Annabel Khouri's Page

On a recent tour of the recycling facility at Oakwood Village, I learned what happens to the bulk of the recyclable materials from the 27 cities around the region. Built in 1993, WM Recycle America processes about 4000-5000 tons of recyclable materials every month. The facility handles single stream recycling, which allows participants to place all recyclables into one container. Automated sorting technology at Oakwood Village separates the material streams so they can be baled and remarketed.… Continue

Heinen's, a locally owned and operated grocery chain with 17 stores, has partnered with Rosby to begin composting food scraps in its Mayfield Village, Middleburg Heights, and Brecksville stores. The program, which started last fall, has been successful and the company plans to continue to roll this out to its remaining stores. Heinen's is also looking at its entire waste stream for opportunities.

Another… Continue

At the 2nd Annual E4S Zero Waste Best Practices and First Steps event, participants learned the benefits of setting a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of zero waste. Guest speakers shared how they are saving money, reducing their environmental footprint, being more socially responsible and creating a great story to market their products.

… Continue

Waste Management (WM) owns a landfill in Solon that no longer accepts municipal solid waste. Since 2001, Stouffer's, located nearby, has used methane gas from this landfill. This fuel source meets about 80% of Stouffer's processing and plant heating needs. WM uses a recovery, compression and treatment system to capture the methane.

The Solon WM site currently accepts construction and demolition waste. The wood… Continue

Tom Norton, President of Turtle Plastics in Lorain, OH knows a thing or two about recycling materials. He has been in the business of recycling since 1980, having developed the first MRF in the state of Ohio. The process of recycling materials evolved into making products from the materials. Specifically, Turtle Plastics makes modular matting and industrial plastic cribbing from PVC. The PVC primarily comes from the automobile industry… Continue