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Recycling used items not a waste of time and saves money – China Daily The Chinese Government recently hatched a plan to recycle industrial and family waste and, in the process, yield 55 billion yuan (US$6.62 billion) a year within five years. The State Economic and Trade Commission’s plan would …

US – New tools target health care waste Aiming to reduce the amount and toxicity of waste that comes from caring for patients, four national agencies launched a new phase in a landmark collaborative effort called Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E). ENN reports that the groups, the US Environmental …

Rosy future for EU’s flower Ecolabel The profile of the European Union’s flower ecolabel could grow dramatically under a three year promotional initiative to be published shortly by the European Commission. The plan – formally a commission decision – was adopted by commissioners at the end of December after being …

Solar ovens from PET bottles NAPCOR – the National Association for PET Container Resources (the trade association for the PET plastic industry in the United States and Canada) has worked with the Solar Oven Society, a project of the non-profit organization Persons Helping People, to manufacture low-cost, durable, effective solar …

Antarctic waste disposal exercise succeeds A project to help clear Antarctica of junk has overcome a final hurdle, with the unloading of a shipment of 1,000 tonnes of scrap metal. Three years after it began, the British-based Mission Antarctica project has cleared the scrap from Russia’s Bellingshausen base. It also …

Pepsi quietly announces plan to use 10% recycled plastic by 2005 (Feb. 22) — Pepsi-Cola Co. now plans to use 10 percent recycled content in its PET bottles by 2005, a significant step that comes after its archrival, Coca-Cola Co., announced similar plans last year. The plan, announced quietly to …

Hewlett-Packard recycles 70% of inkjet material with mail-in program DETROIT (Feb. 22) — About 70 percent of the material in used inkjet cartridges returned to Hewlett-Packard Co. in the United States ends up being recycled into new products. The waste generated by consumers — the used cartridges — is returned …

New US study for environmental paper industry Market demand for environmental office and printing papers is lagging, and a new US “listening study” intends to find out why. The study, funded through a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency will provide a comprehensive “snapshot” of the industry and its …

The UK Resource Recovery Forum has agreed to support two new studies to help provide data on aspects of sustainable waste management. Protocols for measuring recycling of WEEE The Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Directive requires end-of-life equipment to be collected for recovery, recycling and re-use. The proposal has …

Survey of wastes spread on land Hot air blowing hand driers produce half the global warming burden of paper towels, although the use of paper towels results in lower resource depletion, a report commissioned by the air drier manufacturer Airdri has revealed. The streamlined life-cycle assessment study, carried out by …