When Winged Things Collide: In an item posted today by the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press reports that the Airline Pilots Association is reconsidering (well, to be perfectly accurate, "assessing ... based on additional information") its opposition to a proposed garbage plant being built near to La Guardia airport:

"Critics fear the plant, which is being built about 2,000 feet from a runway, could attract birds that might endanger airplanes. New York City says the tower, waste containers and trucks would remain tightly sealed after the facility opens in 2013. ...

"The project still faces strong opposition from Queens congressmen Gary Ackerman and Joseph Crowley, and ´Miracle on the Hudson´ pilot Chesley ´Sully´ Sullenberger. The now-retired US Airways captain safely ditched his plane in the river after bird strikes in 2009."

Tooth & Nail: Waste Management Inc. is vying with longtime contract holder Recology (formerly Norcal Waste Systems) for the city of San Francisco´s $112 million trash contract, and the competition is starting to get spirited. Read all about it in this story posted yesterday by the San Francisco Chronicle.

That´s A Lotta Roof: An article posted today by the Sustainable Facility website details a mega-reroofing project at General Motors´ customer care and aftersales building in Lansing, Mich., which the publication says is North America´s largest roofing recycling project ever:

"This extensive project involved the reroofing of 475,000 square feet of roof, nearly 1,000,000 square feet of recycled vinyl roofing membrane, and was conducted in two phases over a two-year period. The old vinyl membrane removed in Lansing during phase one was reprocessed and later used in the manufacture of new vinyl membrane. Some of the new vinyl membrane installed at the GM facility during phase two contained recycled vinyl recovered from phase one."

That´s A Lotta Wondering: We´ll close today with a recent bit of topical topical levity from The Onion: " ´How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?´ 30 Million People Wonder."

Hang tight and stay warm, Inboxers. I hear there´s heat wave coming tomorrow.

Pete Fehrenbach is managing editor of Waste & Recycling News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.