recycling

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Scientists Offer First Analysis of How Much Plastic We've Made

Researchers estimate 9B tons have been produced

(Newser) - A new study puts a number on the amount of plastic the planet has manufactured in the roughly 65 years we've been cranking it out: 9 billion tons. If you're struggling to visualize that weight, the BBC helps out: That's as heavy as 25,000 Empire State...

What Makes Up New Plastic Bottles? Not Old Ones, It Seems

Only small percentage of plastic from recyclable bottles is used in new ones

(Newser) - That Coke bottle you were proud to throw in the recycling bin so it could be repurposed into another Coke bottle may actually be … part of a carpet sample in Mumbai. It turns out that a very small percentage of the world's plastic beverage bottles are made out...

2 States Now Pay 10 Cents for Your Cans, Bottles

Although, technically, you pay the deposit first

(Newser) - Ten states have bottle bills, meaning consumers pay a small deposit when they buy drinks in bottles or cans and that deposit is returned to them if they recycle the containers with the state rather than simply throwing them away. Most states pay 5 cents per can or bottle, but...

How a 7-Year-Old Is Saving the Planet— and Saving for College

Ryan Hickman has earned $10K by recycling

(Newser) - A 7-year-old boy in California already has $10,000 saved for college—and not a penny of it came from his parents. "I've recycled 200,000 cans and bottles," Ryan Hickman tells ABC7 . He got "hooked" on recycling at age 3 after a visit to a...

Man Drives 10K Cans to Michigan, Faces Prison Time

It's illegal to bring in out-of-state cans in attempt to land the 10-cent deposit

(Newser) - About three months ago, Brian Everidge was stopped for speeding just north of Detroit. He was behind the wheel of a Budget box truck whose contents could land him in prison for up to five years: more than 10,000 aluminum cans. The Guardian reports that just as Seinfeld's ...

Apple's Recycling Program Brings in $43M in Gold

Apple recycled two-thirds of nearly 90M pounds of electronic waste in 2015

(Newser) - Apple has released figures on its Apple Renew recycling program, and it's clearly paying dividends. Out of nearly 90 million pounds of electronic equipment it recovered last year, 61 million pounds were recycled, Apple reports . Specifically, it reclaimed 23 million pounds of steel; 13 million pounds of plastic; 12...

Tiny Kitten Rescued From Recycling Plant Conveyer Belt

He was spotted by a worker sorting recyclables

(Newser) - A worker at a Northern California recycling center saved a tiny kitten from certain death when he spotted the animal heading down a conveyor belt. Tony Miranda tells television station KCRA he was sorting recyclables Tuesday when he found the pink-nosed, white-pawed cat between the debris and scooped it up....

Fashion Retailer Has $1M for Best Recycling Idea

H&M wants to reduce environmental strains of 'fast fashion'

(Newser) - H&M—the second most-profitable clothing store in the world—has drawn criticism for embodying the "fast-fashion" model of retail. Fast-fashion basically means overproducing cheap clothing, which can be good for consumers but not so good for workers and the environment. (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver explains the...

NYC to Stop Dumping Its Garbage in Other States

Mayor de Blasio plan to slash waste 90%, stop most trash exports

(Newser) - The nation's biggest city is marking Earth Day by announcing an ambitious goal of reducing its waste output by 90% by 2030. The plan, set to be unveiled today by Mayor Bill de Blasio, includes an overhaul of the city's recycling program, incentives to reduce waste, and tacit...

Sinking Oil Prices Are Hurting Recyclers

And so is a strong US dollar

(Newser) - A pound of new plastic for soda bottles cost 83 cents at the beginning of this year, whereas the recycled stuff comes to about 72 cents. But plastic is frequently made from oil, and as oil prices have dropped, so has the cost of new polyethylene terephthalate. Oil prices have...

NYC Bans Styrofoam Cups, Containers

Businesses have 6 months to find alternatives

(Newser) - Diners, delis, and food carts in the country's biggest city have six months to find a greener alternative to the Styrofoam cups and takeout containers many of them use. New York has become the latest US city to ban foam containers, and the ban will take effect July 1,...

Supermarket's New Power Source: Its Expired Food

'Digestion plant' will turn rotten food into bio-gas

(Newser) - Food in a British supermarket too rotten to be sold is still being digested—by a plant that turns it into electricity to power the store. The Sainsbury's store says it's the first retail outlet in the country to remove itself from the national power grid, receiving electricity...

Restaurant Tosses No Garbage in 2 Years

Chicago eatery runs on renewable energy, buys from local farms

(Newser) - Ever cringe when adding another bag of garbage to the world's waste? Then consider Justin Vrany, who says his Chicago restaurant has produced only 8 gallons of garbage in two years—the amount many restaurants toss in a single hour, Time reports. In fact, an artist picked up those...

Americans Each Churn Out 65lbs of E-Waste a Year

Rate of electronics waste surging worldwide

(Newser) - Electronic waste is growing at a staggering rate—Americans alone chucked an average of 65 pounds of old electronic goods each last year—and it is set to surge another 33% within five years unless consumers and producers change their ways, LiveScience reports. Most of the waste ends up in...

Why We Need to Jack the Bottle Deposit

Figure hasn't nearly increased with inflation

(Newser) - The goals of health advocates and environmental activists don't always mesh, notes Daniel Engber at Slate : For instance, while health experts would tell you to go for smaller soda bottles to prevent downing too much, eco-warriors would prefer you to buy bigger bottles and save packaging. But Engber has...

America's Biggest Brewery Now Produces No Garbage

MillerCoors' Golden, Colo., facility no longer trucks 135 tons a month to landfill

(Newser) - MillerCoors' Golden, Colo., facility has some pretty massive numbers attached to it: It clocks in at 9 million square feet, can produce 22 million barrels of beer a year (that's the equivalent of about 5.5 billion pints), and once generated 135 tons of garbage a month. That last...

Bloomberg's Latest: Mandatory Food Composting

Pilot programs have been successful

(Newser) - New York City has been experimenting with pilot food-composting programs—and it's worked surprisingly well, officials say. Now, Michael Bloomberg is pushing to make composting mandatory, as it is in Seattle, San Francisco, and many other cities, the New York Times reports. The program, in which residents drop food...

Ocean Floor Littered With Recyclables

Plastics, metals especially common

(Newser) - The ocean floor has a disturbing amount of trash on it—and a disturbing amount of it could have been recycled. Researchers from the California's Monterey Bay Aquarium have pored over a huge amount of video clips of trash discovered along the coast from Canada to California to Hawaii,...

China Now Turning Away US ... Trash

This is really bad news for recycling efforts in US cities

(Newser) - If your local recycler starts turning away your cans and bottles in the near future, blame China. Beijing has stopped accepting certain shipments of recycled plastic from the US, reports Quartz . (It reportedly will no longer welcome unwashed plastics and improperly sorted shipments; other reports say items like coffee cup...

Oslo&#39;s Weird Problem: Not Enough Garbage
Oslo's Weird Problem:
Not Enough Garbage
in case you missed it
May 4, 2013 1:13 PM CDT

Oslo's Weird Problem: Not Enough Garbage

Waste-to-energy plants running out of stuff to burn

(Newser) - Oslo has got a problem a lot of cities would love to share: a major shortage of garbage. Around half of the Norwegian capital is heated by garbage-burning power plants, but with recycling rates very high, the plants simply can't get enough of the stuff, the New York Times...

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