In August, Busch Systems partnered with Zero Waste Campus Council for a Focus Group to discuss current bins on the market; what features might be missing, and which trends could change the requirements of recycling and waste-diversion containers. While we headed into the focus group expecting to harvest some seeds for new container designs (we even named the session “Let’s Build a Better Bin”), we were also intrigued by other notable topics that emerged through our discussions and break-out groups. Below are some of our…

A lot of people have food on the brain – well, food waste, that is! States like California and Massachusetts – and now New York – are mandating organic waste diversion programs, and organizations across Canada and the US are moving compost & food scrap collections to the top of their priority list. Have no fear! Busch Systems is here with a breakdown of what’s going on in the organic waste world and how you can start or upgrade an organic waste program as painlessly…

We’d like to introduce you to our Senior Advisor, Alec Cooley! Okay, you have probably seen Alec around here before. In fact, if you’ve spent any time with our blogs and webinars, you already know Alec – he’s the writer behind the Advancing Recycling blog series, and the program creator & moderator for our Green Thinking webinar series. What you may not know is that Alec also does a bundle of invaluable behind-the-scenes work at Busch Systems – and since his position is so unique in the manufacturing…

By my count, there are no fewer than 130 published academic papers that have studied some aspect of how to influence recycling behavior. This is a lot of effort to understand what seems like a simple, routine action: what causes a person to drop an empty bottle or sheet of paper through the opening of one bin versus another? We’ve learned a number of things over time. Recycling behavior is driven by layers of factors, including the situation a person experiences as they discard an…

I have a good friend, Bill, who I know through our local Sierra Club group. Bill has walked the talk as an environmentalist for over 40 years. There are few people I know more passionate or committed to taking action on behalf of conservation issues.  So, it’s a little disturbing when he periodically questions the value of separating recyclables. This earnest question was also at the core of an exchange of professional listserv messages I had with a university sustainability officer recently. The person cited…