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Focus on fly ash: a useful resource, not a toxic waste
Do you know how to annoy an engineer or scientist who works with fly ash (coal ash)? Call it a toxic waste. Environmentalists scorn climate change deniers’ resistance to science. Too many of them...
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Recycling industry takes a beating as prices plunge
Trash and recycling truck Do you remember when municipal recycling first started? If you do, you remember that some people assumed it would make a profit. What the city or county collects becomes a...
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EPR: is it a solution to our recycling crisis?
After the London marathon The recycling industry is in a crisis right now. Participation is low. Recyclables fetch low prices on the commodity market. Centers are closing. A concept called Extended...
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Food waste collection for community composting
Community composting collection area, Elwood, Melbourne, Australia The idea of food waste collection for community composting appears to have started almost by accident within the past few years. It is...
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The value lurking in your old clothes
What do you do with clothing you no longer wear? I hope you donate old clothes to charity. Or perhaps to a clothes recycling business. What do you do with clothing no longer fit to wear? You can donate...
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What happens when an old landfill closes?
Diagram of a landfill Landfills eventually fill up. Then they have to close. Sometimes a landfill closure happens for political reasons before it’s full. What happens to the old landfill site then?...
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The international crisis of high-tech trash
TVs and monitors awaiting recycling. Photo taken in 2008. Who doesn’t have flat screens by now? According to Moore’s Law, computer processing power doubles every two years. As a corollary, every new...
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Ink waste: the environmental impact of printer cartridges
Contributed by Bob Gorman Everything that humans do has an impact on the environment. Manufacturing and using printer cartridges can have serious repercussions, no matter how insignificant those...
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Shipping Container Homes
Used shipping containers Recycling shipping containers to make homes solves two problems—the plethora of containers piling up at every port in the world and the shortage of affordable housing. Shipping...
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Why recycling can’t save the environment
No one talked or thought about recycling on that first Earth Day in 1970. Municipal recycling programs got off to a rocky start, but the recycling rate rose to 25% in the 1990s. In recent years it has...
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Focus on fly ash: a useful resource, not a toxic waste
Do you know how to annoy an engineer or scientist who works with fly ash (coal ash)? Call it a toxic waste. Environmentalists scorn climate change deniers’ resistance to science. Too many of them...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Recycling industry takes a beating as prices plunge
Trash and recycling truck Do you remember when municipal recycling first started? If you do, you remember that some people assumed it would make a profit. What the city or county collects becomes a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EPR: is it a solution to our recycling crisis?
After the London marathon The recycling industry is in a crisis right now. Participation is low. Recyclables fetch low prices on the commodity market. Centers are closing. A concept called Extended...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Food waste collection for community composting
Community composting collection area, Elwood, Melbourne, Australia The idea of food waste collection for community composting appears to have started almost by accident within the past few years. It is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The value lurking in your old clothes
What do you do with clothing you no longer wear? I hope you donate old clothes to charity. Or perhaps to a clothes recycling business. What do you do with clothing no longer fit to wear? You can donate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What happens when an old landfill closes?
Diagram of a landfill Landfills eventually fill up. Then they have to close. Sometimes a landfill closure happens for political reasons before it’s full. What happens to the old landfill site then?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The international crisis of high-tech trash
TVs and monitors awaiting recycling. Photo taken in 2008. Who doesn’t have flat screens by now? According to Moore’s Law, computer processing power doubles every two years. As a corollary, every new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ink waste: the environmental impact of printer cartridges
Contributed by Bob Gorman Everything that humans do has an impact on the environment. Manufacturing and using printer cartridges can have serious repercussions, no matter how insignificant those...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Recycling methods: what happens behind the scenes?
You have put your recycling out at the curb, or perhaps taken it to a drop-off center. Does it actually get recycled? Probably. It depends. You may have read that a lot of what’s put out for recycling...
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Recycling Styrofoam: solving an environmental headache
A mountain of Styrofoam Never, ever put Styrofoam in your recycling container. It will break into tiny little pieces in the sorting equipment at your local recycling facility. Then it will get all over...
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