Curiosidades

Japan Society of Waste Management Experts reports that Chofu City, located in the western Tokyo Metropolitan Area – known as the Tama Area – is a municipality with a population of 213,000 and 104,000 households. In 2004, it reviewed the manner of separate collection of household waste and changed the …

Defra have published protocols for determinig the amount of WEEE for each category when a mixed load of WEEE is delivered to Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities. The research carried out through the CIWM EB looked at the average category breakdown from hand sorting of mixed WEEE loads derived from a …

Brazilian NGO Cempre reports on a survey that has revealed that 11% of urban waste was recycled in Brazil in 2005. This rate, although appearing to be a return to 2003 figure, in fact reveals a more positive reality. The total recycled rose from 5.2 million tonnes in 2004 to …

Catia Bastioli and her team from Novamont s. p.a., has won this year‘‘s "European Inventors of the Year 2007" award for their invention of biodegradable plastics obtained from starch, a renewable raw material. Catia Bastioli is the first woman to be honoured "European Inventor of the Year". The "European Inventor …

Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a fungus in elephant dung that will help them break down fibres and wood into biofuel. Bioethanol firms currently extract sugars from crops like grains and sugar beet, but some are developing technologies to extract energy from fibre such as wheat bran, straw or …

It may have become the penance of choice for the environmentally conscious individual, but planting trees to offset carbon emissions could contribute to global warming if they are planted outside the tropics, scientists believe. The Guardian reports that they argue that most forests do not have any overall effect on …

This is a long piece from New Scientist, but interesting if you want to learn how to landfill less the 5 kg household waste per family per year! I LOST 2 pounds the week I gave up packaging. Among aisles and aisles of neatly wrapped goods almost everything at my …

On Friday 6 April, government delegates of over 100 countries wrangled over the report written by climate change experts and agreed on a final compromise after a marathon night session. Several scientists expressed their anger at some of the changes demanded by the political delegates and threatened not to work …

Tama City in Tokyo, Japan aims to reduce combustible and incombustible waste by 10,000 tons or 25 percent of present levels by fiscal 2012 under the combined efforts of citizens, businesses and the government, based on the Tama City Waste Reduction Plan by Collaborative Efforts formulated in December 2006. Japan …