August 7, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
Back to school is a busy time for students, teachers and parents. Oh yes, and one more group — waste and recycling workers! Our region’s volume of trash and recycling spikes in August and September. This spike is comparable to what we see during the holiday season. Chalk it up to all the purchases of supplies, clothes, dorm gear and electronics. Families are expected to spend an average of $586... Read More
June 18, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
A volunteer project to transform single-use surgical wraps into sleeping bags is keeping waste out of landfills while giving unhoused individuals a soft place to lay their heads. The project was born a few years ago at Bon Secours Southern Virginia Medical Center in Emporia. Recently, volunteers with Richmond Bon Secours Medical Group and Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center have joined the effort to upcycle the material that otherwise... Read More
May 28, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
A new contractor begins service July 1, meaning collection day changes and new trash containers for every household. Town hall meeting is Monday, June 3. HOPEWELL — The Central Virginia Waste Management Authority is preparing to roll out a new program for residential trash pickup in the City of Hopewell. Starting July 1, WM (Waste Management) will take over weekly trash collection in Hopewell. This will be through a competitively procured contract between CVWMA,... Read More
May 21, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
Glen Allen High School student Lydia Crouch had been curious about recycling for a while. When it came time to select a topic for her AP Research capstone project, she decided on recycling education and how one’s level of schooling might affect their knowledge of what can be recycled in a residential program. CVWMA was proud to partner with Crouch as she developed the questionnaire for the study. Following her... Read More
May 21, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
Summer, summer, summertime. Time to sit back and unwind. What’s a better way to unwind than a summer cookout? We know: A cookout with less waste. There’s less to clean up! Plus, there’s less cost in the long run. Here are some ways you can have a zero-waste cookout: Give guests a heads up. In your invitation, tell guests upfront you’re striving for a zero- or low-waste cookout. Encourage them... Read More
March 27, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
Third-graders at Robious Elementary School in Chesterfield County recently put the 3R’s (that’s reduce, reuse, recycle) into action with a book swap! Each student brought in a book to be swapped for another. Teachers placed the books on cafeteria tables so students could browse and select a book to take home. “This activity was the culminating activity for our Earth’s Resources science unit,” third-grade teacher Julia Preusser said. “We connected... Read More
March 7, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
What is sustainable materials management? Sustainable materials management is a systematic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their life cycles. The emphasis is not only on using less, but on using materials to their fullest extent. The concept may sound complex, but it doesn’t have to be. The graphic above depicts one version of a sustainable materials management hierarchy, which ranks strategies from most to least environmentally... Read More
March 7, 2024 |
Published by Adam Girard
As the CVWMA Recycling Coordinator, part of my job is to keep up with what Central Virginians are throwing in their recycling carts. One way to do this is to observe occasional recycling audits at the material recovery facility (aka “the MRF”). This is the place where everything from your cart goes once it’s collected. On Feb. 23, 2024, I headed down to Chester, Virginia, to observe one of these... Read More
February 23, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
The Central Virginia region recycled 606,497 tons, or 57.7%, of its solid waste in 2022, according to information gathered by the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority. The authority is required annually to compile the regional recycling rate and submit a report to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The region comprises the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg and Richmond, the town of Ashland, and the counties of Charles City,... Read More
February 17, 2024 |
Published by Julie Buchanan
Batteries are such a part of our lives that they have their own day on the calendar. February 18 is National Battery Day. Each U.S. household contains an average of 8.4 devices that run on rechargeable batteries. Perhaps the most popular is the lithium-ion battery found in our smartphones, laptops, tablets, toys and other devices. Lithium-ion batteries store a large amount of energy in a small space. When these batteries... Read More