It is an experience valuable to anyone who has ever bought, consumed, stored or thrown away anything.  About 300 tons of stuff a day gets buried for much longer than the time period from raw material extraction and refinement to product usage and disposal.  Actually, it’s buried forever after being compacted by a massive vehicle with spikes on its wheels.
The Millersville Landfill & Resource Recovery Facility opened 35 years ago and has about 10 years left before reaching capacity, but recycling may extend that.  I’ve always thought the costs are high for the amount of energy and water consumed during various recycling processes, but I also expect that curbside collection costs will be much higher when we have to start shipping that stuff somewhere (hmm, a few countries come to mind).  If you can’t bring yourself to take the kids on a field trip to Millersville, here’s the county’s video with landfill machinery at work and a perspective on recycling.

Most important this week is the news that next week Arundel Business News will take a break so the editor can find his inner peace at one of the Chesapeake Bay’s great destinations, Herrington Harbour.

GREENBELT – Hotelier Chesapeake Hospitality named John Eliot of Holiday Inn Laurel East as the New Comer of the Year/New General Manager Award. It is bestowed to the hotel with the highest combination score of guest satisfaction, sales and marketing, brand citizenship and financial performance within the first 18 months of a new general manager’s start date.

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MILLERSVILLE – Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation (AAWDC) named Thomas Francovitch as project manager of its Pathways to CyberSecurity Job Training program. Francovitch, formerly with Anne Arundel Economic Development Corporation, will be responsible for the program development and daily operation of AAWDC’s cybersecurity grant project.

BOWIE – Noodles & Company, the restaurant that serves made-to-order noodles, salads and sandwiches from around the world, has opened its doors at the Bowie Town Center at 3916 Town Center Blvd.

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BALTIMORE – Among the authors scheduled to appear next month are Dr. Douglas A. Strouse whose book The Secrets of Resilient Leadership: When Failure is Not an Option will be available.  The event is scheduled for September 15 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m at Borders, located in the airport’s Terminal A/B.  The book outlines practical yet essential skills that every leader needs in difficult times.

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LAUREL – Verizon Wireless has upped its investment in its 3G network with a new cell site Kent County’s Still Pond.  This will increase data and voice capacity and brings to $274 million the amount spent on regional network improvements.

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COLUMBIA – EventTracker from Prism Microsystems, has earned the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) validation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  EventTracker automates configuration assessments to help government agencies meet compliance objectives.

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ANNAPOLIS – Networking Technology’s electronic health record modular technology, RxNT eHr v.7, earned additional certification in CCHIT’s Preliminary ARRA IFR Stage 1 program.  It now meets 19 of 24 requirements for certified EHR technology for Eligible Providers published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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COLUMBIA – Renewable fuels provider New Generation Biofuels Holdings has entered into an agreement for a registered direct offering of 5,000,000 shares of previously unissued common stock at a price of $0.20 per share with total gross proceeds of $1.0 million.  This was included in an announcement about Q2 earnings, which amounted to a $3 million loss.

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ELKRIDGE – Global performance improvement solutions provider General Physics Corporation has secured work under prime Northrop Grumman for homeland security preparedness training.  Under a task order with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Exercise Division, the project will provide support in 28 states in FEMA regions VI to X.

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ANNAPOLIS – Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake will kick off a Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project on Oct. 5th with construction of ten new homes for current residents of public housing.  It is part of the group’s effort to build sustainable and green communities through neighborhood revitalization, and it has already built or renovated 13 homes on Clay Street.  The former Prez is expected to be on hand in a grand return to our land of the Yankee Imperialist Dog after negotiating the release of yet another hostage from North Korea.

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