Nestle to start using lightweight bottles

The Nestle Company will sell its bottled water drinks in a new, lightweight plastic bottle in 2010.

Nestle Waters North America Inc. said Dec. 17 it was rolling out an updated version of its Eco-Shape bottle, which the company first introduced in 2007.

The half-liter bottles weigh 9.3 grams on average and contain 60% less plastic than the company’s original half-liter PET bottles that had been in use since the mid-1990s. The new bottle has reduced plastic usage from the previous version by 25%. The company’s national Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Nestle Pure Life brands will be sold in the new bottles. Regional brands Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Ozarka and Zephyrhills brands will be sold in the new bottles for the first time as well.

Since introducing the lightweight bottles, the company said has reduced its use of plastic resin by 80 million pounds annually.

ELECTRONICS

Dell, Goodwill add 445 drop-off sites

Goodwill Industries International and Dell have added 445 drop-off sites to their network for consumers to recycle any brand of unwanted computers or computer accessories at no cost.

The companies have increased their Reconnect program to Goodwill sites in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee. These additional sites bring the number of stores participating in the program to 1,900 nationwide.

Reconnect has diverted more than 96 million pounds of e-waste from landfills, with Goodwill employees disassembling and disposing of the donated computer parts.

“It’s been incredibly successful in its first five years, and it will only become more successful as consumers learn what to do with their computers at the end of their usable lives,” said Mike Watson, senior manager of Dell Global Recycling Services.

Revenue from the recycled parts supports Goodwill’s job training programs, employment placement services and other community-placement programs for people with disabilities or employment challenges.

Companies fined for exporting monitors

The U.S. EPA has fined two companies accused of illegally exporting computer monitor waste to Hong Kong.

Ziliang Zhu, doing business as W and E International Trading, and SM Metals LLC agreed to pay $21,000 for violations related to an April incident.

The companies’ violations include improperly packing, labeling and marking dangerous waste and failing to notify EPA of the intent to export it. Zhu and W and E, and SM Metals exported the waste shipment to Hong Kong without obtaining the destination country’s consent to receive the waste.

The companies assembled a shipment of 500 discarded CRT computer monitors and tried to ship them to Hong Kong; the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department notified the U.S. EPA of the hazardous waste shipment and returned it to the Port of Tacoma in May.

Discarded CRTs are subject to regulation under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The companies agreed to pay a penalty of $21,650 and to dismantle the CRTs at a permitted U.S. facility.

WIND ENERGY

N.Y. firm to build wind project in Wis.

New York-based Central Hudson Enterprises Corp. is building a $50 million, 20-megawatt wind energy project in Glenmore, Wis., the company announced Dec. 15.

The wind facility will be operated by a CHEC subsidiary, CH Shirley Wind LLC, which will hold a 90% stake in the project.

Construction on Shirley Wind will begin in 2010 and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. The eight wind turbines, which will be supplied by Nordex USA, are projected to generate nearly 64 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

CHEC also holds approximately $5 million in minority investments in two other wind farms, one a 24-megawatt project in Bear Creek, Pa., and the second, a 7.5-megawatt facility located in Atlantic City, N.J.

Quick take

Consumer Cellular, a nationwide cell phone provider, and ReCellular, a cell phone recycling and resell company, have raised $34,677 over the past year for the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation at Oregon Health & Science University. Consumer Cellular includes a postage-paid envelope with every mobile phone sold to customers and offers a postage-paid mailing label to non-customers. Phones that can no longer function are recycled and salvaged.

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