President Obama on Friday will propose diverting money from oil and gas leases on federal lands to finance research on replacing hydrocarbons in cars and trucks.
Yes! Finally.
“One Bin For All” idea could boost recycling rates, generate biofuel, reduce landfilling, and serve as a model for other cities
Michael Bloomberg’s op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle describes the idea:
For years, many cities have treated recycling as an individual civic responsibility like paying taxes or jury duty. The onus is on citizens to do the work of separating trash from recyclables: metal, glass and plastic in one bin, paper in another and landfill items in a third, while city trash collectors cart it away sometimes using a different truck for each kind of waste. Not surprisingly, it’s estimated that cities only effectively recycle about 30 percent of their trash.
Houston Mayor Annise Parker aims to turn this equation on its head. Instead of pushing to get consumers to do a better job separating trash from recyclables, she believes tapping technology can get the job done. Her plan is called Total Reuse: One Bin for All, which envisions the construction of a high-tech sorting facility that would allow 75 percent of Houston’s trash to be recycled using technologies from the mining and refining industries and would potentially generate its own power. Residents put everything in one bin; technology handles the rest.
Houston is one of 20 cities vying for $5 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge. The City of Houston plans to pursue the total reuse initiative regardless of whether it’s awarded Mayors Challenge funding.
Considering most self-indentifying eco friendly folks usually won’t bother with “the 3 r’s” if it inconveniences them, this technology based approach sounds promising.
The big theme here is not breaking news to Unconsumption readers, but Science Friday’s recent segment on e-waste is still pretty informative:According to the EPA, more than 2.5 million tons of electronic waste, or e-waste, is produced each year in the U.S. Derek Markham, a contributing writer for Treehugger.com, discusses the global impacts, and why you should think twice before discarding your old cell phone.Plus the show offers a good set of related links:
The risks are too big to get this wrong - especially in one of the most fragile places on the planet.
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Chuck Clusen, NRDC’s director of national parks and Alaska projects, commenting on Shell Oil’s long string of accidents and mistakes, culminating with Shell losing control of its Kulluk drilling ship this week. Read more: NRDC, The Wilderness Society Call for Immediate Hold on Offshore Arctic Oil Drilling NRDC’s report on the environmental risks of offshore drilling (via nrdc) |
The Obama administration has committed to ensuring the strongest possible safety when it comes to drilling in the Arctic. Shell’s rash plan to drill isn’t measuring up! Help us urge the administration to NOT issue Shell’s final permits when the company has not provided the proper safeguards to meet those standards. Take action now!
For anyone who was angered by the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf, please take action now to ask President Obama to withhold Arctic water drilling permits from Shell until their preparations and safety measures are 100% complete.
