Annual Recycling Awards
The Missouri Recycling Association (MORA) Awards Committee is seeking nominations for our Annual Recycling Awards. Each year, MORA recognizes outstanding recycling and waste reduction efforts of individuals and organizations in Missouri. Award winners will be recognized during the annual conference at the Capitol Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, Jefferson City on Tuesday, September 17, 2013, during the awards luncheon.
We are once again pleased to offer a composting category to recognize our partnership with the Composting and Organics Association of Missouri (COAM) for the 2013 Annual Conference.
We are once again pleased to offer a composting category to recognize our partnership with the Composting and Organics Association of Missouri (COAM) for the 2013 Annual Conference.
MORA Conference Awards Winners
Outstanding Small Business/Waste Reduction Program
Taste of St. Louis – Mike Kociel/K.Sonderberger
St. Louis, MO
Taste of St. Louis is one of the largest and most anticipated annual events in the City. Organizers also strive to be as sustainable as possible for a festival attracting over 300,000 people. By requiring every vendor to use compostable or recyclable materials, Taste of St. Louis is also educating businesses and consumers about easy and available options for “going green." Through recycling and composting all of the festival’s food waste, in just three years the event has achieved a 73.09% waste diversion rate! Taste of St. Louis is awarded the Outstanding Business Recycling small business award for successfully promoting the City of St. Louis and sustainability!
Outstanding Large Business/Waste Reduction Program
Milbank Manufacturing
Kansas City, MO
Milbank, a third-generation family-owned business, has been engineering and manufacturing electrical supplies and equipment for use by utilities, contractors, distributors and OEMs since its founding in 1927. Today, Milbank’s meter mounting equipment can be found on homes, schools, businesses, factories, roadways, RV parks, arenas, and airports across North America. Consistent with the company’s vision to remain at the forefront of power generation and distribution technology and to honor stewardship of the environment, Milbank launched its PowerGen™ product line in 2009 that features wind, solar, electric vehicle charging stations, and generators. More than a manufacturing company, Millbank provides the tools that empower life!
Outstanding Community Program
University of Missouri
Kansas City, MO
The UMKC Sustainability Team is a campus organization of students, faculty and staff who are responsible for implementing and evaluating campus sustainability programs. Their goal is to ensure that sustainability becomes a norm on campus. To this end, the Team’s 120 members have invested over 1200 hours of service to implement the program. UMKC ranked #1 in the 2013 RecycleMania National Recycling competition that involved 523 participating colleges and universities. To earn this honor, UMKC recycled 86% of its overall waste products, which equates to a reduction of 360 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). UMKC Sustainability Coordinator Kaye Johnston says the school’s victory shows that “when we all do a little, we all do a lot. “
Outstanding Recycling Education Program
St. Louis Post Dispatch
St. Louis, MO
For over 35 years, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Newspapers in Education (NIE) program has provided the metropolitan area with programming to enhance classroom curriculum and empower students to become informed and involved citizens. Each year, NIE markets to over 3,000 schools and 17,000 educators, and reaches approximately one-half million students in Missouri and Illinois. Since 2009, participating classrooms use the daily ePost (a digital replica of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) to access the educational programs, available to schools for free thanks to a grant from St Louis-Jefferson SWMD/Missouri Department of Natural Resources. The ePost access eliminates delivery of print newspapers to the schools and has saved the printing, delivery and recycling of more than eight million newspapers.
Outstanding Service Provider
Closed Loop Recycling
St. Louis, MO
Closed Loop Recycling is an innovator in green initiatives for the manufacturing sector. The company works with environmental managers across the country to turn three waste streams into three reusable products. Their cleaning process is a true closed loop system; it uses no water and nothing is disposed to air or land. The results can be measured as waste and carbon footprint reduction for companies seeking ISO 14001 standards or for any other environmental management system audit. As we move toward 75% waste diversion, it is companies like Closed Loop Recycling that will help get us there.
Outstanding Small Organics Diversion Program
Parkway School District
Chesterfield, MO
Parkway School District has been in the forefront of recycling since 1991 when three elementary school students made a presentation to the Board of Education that the district should recycle its polystyrene lunch trays. Through single stream recycling partnered with Republic Services, Parkway recovers some 750 - 800 tons of material every year. Last year, the North region of Parkway piloted a new compostable lunch tray. Composting services are provided by Blue Skies Recycling and St. Louis Composting and funded by the St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District. The pilot was actively promoted by students and very well received. This spring, High School students, Abby Lammers, Julia Goldman, and Jacqueline Sotraidis presented a strong case to Parkway's Superintendent, Dr. Keith Marty and his team about the need for Parkway to continue its path towards sustainability. This year Parkway is implementing a compostable food tray and composting program district wide! This program will divert an additional 720 tons of material every year, nearly doubling the 'recycling' program in one year.
Best Use of a Recycled Material
Travina Recycled Glass
Holden, MO
Master Marble Inc. has been a supplier of counter tops made from cultured marble dust for over twenty-five years. Most of that product went into kitchens and bathrooms into the residential new construction market. About five years ago the company began experimenting with using recycled materials. The first successful experiment used oyster shells, a waste product from New Orleans, that were crushed into a consistent aggregate size. Resins were added as binders to create five different “natural” colorations that are still popular with retailers, remodelers and designers. Three years ago the company began using glass recovered in the Kansas City area to create a product that can be produced in any color, including a stained glass effect. They now produce fifteen standard colors for architectural and designer specifications in commercial and residential usage. In recent years they have been marketing to colleges and universities products that are dyed to the school colors! On display at our conference this year is a wonderful table made in MU colors of black and gold. The recycled content of the product ranges from 85% to 90%, and the resin is primarily from a corn base bio-resin. Their process generates no waste when it’s poured into a mold created from the measurements from the job site.
President’s Award
Mark Haist
Champlin Tire Recycling, Inc.
Mark has been with Champlain Tire for 12 years. Every year, Mark works the State Fair Booth and every year he donates a recycled picnic table or bench to MORA to assist with fundraising efforts. Mark’s work takes him all across Missouri and he engages with all the Solid Waste Management Districts. MORA appreciates his commitment to the organization and his commitment to marketing products containing recovered materials. Thank you Mark!
Diamond Conference Sponsor
Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management District
Columbia, MO