City residents in Ottawa, Canada should pay for the waste they create, says a city staff report that is already getting mixed reviews from members of council. The Ottawa Citizen reports that the city should “develop strategies to ensure waste-management costs are recovered on a user-pay basis,” says a staff …
Mais »Plastic bags are a major source of litter. Is it right to ban them?
We have been tracking the issue of plastic bags for some time. You might be interested in the view of the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe (APME) on this topic. Plastics packaging, including bags, provides a major contribution towards resource savings and has an important role to play in …
Mais »US Chelsea Center publishes Massachusetts directory of recycled products manufacturers
Recycled product manufacturers are changing the way goods are produced, by utilising creative manufacturing techniques, minimising impact on the environment, and developing new markets and uses based on materials that would otherwise become waste. Massachusetts has set an ambitious goal of reducing its waste by 70% by the year 2010, …
Mais »South Australian landfill tax to fund waste reduction
The South Australian Government has recently announced that it is to establish Zero Waste South Australia (ZWSA), a statutory waste body charged with dramatically reducing waste to landfill. It will be funded through a rise in the Waste Depot Levy (from AU$3/ tonne to AU$10/ tonne). The Zero Waste New …
Mais »US landfill sued over methane collection
Here is an interesting case for landfill operators and others. The system for collecting methane at Alliance Landfill cannot control the gas produced by the garbage buried there, leading to the possibility of it migrating from the site, a class action suit filed in Lackawanna County Court maintains. The Pennsylvania, …
Mais »Sales of refillables in Germany up due to new deposits
According to a report by the GfK market researchers in Nuremberg, deposits on single-use beverage containers have had a positive effect on sales of refillable alternatives. Sales of refillable containers for those beverages affected by the deposits have ended their downward trend and increased dramatically. This Note also covers planned …
Mais »German”s drinks deposit system causes sales to plunge
A new deposit law on cans and bottles has sharply reduced beverage sales in Germany, causing at least a temporary hardship in a US$15 billion industry when the economy may be on the brink of a recession. The New York Times reports that makers of cans and bottles are reporting …
Mais »UNEP Basle Convention guidelines on waste plastics management
Technical guidelines for the identification and environmentally sound management of plastic wastes and for their disposal In its decision V/26 on the work programme of the Technical Working Group, the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, …
Mais »Cairo”s garbage-pickers” dirty, “clever way of life” coming to an end
The community that garbage built occupies an abandoned quarry on the edge of this teeming capital, a hidden neighbourhood few outsiders ever see, by turns appalling and wondrous. Sewage-mired alleyways clogged with drifts of old pantyhose, squashed rats and the rotting table scraps from millions of households thread their way …
Mais »Michigan, US groups seek fee to block Toronto trash
The Toronto Star reports on the potential use of a local economic instrument to halt the export of waste for disposal. US federal law and international treaties may keep Michigan from banning trash from Canada and other states, but a burial fee on all trash might achieve the same goal, …
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