examples why recycling officials will find a low level of
similarity among composition data from various communities.
_______
Jerry Powell, Editor and Publisher
Resource Recycling Magazine
E-Scrap News
Plastics Recycling Update

P.O. Box 42270
Portland, OR 97242-0270
(503) 233-1305 office
;
(503) 233-1356 fax
(503) 781-2183 cell
jpowell@no.address
www.resource-recycling.com
www.e-scrapnews.com