NewsRack: irge304/Urban-Waste/Waste-Management

New outhouse planned at Mount Rainier's 10,000-foot high Camp Muir - Seattle Times: Local

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK (AP) — Renovation work starts this summer on the highest outhouse in Washington. The National Park Service plans to upgrade the toilets at Camp Muir, which is at the 10,000-foot level of Mount Rainier. Camp Muir is a destination for day hikers and a stop for climber

Letters: Our waste is a precious resource, not something to be sent abroad - Guardian: Environment

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

The issue of overseas waste shipments continues to impact on the UK recycling industry, especially the knock-on effect on low-carbon job creation here in the UK ( Norwegians turn Europe's trash into cash but fuel concern over the future of recycling , 15 June). Domestic recycling rates continue to improve and while most local authorities now collect plastic bottles at the kerbside, some waste companies are still sending huge volumes of this plastic resource abroad rather than having it processed here. This is supported by the incentives they receive via the government's PRN credit system. If this material stayed in the UK, it would reduce our imports of virgin raw materials and would create sorting and reprocessing jobs in the UK. Reports have suggested more than 50,000 new UK jobs would be created if 70% of waste collected by councils was recycled here in the UK. We strongly support free trade but are merely asking for a fairer system by a review of the existing set-up, which financially ...

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.

Video games (for promoting science) | Dean Burnett - Guardian: Science

Dean Burnett — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

PETA recently released a video game where you commit violence against research scientists. Arguably the best response would be to create video games that promote and educate about science Apparently PETA have created a video game where you commit serious violence against research scientists . That's nice. Given how PETA have strongly objected to the vaguest hint of cruelty in video games many times , this seems a bit much. Who'd have thought PETA would be hypocritical in some way? There's a shock . But apparently this is an option now. If you have an agenda to pursue, you can make a video game about it to generate support. It's clever, when you think about it. So instead of bemoaning the crude, inaccurate and violent nature of PETA's tactic (there are no doubt plenty who have done this already), why not fight fire with fire, as the saying goes? So, here are some ideas for video games that accurately teach about science, as well as providing all the action and excitement you'd expect from ...

Chicago aldermen hear arguments on plastic bag ban - Chicago Tribune: Popular

By John Byrne — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Chicago aldermen hear arguments on plastic bag ban

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 make composting part of life in Big Apple, with residents separating food scraps - Star Tribune: Nation

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

NYC aims to require composting food scraps - Seattle Times: Top stories

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.

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.

Should composting be mandatory? | Poll - The Guardian -- World Latest

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is introducing a plan to collect food waste from homes across the city for composting. Should people be required to separate food scraps where you live?

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 ...

When recycling is the second-best option - BBC: Technology

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Where to go when your gadgets break down

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

'PetroKoch': an art project for the Metropolitan Museum | Jeff McMahon - The Guardian -- World Latest

Jeff McMahon — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

As David Koch gets his name on the Met's new plaza, why not add Detroit's pile of his tar-sands sludge as an installation? In Fall 2014, the David H Koch Plaza at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City will be revealed, the entire $65m project paid for by David H Koch . In the spirit of repurposing, recycling, and synergy, might the Met acknowledge Koch's further contributions by moving the ever-growing black mound of tar-like petroleum coke , owned by Koch and his brother Charles through their company Koch Carbon and currently dumped in Detroit's Assumption Park, to the Met's new Plaza? What more fitting tribute to the Brothers Koch than the gooey byproducts of their billion-dollar industry? What a stunning salute to the American supply chain; another Koch Brother, William, owns Oxbow Corporation, which deals in … petrocoke, a long-lasting reminder that Koch family values have real value. Looking to extend their legacy into perpetuity (such by-products requiring a very long time ...

Stop the recycling! - Salt Lake Tribune

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Published Jun 15, 2013 01:01AM MDT I’d like to focus on the recycling programs that are coming to our cities. Our city leaders have decided that they are going to automatically sign us up for a curbside recycling program. We must put a stop to this! Recycling is something that we all should be doing, but to be forced to do it is like adding another tax to every household in the community. Why can’t we make these decisions for ourselves? Let the private sector do curbside recycling. Unfortunately, Kaysville, Farmington, Centerv... ...

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 ...

Return of the short-haired bumblebee - Guardian: Environment

Kate Bradbury — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:30:00 GMT

Britain's bumblebees may have suffered a huge decline, but the reintroduction of an extinct species brings hope of a recovery, writes Kate Bradbury Last week I held a short-haired bumblebee queen in my hand, stretched out my arm and watched as she clambered on to a red clover flower to take her first sip of wild, English nectar. This week I've been glued to the Springwatch Bumblebee Cam – a webcam showing the daily workings of a thriving buff-tailed ( Bombus terrestris ) colony. The one experience in the context of the other has left me with a strange sense of history and new beginnings; of lessons learned and hope. My short-haired bumblebee (I called her Sally) was one of 49 released on Dungeness in Kent last Monday as part of a high-profile reintroduction project. The species ( Bombus subterraneus ) used to be fairly common in the south of the UK, feeding on wildflowers such as white deadnettle and red clover. A hundred years ago FWL Sladen captured short-haired bumblebee queens in ...

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.