Do you get a small but palpable sense of satisfaction each time you deposit a piece of paper in that recycling bin by the copy machine, rather than the nearby trash can? Save the smugness. Newly published research suggests the presence of that receptacle may inspire you and your officemates to use more paper than you otherwise would, depleting natural resources in the process. “Consumers may view the ability to recycle a product as a ‘get out of jail free card’ that makes consumption more acceptable,” write Jesse Catlin of the University of California, Irvine and Yitong Wang of ... Read More
Feds Appear Clueless About Their Own E-Waste
March 21, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
You upgrade your computer every four or five years. No big deal. Discarding the old one leaves a relatively tiny e-footprint. The U.S. government, on the other hand, is the world’s largest purchaser of information technology and discards 10,000 computers each week, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The government has a few options when its tech bits get worn out: donate them to schools; give them to a recycler; exchange them with other government agencies; or sell them to the highest bidder at auctions. But because of the difficulty of tracking and reporting ... Read More
U.S. Pledges to Reform Electronics Recycling
July 21, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Melinda Burns wrote in January about the difficulty in keeping hazardous materials — among them batteries, fluorescent lights, hypodermic needles and electronics — out of landfills. She described how state and local governments were taking the lead in the U.S. in calling for companies to take responsibility for their products at the end of their lifecycles, something known as "product stewardship." But even if a company does recycle its wares, that alone is not always a satisfactory solution. As Emily Badger reported recently, there is a shameful practice in which electronic ... Read More
Why E-Waste Should Be Kept, Recycled in U.S.
July 1, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
As laptops, flat screens and smart phones grow ever more ubiquitous, so does the problematic trash they ultimately become. It’s a quandary for the Information Age that seldom gets the attention of the cool tech tools themselves. Individual communities in the U.S. have been struggling with how to dispose of electronic waste, who should pay for its recycling and whether companies that manufacture electronics should be responsible for their full life cycle. But much of this e-waste is never disposed of anywhere in the U.S. — whether at local municipal dumps or corporate facilities. It ... Read More
‘Bag It’ DVD Packaged With Message in Mind
October 21, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
So you make this movie about the evils of disposable plastic, see, and it comes time to distribute the DVD. So you've got a plastic disc tucked inside a plastic case with a veneer of shrink-wrap as an aperitif. Nice way to get the message across. Recognizing the hypocrisy such packaging might suggest, the makers of the new documentary Bag It looked for containers and distributors that would honor the spirit of the film. Eventually, director Suzan Beraza says, her company, Reel Thing Films, found an appropriate DVD tray made of starch, cellulose and water, and produced by the Dutch ... Read More
Maine Passes Landmark Product Stewardship Law
March 25, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
With a green light from local business, Gov. John Baldacci of Maine today signed a landmark product stewardship bill, paving the way for the state to shift more of the cost of recycling and trash disposal to the manufacturers of consumer goods. "As Maine goes, so goes the nation," they say in America's easternmost state. If true, Congress take note: The Maine Legislature has Democratic majorities, but this month's vote for the "Act to Provide Leadership Regarding the Responsible Recycling of Consumer Products" was unanimous and bipartisan. "I hope people take the message that it can be ... Read More
The Smoldering Trash Revolt
January 21, 2010 • By • 10 Comments
Every time a Californian breaks the law and throws a battery into the trash, it's a headache for someone like Kevin Hendrick. As director of the Del Norte Waste Management Authority, Hendrick spends $50,000 in taxpayer money providing one day per year on which county residents can bring in their household hazardous waste, including batteries, for proper disposal. The problem is, only 5 percent of them ever show up. It's driving cities and counties crazy all over the country. In California alone, they spend $500 million yearly trying but failing to manage discarded household batteries, ... Read More
From Sewage to Artichokes
August 25, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
With a blue plaid button-up shirt tucked in his jeans and a pair of ballpoint pens protruding from his front pocket, Chris Drew doesn't look much like a farmer until he puts on a pair of dirt-caked, orange leather gloves and begins trouncing through rows of 3-foot-tall artichoke plants. "Do you like big ones or small ones?" Drew, a production manager for Sea Mist Farms, shouts through a light mist. "Doesn't matter," I call back to him, wriggling my black patent-leather heels from a suction cup of thick mud. "But the bigger the stem, the better. That's the best part." Forging a path ... Read More
Reducing Carbon One Garbage Can at a Time
September 3, 2008 • By • Leave a Comment
It wasn’t long ago that no one knew what a carbon footprint was. Now a person can’t turn around without bumping into, uhhh, Bigfoot. Most people and communities first look at energy efficiency as a quick means of reducing their carbon footprint, but pay-as-you-throw (or PAYT) garbage collection may be more efficient, according to consultant Lisa Skumatz, who works in both fields. The PAYT concept is to pay for garbage to be picked up one bin or bag at a time so that, just like electricity, you are paying for what you use. Instead of being charged a flat rate by a hauler or an ... Read More
