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The City of Calgary introduced its blue box, curbside recycling program this year, and there was rejoicing. Calgary, the last major Canadian city to offer it, had, until recently, asked citizens to deliver their own recyclables to green bins located every few blocks, or to hire, at $10 a month, a private pickup service. To those concerned about environmental appearances, it was embarrassing. "It means something to me that we're the last large city in Canada to implement curbside recycling," said Druh Farrell, the alderman championing the program. Approving the $50-million plan (plus another roughly $50-million a year recycling tax...

There are three things everybody knows when we talk trash: 1.We know we're running out of landfill space; 2.we know we're saving resources and protecting the environment by recycling; and 3.we know no one would recycle if they weren't forced to. Let's look at these three things we think we know. Are they real or are they rubbish? 1. Are We Running Out of Landfill Space? Two events created the perfect garbage storm in the late 1980s. One barge and one bureaucrat created this overhyped myth. The garbage barge was the Mobro 4000. The bureaucrat was J. Winston Porter. The...

Reporting from Sacramento - Recycling centers across California are closing, and scores of troubled youths are being tossed from "green" jobs onto unemployment rolls in the wake of Sacramento's raid on bottle deposit funds. California's recycling treasury, filled by consumers' nickel and dime deposits on drink containers, had hummed along successfully for two decades until state officials left it nearly bankrupt after taking $451 million out to help balance the budget. The unredeemed deposits that subsidized recycling facilities and such projects as a local conservation corps are virtually gone, leaving the programs in the lurch.

For years California has courted a reputation as an eco-friendly, green-minded leader, but the state now finds its most basic program of recycling beverage bottles and cans mired in debt and litigation. Dozens of supermarket recycling sites have shut down recently as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators spar over how to close a massive gap in the program's budget. California's 23-year-old recycling program, managed by the Department of Conservation through fees charged to beverage buyers, has been hurt this year by recession, rising redemption rates and raids of its coffers to help ease the state's budget woes. Schwarzenegger and...

Near Mark Oldfield's desk at the California Department of Conservation sits a ream of copy paper that is more than a routine office commodity. Made in part from recycled fiber, it is a symbol of the state's green spirit, one ream among thousands backing the department's claim that it is a champion of the environment – and complies with state law requiring it to buy recycled paper. There is a dark side to those sheets of bright, white paper: the part that isn't recycled comes from trees logged in the biologically rich but endangered forests of Indonesia. Oldfield, a public...

ROTTERDAM, the Netherlands — When two inspectors swung open the doors of a battered red shipping container here, they confronted a graveyard of Europe’s electronic waste — old wires, electricity meters, circuit boards — mixed with remnants of cardboard and plastic. “This is supposed to be going to China, but it isn’t going anywhere,” said Arno Vink, an inspector from the Dutch environment ministry who impounded the container because of Europe’s strict new laws that place restrictions on all types of waste exports, from dirty pipes to broken computers to household trash. Exporting waste illegally to poor countries has become...

What if we could turn all the plastic waste we create on a daily basis into fuel to power our cars? A Washington, DC-based company called Envion claims it can do just that with a process that turns plastic into an oil-like fuel for just $10 per barrel. According to Envion, the resulting fuel can be blended with other components and used as either gasoline or diesel.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 6, 2009 – The Army teaches soldiers to leave a place better than they found it. One soldier has applied this adage to the Multinational Division Baghdad area of operations by thinking “green.” Army Sgt. Tanisha Manning, with 1st Cavalry Division’s Company B, Division Special Troops Battalion, has started a recycling initiative at Camp Liberty, Iraq. "It's about saving money [and] helping the environment, and it's part of a responsible drawdown, because we want to leave this place better than we found it," the New York native said. "I started this about two months ago, and it's just...

The wildly popular "Cash for Clunkers" program is one of a number of policies funded by this year's stimulus package that encourage consumers to make major purchases in the name of the environment. The program offers incentives for car owners to trade in automobiles getting fewer than 18 miles per gallon for more fuel-efficient vehicles. State-run rebate programs for Energy Star appliances operate similarly, encouraging consumers to replace their washers, dryers and refrigerators with new models that meet efficiency standards set by government agencies. These programs presumably benefit the economy and the environment simultaneously: Increased consumer spending helps manufacturers and...

My father owned and operated a junkyard in Tucson for a number of years, and I learned a lot about the auto recycling industry helping around the office and as a delivery driver. So as a junkyard enthusiast, the “Cash For Clunkers” program naturally caught my interest lately. Though it looks to be the product of good intentions, I don’t think the legislation understands that junkyards already comprise an efficient, well developed recycling system for salvaging vehicles, with a beneficial result for the environment overall. I’m skeptical that ...

To recycle, or not to recycle? That may no longer be a matter of debate in San Francisco, where a new mandatory recycling and composting law is poised for approval. The ordinance, which will be considered by the city’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, would require residential and commercial building owners to sign up for recycling and composting services. Fines of up to $500 would await those who refuse. There would also be penalties for those who put recyclable or compostable material in landfill-bound bins. By its own estimation, San Francisco already has the highest recycling rate in the nation...

Wisconsin town gets $46,000 for recycling bins MADISON — Hundreds of state employees may get laid off, local governments are bracing for deep funding cuts, and cell phone users may pay a new fee to help plug Wisconsin’s $6.6 billion budget hole. But $46,000 worth of new recycling bins may soon be on their way to the environmentally conscious townsfolk in Wrightstown, Wis.

Recycling poachers are forsaking cardboard in favor of bottles and cans — sending noise and litter complaints through the roof. The economy is to blame for the shift, said Sunset Scavenger spokesman Robert Reed. Poachers who were used to netting $100 per ton for cardboard found the value had dropped to $30 per ton in October. Meanwhile, the value of bottles — a nickel or a dime apiece — remained steady. “The professional poachers taking cardboard outside of restaurants and retail stores stopped doing that and they targeted the bottles and cans more intensely,” Reed said. “They shifted their focus...

HOUSTON, March 22 (Reuters) - NASA called off tests of the International Space Station's urine recycler on Sunday after problems developed and revamped plans for Monday's spacewalk to fix an improperly installed cargo platform attachment. Monday's spacewalk is the last of three planned during shuttle Discovery's mission at the space station, which is nearly completed after more than a decade of construction. The primary goal of Discovery's flight was to deliver and install the station's last set of solar panel wings, which was accomplished on Thursday. The shuttle blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center on March 15 for a...

LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Lakewood residents could be charged up to $400 if they don't recycle. A new law makes recycling mandatory starting July 1 for people who get municipal trash collection, NewsChannel5 reported. If people do not separate recyclable materials, the city can charge a fee. For the first violation, it's a minimum of $50, $100 for the second offense and up to $400. The new law authorizes the city to either charge residents a fee for city employees to separate recyclable materials or to stop trash collection to a home altogether. An educational handbook will be sent out to...

China’s Big Recycling Market Is Sagging By DAN LEVIN BEIJING — Each morning Tian Wengui emerges from the home he makes under a bridge here, two large sacks slung over his shoulder. Through the day, and well into the night, he scours garbage cans for soda bottles, soy sauce containers and cooking oil jugs. Selling the refuse to one of Beijing’s ubiquitous recycling depots, Mr. Tian can earn $3 on a good day. But good days are getting harder to come by. Since Mr. Tian migrated from Sichuan province, the multibillion-dollar recycling industry has gone into a nosedive because of...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq, Feb. 19, 2009 – Soldiers eating at the coalition dining facility here stop to deposit plastic bottles into one bin, aluminum cans into another and trash into a third before leaving. Sonia Parker, recycling programs coordinator, discusses printer cartridge recycling with workers at the recycling center on Camp Liberty, Iraq, Feb. 13, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Frank Vaughn  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. This quick, three-step process has enabled servicemembers to do their part in improving the local environment. Many Iraqis have found employment opportunities, in part, due to this effort to clean...

Falling demand for recycled materials has caused a sudden collapse in scrap prices.___ The global economic crisis has claimed an unlikely victim: the curbside recycling program of the tiny city of Fountain Inn, S.C. What was once a sustainable service for the small town of 6,000 has become a major economic liability almost overnight for reasons few saw coming. Since October, the global market for scrap paper and scrap metals has fallen faster than any time in recent history. "We were being paid to recycle, and now we're being charged," says Lori Cooper of the city's Public Works Department. Recyclables...

For every 15,000 tons of old newspaper recycled annually, 30 jobs are created to collect the paper, 40 jobs are created to process the paper, and 75 jobs are required to manufacture the newsprint. Waste diversion of any type, including recycling, tends to create twice the economic activity per ton of conventional waste disposal. The Recycling and Reuse Industry employs over 1 million people at 56,000 establishments generating an annual payroll of approximately $37 billion. In a recent study, the U.S. produced over $200 billion in total wages and sales, which was comparable to both the Machinery Manufacturing and Mining...

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of unwanted recycling is being stockpiled as contractors struggle to sell off used cans, newspapers and cardboard collected from households. Experts estimate that up to 15 per cent of all recycling is now being stored in warehouses and ports, waiting for a buyer. Some of the waste could be stuck there for a year. One in four councils has asked for more storage capacity to cope with the problem, which is likely to have worsened because of the volume of recycling generated over Christmas. Councils have been forced to recycle more by facing higher penalties...

Recycling ordinance is move in right direction In the past, the traditional "Three Rs" were reading, writing and arithmetic -- and obviously not spelling. But outside the classroom today, people are adopting another R trinity: reduce, reuse and recycle. The importance of this new mantra is becoming increasingly clear. (The school budget is over by $2.1 Million and the kids still can't pas the state FCAT exams) The Key West City Commission (Led by Mendacious McPherson RINO), at its Jan. 6 meeting, will be considering a proposed recycling ordinance. The main focus of this ordinance is to increase the percentage...

The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices. ---snip--- The downturn offers some insight into the forces behind the recycling boom of recent years. Environmentally conscious consumers have been able to pat themselves on the back and feel good about sorting their recycling and putting it on the curb. But most recycling programs have been driven as much by raw...

The economic downturn has decimated the market for recycled materials like cardboard, plastic, newspaper and metals. Across the country, this junk is accumulating by the ton in the yards and warehouses of recycling contractors, which are unable to find buyers or are unwilling to sell at rock-bottom prices. Ordinarily the material would be turned into products like car parts, book covers and boxes for electronics. But with the slump in the scrap market, a trickle is starting to head for landfills instead of a second life. “It’s awful,” said Briana Sternberg, education and outreach coordinator for Sedona Recycles, a nonprofit...

Doesn't it look like Obama is trying to steal all of Clinton's "soldiers"? It looks like he is going far beyond just reusing the old Cinton people for their experience. He is relying so much on the Clinton administration people that it really looks like he is doing it for political reasons. It looks like he is trying to eviscerate the Clinton machine. This way their loyalty will be to Obamana, not Hilary. This will also make it much more difficult for her to run against him in four years since most of the Clinton's old loyalists will be on...

AS THEY PUT ON PLASTIC GLOVES FOR THEIR first litter hunt, the third graders knew what to expect. They knew their garbage. It was part of their science curriculum at Bridges Elementary, a public school on West 17th Street in Manhattan. They had learned the Three R's -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle -- and discussed how to stop their parents from using paper plates. For Earth Day they had read a Scholastic science publication, "Inside the World of Trash." For homework, they had kept garbage diaries and drawn color-coded charts of their families' trash. So they were primed for the field...

THE STORY FROM ABC IN DENVER As many of you have heard, there is a flag controversy between the Republicans and the DemocRATS. The RNC is claiming that it save about 12,000 Americans flags leftover from Invesco Field in Denver. The claim is that they were headed for the dumpster. The DemocRATS are claiming that the flags were "stolen" and never intended for the dumpster. They claim that they were in storage and were either to be used again or donated. If 12,000 flags were stolen, I would think that a police report would have been filed. In a...

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin. Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story. “What you see in the picture I sent you is less than half of total flags,” a Republican official emailed. “We estimate...

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin. Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story. “What you see in the picture I sent you is less than half of total flags,” a Republican official emailed. “We estimate...

Walt Neidlinger spent years trying to keep a Wal-Mart-anchored shopping complex from being built near his Wind Gap home. The traffic would have been suffocating for their little community, neighbors argued, so when the massive retailer and its partners packed up their plans and left Plainfield Township last year, Neidlinger was ecstatic. He figured he'd wait for the next plan to come along and remembers thinking, ''What could be worse than Wal-Mart?'' Over the past year, Neidlinger says, he's gotten an answer: RPM Recycling -- the metal-shredding plant on the same land -- causes daily noise that sounds like a...

Dutch Club to Recycle Dancers' Energy By Rachel Nolan Wind power is great. But what about all that energy you expend on the dance floor on Saturday night? A next-generation nightclub wants to use that energy to keep the strobes lit and the bass bumping. REUTERS Clubs use 150 times the power of normal households. New nightclubs in Rotterdam and London are harnessing human power to light "eco-clubs." First it was your mom nagging you to turn off the lights. Then came the brick in the toilet to save water, the long-life light bulbs and carbon credits to ease your...

Earlier this month, while visiting a friend in San Francisco, I almost spilled my latte in my lap when I read this on the front page of the Chronicle: "S.F. Mayor Proposes Fines for Unsorted Trash." The story began: "Garbage collectors would inspect San Francisco residents' trash to make sure pizza crusts aren't mixed in with chip bags or wine bottles under a proposal by Mayor Gavin Newsom." Isn't that what homeless people do -- rooting around in other people's garbage? If Bay Area residents are caught failing to separate the plastic bottles from the newspapers, according to the newspaper...

Last week, I confessed to being a bad traveler. This week, I confess to something much worse. I resist and resent the demands made on me by environmental imperatives. I don’t want to save the planet. I just want to inhabit it as comfortably as possible for as long as I have. Things reached something of a crisis point a few days ago when my wife asked me to read a communique from Greenpeace. (She thought, she told me, that if I read it rather than hearing about it from her, my unhappiness would be directed at the organization.) It...

Naseb Saad Hasan Altememy, holds up a can of future profits for his company’s recycling center site at a refuse collection site at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. The recycling center, which will provide jobs to local Iraqis, will assist current efforts to sort through daily garbage collection on post for recyclables. Photo by Sgt. Robert G. Cooper III. BALAD — A war can be messy, literally. From the daily trash collections conducted by roving garbage trucks to amassing scrap metals born from the aftermath of battle, waste management is a serious business for Coalition forces in Iraq.And that business is...

Some big retailers are promoting compact fluorescent light bulbs as a way to save energy. But improper disposal of the bulbs creates a hazard, because they contain small amounts of mercury. Recycling them is about to get easier. Home Depot, the nation’s second-largest retailer, will announce on Tuesday that it will take back old compact fluorescents in all 1,973 of its stores in the United States, creating the nation’s most widespread recycling program for the bulbs. “We kept hearing from the community that there was a little bit of concern about mercury in the C.F.L.’s,” said Ron Jarvis, Home Depot’s...

GOTEBORG, Sweden: Taking a road trip? Remember to visit the toilet first. This city is among dozens of municipalities in Sweden with facilities that transform sewage waste into enough biogas to run thousands of cars and buses. Cars using biogas created a stir when they began to be rolled out on a large scale at the start of the decade. The tailpipe emissions are virtually odorless, the fuel is cheaper than gasoline and diesel, and the idea of recovering energy from toilet waste appealed to green-minded Swedes. "When you're in the bathroom in the morning and you can see something...

A Sacramento city councilwoman visited a Japanese energy plant last week to watch plasma torches vaporize garbage at temperatures hotter than the sun's surface. She returned more confident that the technology could help her hometown solve its garbage dilemma. "It's clearer than the Campbell's Soup plant," said Lauren Hammond, comparing the puff of white steam coming out of the Ushanti plasma gasification plant with that of the landmark factory on Franklin Boulevard. The Sacramento City Council will vote Tuesday on whether to continue negotiating with a Sacramento firm that wants to make California's capital the first American city to use...

SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates. Skip to next paragraph The San Francisco Recycling Center processes about 750 tons of recyclables a day, and Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to add to that total. Workers sort plastics at the San Francisco Recycling Center. The city, with 7,800 tons of waste a day,...

Does anyone have a link, example or opinion about the "eco costs" associated with eating off of paper plates versus porcelain ones in the work place? Pretty fine-tuned debate, I know, but a co-worker was making a big point today of not eating lunch at work off the provided paper plates. I mentioned that it might actually be less "damaging" to the environment not to have everyone standing in line at the sink with the hot water running washing their plates after lunch. She was not buying it, but hell, I don't know if I was either. Your thoughts?

There is revolution going on in waste management, which Big Brother would be proud of. Tucked away under the rim of wheelie bins found in two Sydney councils are small radio frequency tracking devices collecting information on a household's waste habits. Randwick Mayor Bruce Notley-Smith told The World Today they are the way of the future. "We will be able to find out the weights of the various bins and collect the data, the entire amount, as opposed to the quantity that is recyclable," he said. The garbage truck reads the data on the bin, weighs the bin, and the...

An ambitious electronics recycling drive is scheduled for two days this month in the Twin Cities, with dropoff sites that should be very familiar to Minnesotans. At no charge, people can bring their unwanted electronics to the following locations on April 11 and 12 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.: • Canterbury Park, 1100 Canterbury Rd. S., Shakopee • State Fairgrounds, 1265 N. Snelling Av., Falcon Heights • National Sports Center, 1700 105th Av. NE., Blaine • Grace Church, 9301 Eden Prairie Rd., Eden Prairie • Ecolab Schuman campus (April 12 only) Eagan Building F, 655 Lone Oak Dr., Eagan...

The consultancy conducted an online survey amongst 1,000 consumers aged 16 years and over. Eighty-four percent of respondents said they now look at recycling details. For 84 per cent this is just as important as fat content. For 80 per cent it is more important than salt info, for 79 per cent more important than sugar info, and for 70 per cent more important than calorie content. The findings are pertinent at the present time as the nutrient content of food is a hot topic across Europe, since the European Commission published its proposal for new labelling legislation at the...

The Best Global Warming Videos on the Internet Some people have asked me for copies of, or links to videos that provide an alternative view to Gore’s “consensus” on anthropogenic (i.e., man caused) global warming (AGW). A few of these videos have been broadcast in the United States (e.g., Glenn Beck, John Stossel), but most have not and probably will not be seen. Fortunately, we have the Internet to make these available. Part I: Documentaries is available herePart II: Lectures is available herePart III: Debates is available here Part IV: Short Videos is available here Part V: Humor Penn &...

As a Swede I get to hear a lot of the myths of how wonderful a country Sweden supposedly is — the "prosperous socialism" it stands for, a role model for the rest of the world. For instance, quite a few friends from around the world have commended me on Swedish recycling polices and the Swedish government's take on coercive environmentalism. The way it has been presented to me, Sweden has succeeded with what most other governments at best dream about: creating an efficient and profitable national system for saving the environment through large-scale recycling. And the people are all...

Greening Title IX? by: Malcolm A. Kline, January 30, 2008 In their ongoing quest to see who can be most politically correct, Ohio university administrators have devised an intercollegiate competition that can literally qualify as a trash sport. “The eighth annual RecycleMania competition kicks off Jan. 28 through April 5, with an anticipated record number of colleges and universities participating this year,” the Ohio University press office informs us. “RecycleMania is the brainchild of Ohio University Recycling Manager Ed Newman and Stacy Edmonds Wheeler of Miami University in Cincinnati, who started a friendly recycling competition between their respective schools in...

Bamboo undergarments: How climate change is beginning to alter our apparel. TagsClimate Change, Environment, Fashion, Green It’s hard to imagine a shiny Mary Jane slipper or a faded cotton hoodie having grave impact on the planet. But experts insist that what we wear — from the way it’s made to the way it’s cleaned — can be a factor in global warming. “People think of fashion as the stuff you buy and wear,” said Jo Paoletti, a University of Maryland professor who studies clothing trends. “But it’s an entire process from the raw material to the making of fibers into...

t's Green Thursday today at the Mall of America, kicking off a three-day free electronics recycling event billed as the largest ever undertaken in the United States. Trucks will be on hand to accept everything from toasters and TVs to cell phones and computer monitors. The organizers say 100 percent of the items will be recycled. The Environmental Protection Agency says electronics recycling is critical because of hazardous materials in many components such as televisions and monitors. The agency estimates there are as many as 250 million aging computers that could enter the U.S. waste stream during the next five...

Airfield Recycling Project Creates Jobs for Afghans An Afghan company trying to create jobs and clean up the environment is working on a new recycling project at Bagram Airfield. By Combined Joint Task Force-82 Combined Press Information Center BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Sept. 26, 2007 — Recycling may not be the first thing that comes to mind when considering Afghanistan, but one company here sees recycling as a way to create jobs and help an environment ravaged by 30 years of war. The company, Kuhan Dazh, and the U.S. military marked the first day of a new business relationship, Sept....

As the price of copper and other metals rises, increasingly bold thieves in Washtenaw County are stripping the plumbing out of new houses, cutting catalytic converters off cars and going so far as stealing the ground wires from emergency radio towers. Yet the latest target of metal-seeking crooks has people shaking their heads in disbelief. "There's this fundamental belief that you'll be treated right after you're gone and that cemeteries won't be victimized,'' Washtenaw County Sheriff's Cmdr. Dave Egeler said after nearly 70 copper vases were swiped from grave sites at the Washtenong Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Ann Arbor...

Recycling worsens global warming Chris Mellor June 4, 2007 Fancy some contrary thinking? Try this; if you want to save the planet from global warming, don't recycle. There is lots of muddled thinking around global warming. The UK government is proposing to have all goods marked with a carbon index to indicate their friendliness or antipathy to global warming. The index would measure the amount of carbon emitted during the goods' manufacture and whether it can be recycled or not. Recycled? What has that got to do with global warming? My instinctive reaction was: none. Why on earth should sticking...

Ministers want a slop bucket for food waste to be placed in every kitchen under their latest plan to generate green electricity. Instead of throwing out scraps, households would be required to store them separately for at least a week until they are collected by recycling teams. The rules will oblige some homes to sort rubbish into five containers – or potentially risk fines. Some councils already insist on separating glass, metal, paper and nonrecyclable refuse. David Miliband, the environment secretary, is expected to unveil the scheme this week as part of the government’s waste strategy. Food accounts for about...