tagged w/ Recycling
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Got a recycling bin full of glass bottles? Why waste them when you could have a new table lamp, candle holder, shelving unit, hummingbird feeder, glass countertop, building block – even a whole glass-bottle house? Reuse beer, wine and liquor bottles for these 13 fun and creative crafts and upcycling projects ranging up to a recycled bottle home and garden.
http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2011/02/28/booze-it-up-13-rad-recycled-bottle-crafts-projects/Got a recycling bin full of glass bottles? Why waste them when you could have a new... more
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NBC Los Angeles...
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Christmas Trees to Be Recycled Into Fish Habitats
The state department of fish and game will use the trees in local lakes and waterways to create a protective habitat for small fish.
Monday, Dec 26, 2011 | Updated 11:47 AM PST
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A Riverside County program will recycle Christmas trees into fish habitats instead of tossing them into landfills, where space is valuable and limited.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise has published a list of recycling centers where trees can be dropped off for free during two weeks after Christmas.
The state department of fish and game will use the conifers in local lakes and waterways to create a protective habitat for small fish, so they aren't overfished by larger predators.
To prepare a tree for recycling, decorations, tinsels, lights and tree stands must be removed.
Flocked trees cannot be recycled.
.NBC Los Angeles...
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Christmas Trees to Be Recycled Into Fish Habitats
The... more
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It’s never a nice sight to see old plastic bottles floating along in a river so it’s particularly pleasing that someone has finally found a way of putting this litter to good use.
Start-up company Vertech Limited has just completed a project to build a 90-foot bridge made entirely of recycled plastic over the River Tweed at Easter Dawyck in Wales.
The bridge was created using 50 tonnes of waste plastic and was put together over four days. It is capable of carrying all types of transport – including heavy goods vehicles.
Not only does it solve the problem of what to do with used plastic but the bridge also has quite a few other benefits. Firstly, it won’t rust like a metal bridge so no costly paintwork required. Secondly, it is fully recyclable so can be dismantled and put to another use in future.
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=17817It’s never a nice sight to see old plastic bottles floating along in a river so... more
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Say what you will about climate change – and even at this late date, divergent opinions abound – for those whose livelihood is rooted in the ground and for whom terroir is everything, the debate ended a long time ago. Several wineries around the world are turning to renewables energy and energy efficiency to fight the good fight, while others are rapidly moving in this direction.
http://bit.ly/vtKMjOSay what you will about climate change – and even at this late date, divergent... more
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Los Angeles Times...
PHOTO:
Reusable tote bags such as the one above would take the place of single-use plastic or paper grocery bags under the proposal.
(Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles Times / September 7, 2011)
Plastic and paper bag ban proposed for Los Angeles
Los Angeles councilman's proposal would allow grocery stores to give away or sell only reusable tote bags, or risk a fine.
By Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times
September 7, 2011
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Paper or plastic? For shoppers in Los Angeles, the choice may soon be neither.
Hoping to reduce the billions of grocery bags circulating throughout the city, an L.A. councilman Tuesday called for a sweeping ban on single-use paper and plastic bags.
By including paper bags in the ban, the proposal goes beyond similar measures taken recently by other California cities and counties. Although L.A. County, Santa Monica and other municipalities have banned plastic bags in recent years, most have allowed stores to sell paper ones for a small fee.
"With paper bags, you're still generating litter," said Councilman Paul Koretz, who introduced the motion proposing the ban. "We're taking the next step."
Environmentalists celebrated the news and said they hoped that it would push Sacramento lawmakers to enact a statewide ban.
"We're thrilled," said Kirsten James, water quality director for Heal the Bay. "We're hoping that more of these local policies will be a wake-up call."
Her group has been lobbying Los Angeles officials to enact a ban since 2007, the year that San Francisco became the first city in the nation to outlaw plastic bags in supermarkets and drugstores. Heal the Bay and other environmental groups calling for the bans say plastic bags are among the sea's most insidious pollutants.
But lobbyists who work for the plastics industry have said that paper bags are just as bad for the environment because of the energy required to produce them.
Under the L.A. proposal, stores would be permitted to give away or sell only reusable tote bags, or risk a fine. An exemption would be made for small plastic bags meant to keep raw vegetables and meats separated from other groceries to prevent cross-contamination.
Koretz said he thought retailers would welcome the proposal.
"It will save them money" he said. "It will help them make money in the long run."
In the past, large retailers have complained about a city-by-city patchwork of laws that forces them to follow different rules in different places. Instead, they have called for a statewide law that would set guidelines.
Last year, a proposed statewide ban on plastic bags died in the Legislature. It was opposed by the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group that represents the plastic bag industry.
The California Grocers Assn. supported the bill. In response to the proposed Los Angeles law, spokesman Dave Heylen said, "We look forward to working with the city as they look at options for consumers to transport their goods from stores."
In 2008, the City Council asked the Bureau of Sanitation to report on the proliferation of plastic bags in the city. According to officials, about 2.3 billion plastic bags are used in the city each year, with only 5% recycled, and 400 million paper bags, 21% recycled.
The City Council's Energy and Environment Committee will decide whether to move forward with the proposed ban.
.Los Angeles Times...
PHOTO:
Reusable tote bags such as the one above would... more
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Yeah, we do need to kick the car habit, but it is gonna take time to transition. Yeah, I know we don't have time, but I can't wiggle my nose and make it all better by Monday morning. In the meantime, recyclers are sitting on mountains of cardboard and there is a bacteria that eats cellulose, turning it into butanol, which is a bio fuel.
Our town can't find recyclers to take the cardboard people put in the bin, and we are a very tiny town. They have more than they can deal with and even a small village like where I live is stacking up bales of cardboard. Might this cellulose munching bacteria be a help for the backlog of cardboard that needs to be recycled?Yeah, we do need to kick the car habit, but it is gonna take time to transition. Yeah,... more
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Recycling bottles, cans, and newspapers is on any short list of simple actions for a cleaner environment. If only it were as easy to collect and reuse carbon dioxide—that greenhouse gas
waste product that the world is generating in huge volume each day by burning fossil fuels.
link:http://news.nationalgeographic.co.in/news/energy/2011/08/110811-turning-carbon-emissions-into-fuel/Recycling bottles, cans, and newspapers is on any short list of simple actions for a... more
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The field of public policy handles issues from the national level down to the local level of each city or state. One program and policy that is implemented on a local level is recycling, and there are many interesting facts that most people may not realize about recycling and its affects. This list offers 25 of these facts in order to give people a better understanding of the importance of recycling.
link:http://www.mastersinpublicpolicy.com/25-interesting-facts-you-may-not-know-about-recycling/The field of public policy handles issues from the national level down to the local... more
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he recycling of Earth's crust in volcanoes happens much faster than scientists have previously assumed. Rock of the oceanic crust, which sinks deep into the earth due to the movement of tectonic plates, reemerges through volcanic eruptions after around 500 million years.
link:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110810132903.htmhe recycling of Earth's crust in volcanoes happens much faster than scientists... more
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MoralEyes, a New York (USA) based startup, donates a pair of reading glasses to its non-profit partner New Eyes for the Needy for every pair sold. To date, MoralEyes has donated over 7,500 pairs of glasses with a retail value of over $150K and with the launch of its used-glasses recycling program, the company hopes to expand its contribution to this very special social cause exponentially.
http://www.iblog4acause.com/2011/08/used-glasses-recycling-program.htmlMoralEyes, a New York (USA) based startup, donates a pair of reading glasses to its... more
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HUGE fire at Macro Plastics "environmental" recycling plant in Fairfield,California.HUGE fire at Macro Plastics "environmental" recycling plant in... more
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What can you make with 65 old, used shipping containers? How about a huge building with an amphitheater, offices and a sustainable development educational center.
The complex of 65 shipping containers is the creation of the Los Angeles-based architectural firm APHIDoIDEA. Acronymically and rather clumsily named the eCORRE (Environmental Center of Regenerative Research Education), the building would primarily serve as an environmental education center for Long Beach, California. The complex includes a public plaza underneath raised and angled shipping containers in the middle of the structure.
http://design.spotcoolstuff.com/shipping-container-architecture/creative-long-beach-eco-centerWhat can you make with 65 old, used shipping containers? How about a huge building... more
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Every day, the average American produces four and a half pounds of trash — 75 percent of which is recyclable. While rules vary from town to town this guide from Good Housekeeping magazine will make it easier to do the right thing.Every day, the average American produces four and a half pounds of trash — 75... more
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This is the machine that can destroy anything and everything. I am not sure why you would want to destroy so many things, especially tampons (?!) but stick with it - they go a bit nuts at 4 min.This is the machine that can destroy anything and everything. I am not sure why you... more
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Los Angeles Times...
Editorial
Ridding the state of foam
Legislation that would ban foam in much of California is a big step forward, but it should be amended to allow a more gradual shift.
Photo: Debris, including plastic foam, that passed through storm drains along the Third Street Promenade [Santa Monica, California) collects in a separation unit near the Santa Monica Pier. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
May 27, 2011, 6:52 p.m.
The rap on polystyrene foam — better known by the trade name Styrofoam — used to be that it hung around in landfills without decomposing and couldn't be recycled. But these days, practically nothing breaks down in landfills because they are regularly compacted and covered. And the foam now can be recycled in dozens of California cities, though many of them offer only limited service.
So has the foam cup become an upstanding citizen in a more green-conscious world? Not quite. It's been fingered as one of the major culprits, along with plastic carryout bags, of plastic pollution in the oceans and other waters. It's difficult to screen foam out of the runoff that enters the ocean because the material breaks easily into ever-tinier pieces, according to the California Coastal Commission. Until recently, the state has left cities to patch together a piecemeal effort to address the problem. But now, legislation is scheduled to reach the state Senate floor Tuesday that would ban foam in much of California. The bill would be a big step forward in many ways, but it should be amended to allow a more gradual shift.
Coastal cities face new storm water regulations that require them to reduce the amount of plastic trash in the ocean. As a result, 50 municipalities have banned or restricted the use of foam food containers — the coffee cups and ubiquitous hinged "clamshell" boxes used for takeout — requiring restaurants and groceries to use either biodegradable or easily recyclable substitutes such as hard plastics or aluminum. Biodegradable containers, such as cardboard or fiber boxes, cost about 50% more, a few cents per container.
The bans appear to help. San Francisco found that within a single year, the amount of foam litter had been reduced by more than a third; what remained came mostly from other sources, such as packing materials. Despite concerns before they were put in place, the bans haven't caused the closure of restaurants or noticeably higher prices for takeout food. McDonald's, a bastion of low-priced food, led the way back in 1990, when it worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to overhaul its food packaging. Though the company still uses foam cups for hot beverages, paper wrapping and cardboard boxes replaced the old foam containers.
SB 568, by Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), would extend the foam container ban statewide starting in 2014, except in jurisdictions that meet certain levels of recycling for the material. School districts would get an extra year. Los Angeles Unified alone serves 650,000 lunches a day, using a mix of foam and biodegradable trays.
Too quick a ban could keep recycling efforts, which the industry supports, from getting off the ground. The bill should be amended to give cities and businesses more time to beef up their recycling efforts before instituting the ban. And then it should be passed. The impact on eateries and consumers is tiny, while the cleanup of plastic ocean trash is imperative.Los Angeles Times...
Editorial
Ridding the state of foam
Legislation that would... more
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Last week, Amazon joined the array of companies that offer an electronic trade-in program. To trade in an electronic device, a customer can click a “trade-in” button on Amazon.com, then print out a pre-paid shipping label in order to ship the device to Amazon for free. After Amazon receives the device, the customer receives credit for future Amazon purchases. Trade-ins are currently offered for 2,550 electronic devices, including cell phones, tablet computers, MP3 players, and cameras.
“Technology is constantly evolving and newer, better versions of consumer electronics are introduced all the time,” said Paul Ryder, vice president of Electronics for Amazon.com. “We want to give customers the opportunity to get great value from their used electronics. Hundreds of thousands of customers have already received millions of dollars in gift cards from the other products in our program. The Electronics category is a natural extension and we are delighted to offer our customers more trade-in options.”
T-mobile also announced a trade-in program last week. T-Mobile’s trade-In program allows its customers to trade in old cell phones for money which they can use to buy new cell phones, including smartphones. The program allows customers to “offset the cost of a new phone purchase by up to $300,” according to a press release. T-mobile will even accept cell phones from other cell phone carriers.
E-waste is a growing problem
Electronic trade-in programs are important because electronic devices contain hazardous chemicals. When electronic waste (e-waste) is dumped into a landfill the hazardous chemicals can leach into the soil, and be released into the air. If e-waste is incinerated heavy metals like lead and mercury are released into the air.
Trade-ins also represent a huge opportunity. It’s a lot easier to mine old cell phones for raw materials than it is to dig for them.
The Electronics Take Back Coalition calls e-waste the “fastest growing waste stream in the U.S.” In 1998 only 2.3 million of the 20 million computers no longer functioning were recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and most computers recycled were from large businesses and institutions. A 2006 report by the International Association of Electronics Recyclers states that there are 400 million units of e-waste a year. Over three billion tons of e-waste was disposed in 2008 in the U.S. and only 430,000 tons or 13.6 percent recycled, according to the Electronics Take Back Coalition.
Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/amazon-ewaste-trade-in/Last week, Amazon joined the array of companies that offer an electronic trade-in... more
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Plastics from single serving water bottles, or grocery bags accumulating in the world’s oceans have long been in the spotlight as eco villians.
Initially, biodegradable and compostable plant material based bottles seemed to be the cure for this convenience quandary. But beyond the simple math of eliminating petroleum as source material, there’s a problem: Most bioplastic doesn’t compost, unless in a professional environment (some don’t, even then). Bioplastics are not recyclable, since they are a different in formulation from conventional PET plastic. When they are accidentally included in recycling processing, it gums up the machinery.
To make matters worse, bioplastic, when tossed in the trash by people believing it would biodegrade, actually releases methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.
In the past few years, companies such as Coca Cola and Pepsi have been working on bridging the gap, making plant based bottles that are also recyclable. A step forward, but in Coke’s case it’s 30% plant based, sourced from purpose grown sugar cane ethanol. While a Coca Cola representative told me “Estimates show that sugarcane production in Brazil could increase thirty times without endangering sensitive ecosystems or taking land destined for food crops,” the question arises, why even grow food crops for bottles when Pepsi is currently creating bottles sourced primarily from food production scraps?
While Coke continues to work on making the bottle 100% plant based and we wait to see if Pepsi will license it’s bottle technology to other companies, an interesting third option has been quietly innovating: Casey Container.
Casey Container has created an additive usable with a wide range of plastics, even rubber, that allows the resulting product to be usable in all its usual applications, while being both recyclable and biodegradable. The resulting biodegraded material is not simply smaller pieces of plastic that continue to be an ecological issue. It becomes harmless biogas and biomatter. And rather than needing heat, light and moisture to begin the process of biodegrading and thus not working in tightly packed landfills, it is activated by the very microbes typically found in landfills.
Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/casey-container-missing-link-plastic-bottles-both-recyclable-biodegradable/Plastics from single serving water bottles, or grocery bags accumulating in the... more
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In the early part of the 20th Century, beer drinkers had only two choices when it came to quenching their thirst for a delicious frothy beverage: draught beer or bottles. It wasn’t until the 1930s that canned beer arrived on the scene. Initially, tin cans could not withstand the carbonated pressure and burst. Eventually, technological developments and the introduction of a vinyl liner proved successful in containing the pressure. Then in 1935, Kruger’s Brewery of New Jersey introduced the first canned beer–Kruger’s Finest Beer–to the market, revolutionizing the beer industry. The canned versus bottled beer debate has raged ever since, and now the emerging mircrobrew trend is putting a new spin on the topic.
The traditional debate has centered on factors including taste, convenience, and cost. Beer is a sensitive beverage and exposure to both light and oxygen results in off-flavors. The caps on bottles are not completely airtight, creating a chemical reaction between oxygen and the hops, whereas cans are impervious to both light and oxygen, protecting the flavor, reducing chances of creating a “skunky” amora, and extending the shelf life. Although proponents of bottles have remained steadfast in the claim that cans produce a metallic taste, there has been little empirical evidence to support the claim. Additionally, the lightweight and portability of cans often prove to be more convenient than bottles for both consumers and producers. In regards to shipping efficiency, the longneck design on bottles wastes packaging space, while cans are able to be efficiently packaged and weigh less, which allows more to be shipped at less cost.
With recent concerns regarding sustainability, overall environmental impact has become a new point of contention in this debate. In evaluating the environmental impact of cans versus bottles, there are many factors to consider, including raw material sourcing, processing techniques, recycling rates, the distance of the container manufacturer to the brewery, and the distance of the brewery to the distribution point. Most certainly, manufacturing aluminum cans is extremely resource intensive. The mining, refining, processing and transporting of bauxite ore, from which aluminum is derived, leaves an extensive trail of carbon emissions in its wake. Contrastingly, bottles are made from the more abundant resource silica and glass processing has lower overall emissions rates. However, the recycling rate for glass in the US is only 28% compared to the nearly 55% recycling rate for aluminum cans. Moreover, beer bottles contain only 20-30% recycled glass in comparison to the average beer can that is made of 40% recycled aluminum. Recycled aluminum requires 95% less energy and produces 95% less greenhouse gas emissions than manufacturing new aluminum.
Post Continues: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/05/great-canned-bottled-beer-debate-20-craft-brewing-weighs/In the early part of the 20th Century, beer drinkers had only two choices when it came... more
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What happens when old building are renovated with newer, safer fixtures? A New England collector-turned-artist recycles them into art.
New Hampshire resident David Random has been collecting antique mechanical and architectural parts for years. He loved the shape, detail and utility of typically-ignored fixtures like heating grates, lawn fixtures and kitchen utensils. After a while, he started to notice the some of these items almost seemed like they were meant to be joined together in artistic way.
Read more and see pictures of Random's sculptures: http://ow.ly/4SkXDWhat happens when old building are renovated with newer, safer fixtures? A New England... more
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We’ve long known that garbage piled up on landfills weep and leak methane gas. Its even harvested and being put to use in many places. Researchers had a hard time figuring out why – because landfills do not start out as a friendly environment for the organisms that produce methane.
Now new research from North Carolina State University points to one species of microbe that is paving the way for other methane producers. The starting bug has been found. That opens the door to engineering better landfills with better production management. Imagine a landfill with real economic prospects beyond getting the trash out of sight.
The NCSU researchers found that an anaerobic bacterium called Methanosarcina barkeri appears to be the key microbe.
Dr. Francis de los Reyes, an associate professor of civil engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research explains how the research got its start, “Landfills receive a wide variety of solid waste, and that waste generally starts out with a fairly low pH level. The low pH level makes it difficult for most methanogens – methane-producing organisms – to survive. We started this project in hopes of better understanding the mechanism that raises the pH level in landfills, fostering the growth of methanogens.”
What the NCSU researchers found was M. barkeri – a hearty methanogen that can survive at low pH levels. M. barkeri’s role is to consume the acids in its environment, producing methane and increasing the pH levels in its immediate area. This, in turn, makes that area more amenable for other methanogens.
Water; usually a problem to keep out of landfills – is key. As the moisture leaches through the landfill, it spreads those high pH levels – making other parts of the landfill habitable for M. barkeri and other methane-producing microbes. M. barkeri then moves in and repeats the process, leaving neutral pH levels – and healthy populations of other methanogens – in its wake.
M. barkeri and its methanogen cousins produce large quantities of methane, and as methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, landfill methane leaks could be bad news for the environment. Methane can be, and often is, collected at landfill sites and used for power generation. With the NCSU research the basic tool to exploit problem is available opening the door to much more and better exploitation.
Another payoff is the methanogens break down the solid organic waste as they go, compacting it so that it takes up less space. If the research gets to the obvious end, landfills themselves might be mined for the inorganics matrerials and then reused again. That would be a huge relief for everyone with a moment to think about it.
It may well happen more quickly as Dr. de los Reyes explains, “The research community can use our findings to explore ways of accelerating the methane-generation process creating methane more quickly for power generation, and making additional room in the landfill for waste disposal.”
Here’s the paper’s title and link. “Effect of Spatial Differences in Microbial Activity, pH, and Substrate Levels on Methanogenesis Initiation in Refuse,” will be published in the April issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Bryan Staley, who did the work while a Ph.D. student at NCSU; de los Reyes; and Dr. Morton Barlaz, professor and department head of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NCSU.
Waste Management, Inc. and the Environmental Research and Education Foundation funded the research. For that, and the expectation that cleaning up will look like a better more earth friendly thing to do, we are thankful. Keep those funds coming and lets hopes the technology gets to work quickly. Your humble writer finds landfills necessary but dreadful necessities that deserve a path to productivity.
http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2011/04/08/found-the-bug-that-makes-methane-in-garbage/We’ve long known that garbage piled up on landfills weep and leak methane gas.... more
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