Tom Moore enjoys a good bottle of wine.

The Wilmington psychotherapist says he doesn’t mind spending “$50, $60, $75, even $85 a bottle” for a “small production, high-rent” pinot noir from a boutique California vineyard.

The problem, Moore says, is that he can’t get those wines in Delaware — at least not legally. That’s because the wines that interest him most are produced in such small quantities that they’re only sold by the wineries that make them or through limited distribution channels that seldom reach Delaware.

And, most importantly to Moore, state law bans the direct shipment of wines to Delaware residents.

State Rep. Deborah Hudson (R-Fairthorne), is trying to change that. She has introduced H.B. 78, which would permit Delaware residents, at least 21 years of age, to receive direct shipments of up to 12 nine-liter cases of wine per year from licensed wine producers.

Governor Jack Markell (D) reached outside the state of Delaware and into the federal government for his pick to take over Delaware’s Department of Transportation. Gov. Markell has nominated Shailen Bhatt to lead DelDOT. Bhatt is currently working in the U.S Department of Transportation as Associate Administrator at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

“We have significant challenges in transportation and it was important for us to find somebody with strong leadership skills and great energy to take on those challenges,” said Markell.

On Memorial Day weekend, Governor Jack Markell thanks Delawareans past and present who have serve their country in the military, answering the “call to service” even though it often takes them from their families and puts their lives at risk.

A plan drawn up by State House Democrats to redraw new legislative districts drew about 50 people to the only scheduled public hearing on the process, which is done every ten years after the U.S. Census.

Those who spoke at the Legislative Hall meeting were small in number, but vocal with their opinions and varied in their concerns.
Camden resident Mike DeStefano accused the Democratic majority of being politically motivated in some of its decisions, including the relocation of the 11th district in New Castle County which is now represented by House Minority Leader Greg Lavelle.

Some speakers felt it is a process that should not be left to lawmakers, and that Delaware should join the states that appoint an independent commission to handle redistricting.

The Delaware General Assembly heads into the final five weeks of its work this year facing a number of familiar issues with new twists.

State spending, as usual, will be a top priority with a balanced budget for the new fiscal year required by June 30th. Legislation also awaits action that would clear the way for two new casinos in Delaware, one in New Castle County and one in Sussex County.

But the debate over each of those topics has changed substantially since the legislators arrived at Legislative Hall in January.

Anyone planning an industrial-scale composting facility would do well to win the support of people who live in the neighborhood.

That’s why the Wilmington Organic Recycling Center drew up a Community Benefits Agreement to outline how it would generate local jobs, control truck traffic and address any complaints about smells or noise.

WILMINGTON – Garbage in. Compost out.

That’s the mechanism used by the Wilmington Organic Recycling Center, the biggest composting facility on the East Coast, to convert thousands of tons of food, yard and wood waste into rich, dark, valuable compost.

Now in its second year of operation on a 27-acre site across from the Port of Wilmington, the center offers businesses and consumers another way of going green while avoiding the high and growing cost of dumping food and other compostable waste in a landfill.

Supermarkets, hospitals, universities and other big generators of discarded food pay about 30 percent less to dispose of the waste at the center than they would at a landfill, Nelson Widell, co-founder of Peninsula Compost Group LLC, which runs the site, and they do so with the knowledge that the discarded food will emerge as usable compost after just eight weeks.

With universal, single-stream recycling, the customer’s work is simple. Just fill a bin with newspapers, paper bags, magazines, catalogs, phone books, paperbacks, junk mail, cardboard, paperboard (cereal and gift boxes), narrow-neck  plastic bottles, plastic grocery bags, glass bottles and jars, metal cans, empty aerosol cans, paper towel and toilet paper rolls, clean aluminum foil and [...]

There are many variables that affect pricing in the trash and recyclable hauling industry, so much so that “comparing rates between Brandywine Hundred and Laurel is like comparing apples and oranges,” said Michael Parkowski, manager of business services and government relations for the Delaware Solid Waste Authority. Variables include the concentration of customers in a [...]

Amy Pollock of Ardencroft remembers the early days of recycling in her community —the red bins, the blue bins, having to separate the glass from the plastics from the paper.

Single-stream recycling is so much easier, she says. “We no longer have to sort. It’s very easy to deal with,” said Pollock, who serves as the “trash liaison” between the villages of Arden, Ardencroft and Ardentown and the hauler, Waste Management, Inc., that picks up trash, recyclables and yard waste for the three communities.

By Sept. 15, everyone living in single-family homes will have the opportunity to see first-hand whether recycling is as easy as Pollock says it is. That’s the first deadline in Delaware’s law to implement a universal recycling system – when all waste haulers must provide their customers in single family homes curbside single stream recycling pick-up at least every other week.