New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg took time out on Wednesday from considering a presidential run to sign a bill that requires large stores to offer plastic bag recycling programs. According to Reuters, the law “requires all stores that occupy at least 5,000 square feet to implement bag recycling programs as well as make recycled bags available.”

Be sure and check out the Tip Off section in the February issue of Waste Age for Associate Editor Chris Carlson’s story on this new law.

Generally, the goal is to spend as little time in the back of a garbage truck as possible. So it takes a considerable leap in logic to imagine living in one. Nevertheless, courtesy of German custom offroad vehicle manufacturer TerraCross, we have what is, for all intents and purposes, a garbage truck modded into a quite striking recreational vehicle called the “Home on Wheels.”

The interior is tastefully appointed, bringing to mind a rather unlikely IKEA installation. But if the Danish modern design motif doesn’t work for you, you could always just fire up the compactor and start over.

Drivers in 10 cities are hearing a sober-minded message while listening to their favorite wild and wacky morning drive-time radio programs. Earlier this week, the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) began airing radio ads urging motorists to exercise extra caution when maneuvering around garbage trucks. The 30-second ads - which are airing in Allentown, Pa.; Austin, Texas; Birmingham, Ala.; Dayton, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Greenville, S.C.; Louisville, Ky.; Raleigh, N.C.; Richmond, Va; and Washington, D.C. - are part of NSWMA’s “Slow Down to Get Around” safety awareness program.

The ads began airing in the above-mentioned markets on Jan. 14 and will continue for three weeks. “A substantial number of struck-by accidents in which a motorist runs into a garbage collector take place during the morning commute hours, when motorists are often rushing to work or bringing children to school,” said David Biderman, general counsel for NSWMA, in the press release announcing the radio campaign.

Keeping workers safe is an issue of growing emphasis in the solid waste industry. In the January issue of Waste Age, we examine the various ways in which haulers are working to reduce the risks faced by their employees. We would love to hear your suggested topics for future safety stories.

To hear the “Slow Down to Get Around” ad, visit www.nswma.org.

Barbie Nadeau of Newsweek.com has posted a top-notch account of the garbage strike that is consuming Naples, Italy. Get a load of this passage:

“As the sound rings out from hundreds of Naples’s churches it energizes the rodents scurrying frantically through the six-foot-high piles of rotting garbage festering in the streets because of a garbage strike now entering its fourth week. Stray dogs sometimes join in the feast, picking through the trash and drinking from puddles speckled with cockroach shells. If these Neapolitan trash troubles sound familiar, it’s no wonder. The Italian region of Campania has been experiencing a garbage crisis for almost 14 years, during which time little has changed beyond the contents of the overflowing bins.”

Yikes.

The article goes on to say that the European Commission is threatening Italy with sanctions and/or fines.

Can enough good things be said about “Dirty Jobs?” In a recent episode, host Mike Rowe visited a Norcal Waste Systems transfer station in San Francisco. The show included all the de rigueur gross-out moments: scooping out the leavings in the back of a garbage truck that had just deposited its load, extracting waste from the tracks of a pit bulldozer and, most alarmingly, slogging through a water and waste-filled holding area beneath the area where transfer trailers are loaded. These are tasks that barely give pause to most of our readers. My wife nearly had to leave the room.

But what struck me most was the pride in and devotion to the job displayed by every one of the workers. Moreover, each seemed to have held his or her respective position for a very long time. Rowe asked just about every worker he met how long they’d been doing what they were doing, and the answer came back 10, 20, even 30 years. Amazing.

to out-of-state landfills we go.

David Caruso of the The Associated Press has penned an overview of the issues surrounding the out-of-state disposal of municipal solid waste.

Michael Keller, a member of Fox Township, Pa.’s, Board of Supervisors, tells Caruso that while he has some concerns about what effects accepting more than 1,300 tons of garbage a day from New York City will have on the township’s landfill, the township has benefited substantially. “We’re rich,” he says in the article. “We have less than 4,000 people living here, and we have millions of dollars in the bank.”

Welcome to a new year and a new venue for waste industry news and discussion. This is The Heap, a new blog by the editors of Waste Age covering topics of interest to solid waste and recycling professionals. We hope it will serve as a more immediate and more informal complement to the in-depth analysis provided by Waste Age magazine. But what The Heap ultimately becomes will largely depend on you, the reader, as you let us know what works and what doesn’t. We encourage you to take advantage of this new technology by commenting on our posts and making this a two-way discussion.

We hope 2008 will prove a prosperous year for your family and your business. Please check in from time to time and watch as The Heap continues to grow!