NewsRack: irge304/Urban-Waste/Waste-Management/Landfills

Take it from a composting veteran, it is easier than you think | Sadhbh Walshe - Guardian: Environment

Sadhbh Walshe — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

New York is the latest to join the composting trend that doesn't take much time and has great benefits for the environment New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced plans to introduce composting into the city's garbage mix with the goal of making it mandatory in a couple of years. The scheme has barely gotten off the ground and already some New Yorkers are fretting about the prospect of a future where they will be required to throw a banana peel in one bin and the non biodegradable sticker that was once attached to it in another. Terrifying as such a prospect may be to composting virgins, however, one can only hope that such resistance will be overcome, as the benefits of diverting food waste from landfills far outweigh any (perceived) inconvenience. Every year Americans throw out around 40% of the food they buy (pdf) and nearly all of that food waste (96%) ends up in landfills or incinerators . According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more food reaches landfills than ...

- Boston Globe: Massachusetts

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

6 million tons of Moab tailings removed, 10 million to go - Salt Lake Tribune

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

by Judy Fahys The Salt Lake Tribune Published Jun 19, 2013 09:16AM MDT About 6 million tons of uranium-processing waste has been removed from the banks of the Colorado River near Moab so far. The U.S. Energy Department reported Tuesday that another 10 million tons remains to be loaded onto railcars and buried in a specialized landfill 30 miles north at Crescent Junction. “The federal budget continues to be stretched thin,” said Federal Project Director Don Metzler, “and I am proud this project has used its limited funding wisely and is almost 38 percent complete.” ... ...

L.A. approves ban on plastic grocery bags - LA Times: Science

By David Zahniser, Catherine Saillant and Matt Stevens, Los Angeles Times — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The City Council votes 11 to 1 for the ordinance, which would go into effect in 2014. Shoppers can bring reusable bags or pay stores 10 cents per paper bag.

Attention Los Angeles shoppers: The plastic bag is disappearing from more than just the supermarket.

Taking Note: Let Us Start Composting Vegetables - NY Times: Editorials

By ELEANOR RANDOLPH — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Taking Note: Let Us Start Composting Vegetables

Alamogordo Journal: Hunting for an E.T. Castoff in a Most Terrestrial Place - NY Times: Business

By FERNANDA SANTOS — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Alamogordo Journal: Hunting for an E.T. Castoff in a Most Terrestrial Place

NYC aims to require composting food scraps - Seattle Times: Nation & World

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Legions of New York City apartment dwellers will soon be asked - and may eventually be forced - to start collecting food scraps for composting.

Bloomberg set to roll out New York composting plan for food waste - The Guardian -- World Latest

Suzanne Goldenberg — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Mayor set to cross 'final recycling frontier' with city-wide plan to handle up to 100,000 tons of food waste a year The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is preparing to roll out a new composting plan for the city, aimed at diverting some of the 100,000 tons of food scraps that ends up in landfill every year. Bloomberg, who is due to leave office early next year, has called food waste the "final recycling frontier". Now it appears New York is moving towards that line, testing pilot projects in some neighbourhoods in preparation for a city-wide composting plan. The city has hired a composting plant to handle up to 100,000 tons of food scraps a year – or about 10% of the city's total food waste, according to the New York Times, , which first reported the story. Last April, about 100 city restaurants joined a voluntary composting plan, the food waste challenge. By next year, 150,000 households will be on board along with 100 high-rise buildings and 600 schools. The entire city could be ...

Bloomberg’s ‘Final Recycling Frontier’: Food Waste - NYT: Home Page

By MIREYA NAVARRO — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Bloomberg’s ‘Final Recycling Frontier’: Food Waste

Sellafield fined £700,000 for sending radioactive waste to landfill - The Guardian -- Front Page

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Court also orders nuclear company to pay £72,000 costs for mistake which sent low-level waste to wrong site The nuclear company Sellafield Ltd has been fined £700,000 and ordered to pay more than £72,000 costs for sending bags of radioactive waste to a landfill site. The bags, which contained waste such as plastic, tissues and clothing, should have been sent to a specialist facility that treats and stores low-level radioactive waste, but management and operational failings led to them being sent to Lillyhall landfill site in Workington, Cumbria. This breached the conditions of the company's environmental permit and the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations. At Carlisle crown court the company, which runs the Sellafield reprocessing site in Cumbria, was fined £700,000 and ordered to pay £72,635.34 costs. Sellafield found the error had been caused by the wrong configuration of a new monitor which passed the bags as general waste, making ...

Sellafield fined over radioactive waste - Financial Times: Energy

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Sellafield Ltd fined £700,000 by court in Carlisle for mistakenly sending several bags of radioactive waste to a landfill site in Cumbria

Trash to cash: Norway leads the way in turning waste into energy - The Guardian -- World Latest

Helen Russell — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

UK cities pay to send rubbish to Norwegian incinerators, but green campaigners warn of dangers For a country blessed with bountiful oil supplies, it may appear incongruous. But Norway is importing as much rubbish as it can get its hands on, in an effort to generate more energy by burning waste in vast incinerators. The Eurotrash business may sound like an unpromising enterprise, but it's one that is increasingly profitable. The UK paid to send 45,000 tonnes of household waste from Bristol and Leeds to Norway between October 2012 and April this year. "Waste has become a commodity," says Pål Spillum, head of waste recovery at the Climate and Pollution Agency in Norway. "There is a big European market for this, so much so that the Norwegians are accepting rubbish from other countries to feed the incinerator." He refuses to divulge the sums involved, saying only that the market is growing. Spillum is "considering requests" to burn waste from other UK towns. "As a rule we generate about 50% of ...

China leads the waste recycling league - The Guardian -- World Latest

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

EU legislation is fuelling a multibillion-dollar market. As landfill charges increase, it is often cheaper to send rubbish abroad With the world's population and consumption increasing, the waste heap is growing. More than 4bn tonnes of waste (municipal, industrial and hazardous) is generated annually worldwide. Where does it all go? There is a major challenge in describing and quantifying the global waste trade. A limited number of countries monitor and make public their imports and exports. Definitions and reporting discipline can vary greatly across countries. There is also a large (and growing) illegal trade in waste, which is even more difficult to monitor. The market for waste is now worth an estimated $443bn (£283bn) a year, and this figure is growing because of increasing export volumes and rising prices. The top destination for waste is China, which in 2010 imported around 7.4m tonnes of discarded plastic, 28m tonnes of waste paper and 5.8m tonnes of steel scrap. Between 2000 and ...

The World's Working Children - Wall St. Journal: World

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The UN's International Labor Organization marks World Day Against Child Labor on June 12 as a way to highlight the plight of working children.

Opinionator | Fixes: Out of India's Trash Heaps, More Than a Shred of Dignity - NY Times: Editorials

By SARIKA BANSAL — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Opinionator | Fixes: Out of India's Trash Heaps, More Than a Shred of Dignity

Puerto Rico waste-to-energy plan gets key permit - Seattle Times: Nation & World

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The U.S. government approved a key permit Tuesday that helps pave the way for construction of a waste-to-energy plant in Puerto Rico that local environmentalists have long opposed.

Puerto Rico Waste-to-Energy Plan Gets Key Permit - International Herald Tribune: Americas

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Puerto Rico Waste-to-Energy Plan Gets Key Permit

Zero waste? Reduce, reuse, recycle - Minnesota Public Radio: News

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Zero waste proponents can imagine a world in which nothing goes into a landfill or an incinerator, and all of our discarded materials become resources for others to use. Three experts discuss the trash ecosystem, at the Commonwealth Club of California.

When You Waste Food, You're Wasting Tons Of Water, Too - NPR News

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Some 45 trillion gallons of water are lost each year with all of the food that's thrown out around the world, according to a report from the World Resources Institute. This represents a staggering 24 percent of all water used for agriculture.

Seattle waste may be composted in Kittitas County - AP Washington

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

ELLENSBURG, Wash. (AP) -- Food and yard wastes and sewer biosolids from Seattle could be composted at an industrial-size operation east of Ellensburg....

The houses built on China’s 'poisoned' land - The Guardian -- World Latest

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

ChinaDialogue: Homes are being built on contaminated land in Chinese cities – and the residents of these developments have no idea

Film Crew To Search Landfill For Atari Games - NPR: Morning Edition

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The Fuel Entertainment company plans to sift through a New Mexico landfill in search of Atari video games. According to legend, that's where Atari dumped millions of copies of E.T. The movie-based video game did not sell when released in 1982.

Young Bicyclists Rewarded For Wearing Helmets - NPR: Morning Edition

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

An Ohio police chief publicly directed his officers to target a certain group for ticketing. He set a quota for the officers of Brimfield Township: at least one ticket per shift. Kids under 12 wearing a helmet while riding their bikes will get a free ice cream cone.

Gov't works to reduce food waste - Minnesota Public Radio: News

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Americans throw away more than a third of the food they buy -- that's almost $400 a year per person, or more than an average month's worth of groceries.

Bag debate hits OT - Durango Herald

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Wildlife eating plastic, the premature snowmelt on mountain peaks from global warming and maxed-out landfills were just a few environmental images evoked by supporters of a 10-cent fee on checkout plastic and paper bags during a public hearing Tuesday.The fee was viewed as a small but important step toward addressing environmental...