Tag: financial incentives

Cities Offer Prizes to Top Recyclers

Some communities are trying contests and other financial incentives to get people to properly sort their recyclable garbage. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

Some communities are trying contests and other financial incentives to
get people to properly sort their recyclable garbage. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:


Local governments can make money selling the paper, aluminum and
some other items people set aside for recycling, but improper sorting can
clog the waste stream and add to costs. So, some communities are
randomly handing out cash or other rewards to citizens who do recycling
right.


Kate Krebs is with the National Recycling Coalition. She favors
incentive programs that get people to be less complacent about sorting
their trash.


“It isn’t top of mind anymore…it isn’t as easy as consumers want it to be
or they just have such busy lives that they haven’t really imbedded the habit
in their lifestyle.”


Krebs says the best incentive programs choose their winners fairly and
then spread the word to other people – creating some peer pressure. She
says recycling incentives are similar to other businesses where people do
things like offer coupons to keep people interested in a product or a
service.


For the GLRC, I’m Chuck Quirmbach.

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New Uranium Enrichment Plant to Be Built?

  • The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is reviewing a plan for building a uranium enrichment plant in Ohio. Supporters of the plant welcome the jobs, but many others are worried about radioactive waste. (Photo courtesy of the NRC)

Nuclear power plants need enriched uranium to produce power. Today, there’s only one uranium enrichment facility operating in the U.S. Now, there’s a proposal to build a new one in southern Ohio. And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight reports, there’s debate over how safe the proposed plant will be:

Transcript

Nuclear power plants need enriched uranium to produce power.
Today, there’s only one uranium enrichment facility operating in the
U.S. Now, there’s a proposal to build a new one in southern Ohio.
And as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Fred Kight reports, there’s
debate over how safe the proposed plant will be:


The one-point-five billion dollar project is planned by USEC, Incorporated, the world’s largest producer of enriched uranium. Company officials say it would generate 500 jobs and be built at the site of an old, off-line uranium enrichment plant. Charles Wiltshire is still employed there and he’s all for building the new facility.


“I would like to see future job opportunities for my children and grandchildren who will be finishing college about the time the centrifuge plant is due to go online.”


But environmentalists and concerned citizens are worried about the radioactive waste. They’re also fearful of water pollution and health hazards for plant workers. The State of Ohio has promised more than 100 million dollars in financial incentives and is confident that the new plant will not put anyone in danger. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing the company’s application and is supposed to make a decision by early 2007.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Fred Kight.

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