Carpet recycling is slowly gaining traction in Atlantic County, and the Seaview project is believed to be the largest of its kind so far. In November, the Atlantic County Utilities Authority added residential carpets to its list of recyclable materials. In five months, the authority sent nearly 50 tons of carpet to CarpetCycle. Most of the material came from homes in Egg Harbor and Galloway townships. In December, Margate became one of the first municipalities in the state to adopt a law banning carpets from being thrown out with curbside trash. 

Complete article after the jump…

Carpet recycling gains traction in region
(Published: Monday, May 05, 2008)

GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP - A recycling milestone unfolded with the old green and yellow carpets from the Seaview Resort & Spa.

As part of a $1.5 million carpet and painting renovation, workers from Baumgardner Flooring, of Egg Harbor Township, spent three months removing tons of carpet and padding from the 297-room resort. But instead of hauling the loads to a landfill, where it would take years for the petroleum-based fabric to break down - if it ever does - all 14,000 square yards of flooring were trucked to CarpetCycle, a carpet and ceiling tile recycler based in Elizabeth, Union County.

Seaview General Manager Robert Schmeck said the changes are part of the Marriott resort’s environmental initiative. On a corporate level, Marriott is developing “greener” hotels by increasing recycling, using “greener” supplies and pledging to preserve 1.4 million acres of Brazilian rainforest.

On a local level, Seaview upgraded its cooling and heating systems to be more energy-efficient and installed low-flow showerheads and toilets to conserve water, said John Petrolino, the resort’s engineering director. Seaview also is working with the New Jersey Audubon Society and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey to make its two golf courses more ecologically sound by creating bird habitats from old trees, using fewer pesticides and protecting turtles that live on the grounds.

Schmeck called the carpet recycling a no-brainer.

“This just adds to our corporate philosophy of being environmentally friendly,” he said. By recycling, Seaview conserved 6,160 gallons of oil and diverted 63,000 pounds of garbage, according to an Internet calculator supplied by the Carpet America Recovery Effort, or CARE, a nonprofit recycling organization.

Petrolino and Joe Nickels, a sales manager for Baumgardner Flooring, declined to disclose how much the carpet recycling cost but said it was about the same as sending it to a landfill. “It really wasn’t a matter of cost. My main thing is to get the carpet recycled than in a landfill,” Petrolino said.

Carpet recycling is slowly gaining traction in Atlantic County, and the Seaview project is believed to be the largest of its kind so far. In November, the Atlantic County Utilities Authority added residential carpets to its list of recyclable materials. In five months, the authority sent nearly 50 tons of carpet to CarpetCycle. Most of the material came from homes in Egg Harbor and Galloway townships. In December, Margate became one of the first municipalities in the state to adopt a law banning carpets from being thrown out with curbside trash.

Avalon Carpet Tile and Flooring has been recycling carpets with CarpetCycle throughout its southern New Jersey stores, as have residents in Burlington County and Hawthorne, Passaic County. Others joining in the carpet-recycling effort include the Atlantic City Convention Center, which recycled 5,000 square yards in 2005, and the Egg Harbor Township and Vineland municipal buildings.

The last of the Seaview carpet arrived on the CarpetCycle sorting floor Thursday and Friday, where it was tested for yarn quality. Sean Ragiel, CarpetCycle’s president, said the fiber is nylon 6, which means it will be sent to the Evergreen Nylon Recycling plant in Augusta, Ga., to be shredded and transformed into new carpeting. The padding will be taken to Chasen & Sons, a Newark company that makes mattress batting.

Recycling carpets isn’t easy. Not all communities require carpet recycling, and only two companies in New Jersey - CarpetCycle and Carpet Recovery Inc., based in Newark - are certified by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The logistics of transporting the heavy materials can be tricky; Ragiel said he is limited to collecting from a 100-mile radius and the carpets must be kept dry and separate from other garbage.

The cost of such a project varies, depending on the amount of carpet and travel distance. Ragiel said he charges $100 for residential pickup in northern New Jersey and recycles residential carpets for free if dropped off.

Ragiel said his company sorts about 400 tons of carpet per month from New Jersey and New York. Since the company’s inception in 1999, it has diverted 15,000 tons of carpet from landfills, most of which was sent to Georgia - where many carpet manufacturers are based - to be recycled into new flooring. Carpets made of nylon 66 and propylene are ground up and turned into new plastics for automobile parts, synthetic railroad ties and storm water drains. Carpets made of polyester fiber are burned to create energy.

Carpet-recycling awareness has been growing. Nationwide, about 5 billion pounds of carpet is dumped into landfills each year, according to CARE. In 2007, about 297 million pounds of carpet was recycled or turned into energy and other products, a 17 percent increase over 2006, according to CARE data. The organization hopes to divert 40 percent of all carpets from landfills by 2012. The recycling numbers could rise as landfill disposal rates continue to get more expensive, said Richard Dovey, president of the ACUA.

Nickels and Petrolino hoped other large businesses, hotels and the Atlantic City casinos could follow Seaview’s lead and start recycling old, worn-out carpets.

“It’s a coming trend with the cost of oil being the way it is. There’s got to be pretty significant thinking outside the box with carpet,” Nickels said. “Before, it was thrown in the Dumpster. You can see how much space carpet takes up. When you take something like that out of the trash system and put it into the recycle system, it’s a pretty significant drop in the amount in landfill (waste), in weight and cubic feet.

- Michelle Lee

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/186/v-print/story/150003.html

A big problem getting smaller through shrink wrap recycling
By RICHARD DEGENER Staff Writer, 609-463-6711
Published: Sunday, April 13, 2008

LOWER TOWNSHIP - Plastic shrink wrap has become a valuable material to protect boats during the winter, but it also becomes a problem for landfills in the spring.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has a way to change that.

The DEP has initiated a recycling problem to take the plastic wrapping out of the waste stream and turn it into plastic bags, lumber and other products.

“I collect it and throw it in the dumpster,” said Ernie Utsch, who owns Utsch’s Marine on Schellenger’s Landing in Lower Township, Cape May County.

Utsch was interested in the new program, which is being funded by $100,000 in registration fees boaters pay each year, and has no problem collecting shrink wrap if somebody picks it up.

The DEP estimates that New Jersey boaters use hundreds of tons of the nonbiodegradable plastic each year. While there already is a program to recycle greenhouse plastic, until recently the boat plastic has been tossed into landfills.

The DEP has awarded funding to nine counties to collect, bale and recycle it. The counties include Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Ocean.

Cape May County Recycling Coordinator Bridget M. O’Connor said for now marinas have to bring the material to the county landfill in Woodbine or the transfer station in Middle Township. Blue, white or clear plastic is accepted and containers are set up to collect it.

“I’ve had a good response from boatyard owners and marinas. We’re just beginning to get the message out,” O’Connor said.

The material will be cleaned and shredded. Then it will be turned into the plastic pellets used to make other plastic products.

O’Connor said an average size boat produces about 14 pounds of shrink wrap. She said the county is expected to generate about 15 tons of shrink wrap per year.

It’s not a huge landfill item but is also another way to help marinas become eco-friendly. Utsch’s is already recycling plastic monofilament fishing line and beverage containers. The county also has a program to accept marine paints, which contain more toxic materials that regular house paints.

The DEP said the nine counties have committed to collecting plastic shrink wrap for five years. Revenue from the plastic could end up keeping it going long after that.

For more information, marina owners can contact their recycling coordinator or check out the DEP Web site at:

www.state.nj.us/dep/newsrel/2008/08_0020.htm

Published: Sunday, April 13, 2008
Original link: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/186/story/131562.html

• Coachella - April 25-27 - India, CA (Roger Waters, Prince, Jack Johnson)
• Jam on the River - May 23-25 - Philadelphia, PA (The Flaming Lips, Bassnectar and Disco Biscuits)
• Sasquatch - May 24-26 - George, WA (R.E.M., Modest Mouse, MIA)
• Bonaroo - June 12-15 - Manchester, TN (Pearl Jam, Chris Rock, Tiesto)
• All Good Festival - July 11-13 - Masontown, WV (Phil Lesh & Friends, Widespread Panic, Gov’t Mule)
  
• Lollapalooza - August 1-3 - Chicago, IL (Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, NIN, Kanye West)
  
• Virgin Mobile Festival - August 9, 10 - Baltimore, MD (Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, NIN, STP)
  
• Austin City Limits - September, 26-28 - Austin, TX (Bob Dylan, Bjork, The Killers, Wilco)

Is it discrimination against the Irish?

I am posting the article after the jump because of the Press of AC’s orwellian Web site policies whereby they remove articles from their Web site after something like seven days. Sometimes the old media just doesn’t get it.

Apostrophes in names stir lot o’ trouble
By SEAN ODRISCOLL
link: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/256/story/87451.html
(Published: Thursday, February 21, 2008)

It can stop you from voting, destroy your dental appointments, make it difficult to rent a car or book a flight, even interfere with your college exams. More than 50 years into the Information Age, computers are still getting confused by the apostrophe. It’s a problem familiar to O’Connors, D’Angelos, N’Dours and D’Artagnans across America.

When Niall O’Dowd tried to book a flight to Atlanta earlier this year, the computer system refused to recognize his name. The editor of the Irish Voice newspaper could book the flight only by giving up his national identity.

“I dropped the apostrophe and ran my name as ‘ODowd,’” he said.

It’s not just the bad luck o’ the Irish. French, Italian and African names with apostrophes can befuddle computer systems, too. So can Arab names with hyphens, and Dutch surnames with “van” and a space in them.

Michael Rais, director of software development at Permission Data, an online marketing company in New York, said the problem is sloppy programming.

“It’s standard shortsightedness,” he said. “Most programs set a rule for first name and last name. They don’t think of foreign-sounding names.”

The trouble can happen in two ways, according to Rais.

One: Online forms typically have a filter that looks for unfamiliar terms that might be put in by mistake or as a joke. A bad computer system will not be able to handle an apostrophe, a hyphen or a gap in a last name and will block it immediately.

Two: Even if the computer system is sophisticated enough to welcome an O’Brien or Al-Kurd, the name must be stored in the database, where a hyphen or apostrophe is often mistaken for a piece of computer code, corrupting the system.

That’s what happened during the Michigan caucus in 2004, when thousands of O’Connors, Al-Husseins, Van Kemps and others who went to the polls didn’t have their votes counted.

“It was a real slapped-together computer system the party put together and a lot of people were left out who were registered to vote, it was a real pity,” said Michigan political consultant Mark Grebner.

In this year’s primaries, the system worked much better, according to the Michigan Democratic Party. There have been isolated reports of problems elsewhere, but nothing on the scale of Michigan.

Still, an apostrophe, hyphen or space can interfere with medical and dental records, gym memberships, online searches or school registration.

Dutch-American proofreader Jessica van Campen has seen her name listed as Jessica Vancampen, Jessica Van, Jessicavan Campen, Jessica Campen and Jessican Kampen by uncertain computer systems. When she went to her finals in college, she was listed under Campen and was told Jessica Van Campen had dropped out of the course.

“It was another moment of panic,” she said.

All of this confusion has prompted some people to surrender to technology. Iraqi immigrant Lina Alathari was once known as Lina Al-Athari, but dropped the hyphen in America. “There is no pronunciation difference, so I’m fine with it,” she said.

Erin Carney D’Angelo, a lawyer in New York, was born apostrophe-free, but took one on when she married her Italian-American husband. But “he told me to drop the apostrophe when filling out forms so to computers I’m just a ‘Dangelo,’” she said.

The problem is difficult to correct because computer systems have many different ways of recognizing names, Rais said.

“It depends on the form filters and it depends on the database program,” he said. “Basically, there are a lot of programmers out there who forget that a growing portion of the American public are not called John Smith or Mary White.”

The Irish apostrophe began with the British, who put it there because they believed the O looked odd without a link to the rest of the name. Many Gaelic speakers in Ireland refuse to carry an apostrophe, considering it a vestige of colonial days.

“Maybe that’s the solution,” said O’Dowd, who just last week was rejected by an online alarm clock service. “Maybe we should just drop the apostrophe altogether, not just as a nationalist statement but because I’d like my alarm call to work in the morning.”

For my part, I’ve already thrown off my apostrophe. From now on I am Sean ODriscoll.

Ever wonder about the difference between an apostrophe and a prime or foot mark? Basically, the apostrophe is curved like a close bracket and a prime or foot mark is straight up and down. To most people the difference is negligible, but to type snobs and grammatically sensitive Irishmen (Ahem!) it makes a huge difference. The Apostrophe Atrophy blog has posted a photo essay of this common mis-usage.

Christmas trees should be placed at the curb on the day of yard waste collection, which is either Saturday or Monday depending on which zone you live in. You can confirm your zone by downloading the Yard Waste Collection Zone PDF from ACUA.

Some tips:

• Trees should be free of lights and decorations, including tinsel
• Trees do not have to be bagged
• Flocked trees are acceptable for collection and composting
• For more information on Christmas tree recycling please visit: www.earth911.com

In other Christmas tree news, an article in the Press of A.C. has determined that fresh cut “real” trees are more eco-friendly than artificial trees.

Often made of PVC - “the worst of the worst when it comes to plastics,” - fake trees, while reusable, have no green method for disposal. Also a factor is the cost of shipping a tree, real or fake. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, 85 percent of fake trees are made in China.

…A real tree is a renewable resource. For every tree that’s cut, three are planted. When a tree is young it gives off the most oxygen. We give an ecological benefit and they’re a good habitat for wildlife.

NCS will give five families with children in the school the chance to work with personal trainers for 12 weeks, as well as learning to cook healthy meals from top chefs from Harrah’s and the Local 54 Chef Apprentice program.

The personal training for the families (provided by Mainland Fitness) is worth about $6,000 making the combined prize value close to $10,000 per family.

NORTHFIELD - It pays to get healthy, although normally the benefits are limited to the spiritual, emotional and physical realms. But for five Northfield families willing to work hard at changing their lifestyles, the process will be worth about $10,000 for each family - and all of it’s free.This week, parents of children at the Northfield Community School will get information on how to take part in the 2008 Healthy Schools Initiative. AtlantiCare sponsors the regional contest for schools and offers a prize of $5,000 to the school it deems the healthiest.This year, for its part in the contest, NCS plans to give five families with children in the school the chance to work with personal trainers for 12 weeks, as well as learning to cook healthy meals from top chefs from Harrah’s and the Local 54 Chef Apprentice program.

“This is the Healthy Family Makeover contest,” said Carol Ferguson, a spokeswoman for the school. “By promoting health outside to the families, we hope to change the behavior of young people.”

Ferguson said personal training for the families, which will be provided by Mainland Fitness, is worth about $6,000 each. “When you add the others - cooking and nutritionists - it probably reaches close to $10,000 per family.”

Another big part of the program, she said, is a family scrapbook that documents life-changing behavior that contributes to a healthier lifestyle. Samantha Kiley Ficcaglia, coordinator for AtlantiCare’s Child Health and Wellness program, said every school and culture is different, but that the scrapbook could cut across any boundaries”It’s a visual-organizing tool,” Ficcaglia said. “It helps people see what constitutes a healthy lifestyle.”

Ficcaglia is developing the scrapbook that will be used at the NCS pilot program. But every family in NCS who chooses to participate in the Healthy Schools Initiative will be able to use the scrapbook.

“Schools can only do so much to help children get healthier,” Ficcaglia said. “Some must come from the families.”

By keeping track of things such as grocery purchases and meal planning, families can gradually move toward a healthier lifestyle, she said.

“This is also a way to take the Healthy Schools Initiative through the summer,” she said, “when the children are out of school.”

Ferguson calls the scrapbook the play-at-home version for those families that can’t take part in the Healthy Family Makeover.

Five families with children at NCS will be chosen later this month to take part in the makeover.

“If families want to participate, we will ask the family or a student from the family to write an essay describing themselves and their general health,” Ferguson said. “They would submit it to me at NCS and we will use that to screen it to 15 families.”

After the screening, five families will be selected and announced Dec. 18, Ferguson said.

The program will begin Jan. 2. At the end of 12 weeks, the family that best changed its lifestyle will be selected as the winner of the makeover contest. Ferguson said the winning family would be announced in April.

For more information, visit the Web site:

northfield.groupfusion.net/

This is the first in an occasional series about families getting fit at Northfield Community School.

To e-mail Dave Benson at The Press: DBenson@pressofac.com

]]> http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/10/healthy-schools-initiative-coming-to-northfield/feed/ http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/07/northfield-tree-lighting-tonight/ http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/07/northfield-tree-lighting-tonight/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:42:30 +0000 jason Northfield Community http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/07/northfield-tree-lighting-tonight/ The Northfield tree lighting ceremony is tonight (Friday, December 07, 2007) at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 1600 Shore Road.

There will be a visit from Santa, music by Community School Chorus and free refreshments will be served. The rain date is December 14, 2007.

See you there!

]]> http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/07/northfield-tree-lighting-tonight/feed/ http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/05/here-comes-another-bubble/ http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/05/here-comes-another-bubble/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:14:21 +0000 jason Technology Finance http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/05/here-comes-another-bubble/ This is a great YouTube video predicting the next tech bubble. Pretty funny, actually!

The YouTube embed code isn’t working in WP 2.0.4 so you’ll have to check it out using the link above.

]]> http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/12/05/here-comes-another-bubble/feed/ http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/11/12/northfield-moon-watch-at-public-library/ http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/11/12/northfield-moon-watch-at-public-library/#comments Tue, 13 Nov 2007 03:47:12 +0000 jason Northfield Community Event http://jason.ogrady.com/2007/11/12/northfield-moon-watch-at-public-library/ You can see the “Man in the Moon,” up close and personal, at the Northfield Public Library’s “Moon Watch” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 19. The rain/cloud date is Tuesday, Nov. 20.

There will be a short, informative slide show about the moon at 7:30 p.m. At 8 p.m., viewers will go outside to use several professional powerful telescopes located in the Library’s parking lot. If observing conditions are good, local residents should be able to see spectacular, detailed views of individual craters, ancient volcanoes, mountains and plains on the Moon.

The Library purchased an astronomical telescope in 2005 with funds from the New Jersey State Library; two more telescopes were donated by the Friends of the Library and the Briliant Family. With their 8 inch and 6 inch primary mirrors, these 4-foot-long Dobsonian telescopes are capable of gathering 400-600 times as much light as the human eye, and can magnify objects by 200-300 times.

For more information about the Moon Watch, call the Northfield Public Library at 646-4476.

(Source: Press of A.C.)

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