Posts

Showing posts from September, 2006

Happy Returns in Falls Church

Annette Mills embodies the gift of thrift. Ms. Mills’ transformed her community from a waste reduction rate of 39% in 1991 to a rate exceeding 65%. Because of her leadership, Falls Church has one of the best recovery rates in the country and a leading state recycling rate of 46% . For seventeen years, Annette has been a trail blazer for various environment improvements in the DC region. Annette ingeniously enlisted the help of more than 130 citizen volunteers or “Recycling Block Captain Program” resulting in many successes. Annette’s believes that education through personal contact is paramount to their success. She has created a “tipping point” by empowering many to serve as their community’s conservation leaders. In her words, “The most effective models are those people who are actively working together to build relationship with each other and the natural environment”. Ms. Mills leads by example. Attending lunches, outside events or meetings, she br

2006 Used Oil Recycling Update in America

Background In July 2006, the U.S. Department of Energy Used Oil Re-refining Study [1] indicates that the United States consumes about 25 percent of the total worldwide demand for lube oils. Congress mandated this inquiry under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Section 1839. Most European countries are more advanced in reduction, reusing and recycling used oil. For example Europe has three times more re-refining capacity or the ability of making used oil back into a lube oils. Millions Sources of Pollution A key issue is the non point source of used oil pollution by oil changers. Presently DOE estimates that 80% of the Do-it-Yourself (DIY) used oil is improperly disposed into our environment. Also this study concludes that the annual volume of disposed oil has decreased from 426 million gallons in 1996 to 348 million gallons of an estimated million gallons in 2004. This is an interesting finding since that amount of vehicle miles driven in the US and the nu