Website reff. Wake Up People! Our Growing Trash Problem is Harming Marine and Land Animals (Including Us) The world is expected to produce approximately 2.6 trillion pounds of garbage by the end of this year, a figure equivalent to the mass of 7,000 Empire State Buildings.
Whether residential, industrial, or commercial, most of this trash (59 percent) goes directly to landfills, where it is covered with soil and compressed daily. While some corporations have found various uses for old landfills, in most cases, the garbage that is deposited at these sites remains there for an indefinite amount of time. We already know one way that landfills affect our environment, with the methane emissions from degrading materials contributing directly to the greenhouse effect. Brexit – How the Waste & Recycling Industry Reacted to Referendum Result « Markets & Policy « Waste Management World.
Expressions of both fear and optimism have been expressed by senior figures in the waste and recycling industry this morning, following the UK’s referendum decision to leave the European Union, “The referendum result will extend and intensify the uncertainty around both our industry and the UK more generally,” commented Jacob Haylor, executive director of the Environmental Services Association (ESA).
He added that the danger now is that the waste and recycling sector is placed at the bottom of the Government’s in-tray. “It is therefore vital for us to make the case for the circular economy within the UK and to highlight the advantages of a strong and competitive resource efficient economy. LSN : Behaviours : Korean zero waste. Clothing & textiles. Zero-waste bloggers: the millennials who can fit a year's worth of trash in a jar. Textile recycling innovation challenges clothing industry. IKEA is launching a whole range of "no waste" products made from recycled materials. IKEA wants to make sustainable living accessible for the masses, and they just announced a new line of “no waste” products that will make your wallet and the planet happy.
Their new line includes seating, vases and kitchen cabinets, all made out of recycled materials. Sustainable Publishing From Madame Jeanette. Inside Liam, Apple's super-secret, 29-armed recycling robot. CUPERTINO, Calif — I’m standing in a warehouse parking lot at an undisclosed location just a few miles from Apple’s headquarters here.
The company, once known for keeping massive projects a secret, has recently been battling a string of product leaks. But as I try to figure out exactly where I am, I’m told Apple is ready to pull the sheets off something that’s been more than three years in the making. Something that, Apple believes, has never been done, or seen, before. As we walk toward the warehouse, the doors automatically lift from above. Inside, boxes crowd the space. Zero-waste Japanese town builds a unique building from abandoned materials. Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP just won the WAN Sustainable Buildings Award 2016 for their stunning Kamikatz Public House, a sundries shop and pub that symbolizes the Japanese town Kamikatsu’s commitment to zero waste.
The eco-conscious structure is affordably built out of reclaimed materials and showcases reuse in creative and inspirational ways. The small yet ambitious Japanese town of Kamikatsu has achieved an 80% recycling rate and residents sort their waste into 34 categories. The Kamikazt Public House embraces the zero waste mission in its design, particularly with its eye-catching eight-meter-tall window wall made from a hodgepodge of windows reclaimed from nearby abandoned houses. The eight-meter-tall window wall and other openings bring in cool breezes in the summer, while a carbon-neutral radiation heater warms the structure in winter. Enzyme soup: is this the future of recycling? The world’s largest waste-to-biogas conversion plant is gearing up for a grand opening next spring in Northwich, north-west England, using advanced enzyme technology to handle unsorted domestic waste.
Around 15 tonnes of trash per hour – 120,000 tonnes a year – will be sorted at the REnescience plant in a process that will power nearly 10,000 homes, according to Dong Energy, which runs the project. The Danish energy company has invested £60m in the Northwich venture, which will use trash collections by local councils in Chester and Wigan to produce 5MW of renewable energy.
Food Waste Forum - Slow Food International. At this year’s Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, five actors involved in addressing the current food waste crisis came together to share their work and encourage change for the future.
On the panel were three experts: Alexandre Meybeck, Senior Policy Officer at FAO, Professor Paolo Corvo of the University of Gastronomic Sciences and Maria Louisa Amerio, a nutrition expert who recently conducted a food waste report within Piedmontese hospitals. Joining them were Kathleen Mann, an American college student, and Kazuhiro Kimura, a Japanese chef. In recent years, the problem of food waste has begun to receive attention from governments, consumers, and businesses in countries around the world. It is a critical topic because it lies at the crossroads of so many of the other issues surrounding the 21st century’s broken food system. Food waste occurs along the entire food chain. Food waste goes against what Slow Food values, because it blatantly disregards the real value of our food.
Festival of Thrift 2016, 17 & 18 Sept at Kirkleatham, Redcar. Cafes - The Real Junk Food Project. Upcycling Goes High Fashion. What was once considered merely a new way to recycle has turned into a movement.
Innovative, sustainable companies like Looptworks, Rewilder, and Bureo are making high-quality, trendy and desirable products using wasted materials, bringing us ever closer to a circular economy. This isn’t your environmentalist or hippie friend’s upcycling anymore. Upcycling is now not only good for the environment. The Real Junk Food Project Opens UK's First Food Waste Supermarket.
Waste not want not: Sweden to give tax breaks for repairs. The Swedish government is introducing tax breaks on repairs to everything from bicycles to washing machines so it will no longer make sense to throw out old or broken items and buy new ones.
Sweden’s ruling Social Democrat and Green party coalition is set to submit proposals to parliament on Tuesday to slash the VAT rate on repairs to bicycles, clothes and shoes from 25% to 12%. It will also submit a proposal that would allow people to claim back from income tax half of the labour cost on repairs to appliances such as fridges, ovens, dishwashers and washing machines. “We believe that this could substantially lower the cost and so make it more rational economic behaviour to repair your goods,” said Per Bolund, Sweden’s minister for financial markets and consumer affairs and one of six Green party cabinet members.
Bolund has been a key figure in driving through the new incentives. Turning Old Blue Jeans into Paper - Story.