Curiosidades

‘‘Eco-plastic bags‘‘ are about to get greener with a new process that replaces petrol derivatives with sunflower oil. Edie information service reports the new material will make its entry just as vegetable-derived plastic market is set to rocket, with both France and Italy soon to ban single-use non-biodegradable bags. "Supply …

The Consumer Co-operative Kobe (Co-op Kobe) and Kobe City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, concluded an agreement on December 27, 2006, to cooperate with each other to reduce plastic bag use. Japan for Sustainability reports that this is part of efforts to reduce and recycle waste in the city in partnership …

Of all the various ways of treating waste refrigeration equipment containing hydrocarbons (HCs), the most environmentally benign approach is to process these appliances together with CFC-containing appliances in a single specialist recycling plant. This was the irrefutable conclusion from a life cycle assessment study carried out by the Darmstadt-based Öko-Institut, …

new plan launched by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Executive aims to reduce the amount of business waste produced in Scotland by at least two hundred thousand tonnes a year. The Business Waste Framework, aims to provide an overall approach to save businesses in Scotland over £7.5m …

Companies wanting to produce ethanol from citrus waste in Florida are scrambling to obtain patents and secure sites for pilot projects, evidence that the national craze for the fuel is branching out from the more traditional grain-based feedstock. Dow Jones reports that the material used in the process is what …

Council leaders are calling for manufacturers to pay towards the cost of the growing "nappy mountain". The Local Government Association, as part of the War on Waste campaign, wants companies to foot the £67 million annual cost of burying used disposable nappies in landfill. Nearly three billion nappies are thrown …

On March 15, 2007, the US EPA issued a new proposal restructuring the 2003 Definition of Solid Waste proposal. The new proposal streamlines regulation of hazardous secondary materials to encourage beneficial recycling and help conserve resources. By removing unnecessary controls, recycling these materials will not only be safe, but also …

World Waste Technologies, Inc has announced it has filed a provisional patent covering an energy self sufficient process for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) into the production of mixed alcohols (including ethanol) through a synthetic gas and catalyst process. The process also includes the co-generation of renewable electricity …

A new UN-led alliance will work out global scrapping guidelines to protect the environment from mountains of electronic trash such as computers, phones and televisions, the group said on Tuesday. Reuters reports that three UN agencies, 16 firms including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Philips, several government bodies and universities said they …

Every three months a helicopter flies over Hong Kong‘‘s restricted border region near Shenzhen, the special economic zone in China‘‘s southern Guangdong province. Its purpose is not to survey the dramatic landscape of the closed area – which after five decades of enforced isolation has evolved into one of south …