Britons: New Trash Laws Are Rubbish

Camera phone posts pictures of garbage on Facebook, encourages recycling

(AP) - Now on Facebook: Your garbage. Or at least, the garbage of five households who signed up for a Newcastle University program that posts photos of every item dumped in one garbage can on Facebook. Hoping to raise consciousness about recycling efforts, it uses a sensor and a camera phone to snap an image each time the garbage can lid shuts. The person who does that is not photographed, and households that participate will be rated on how efficiently they recycle. So far, researchers say it's working. Non-recyclable garbage has diminished in the weeks since the program began. More»

Cities who divert the least from landfill named and shamed

(NEWSER) - The average American city recycles about a third of its waste, but the lack of any unified national standard for trash disposal means some cities rate way, way, below average. Mother Jones lists those with the biggest trash piles:

• Oklahoma City recycles only 3% of its waste. Households have to pay a steep price to recycle, resulting in the worst recycling rate in the land.

Scrap fetching a fraction of the price it used to—if it's not cheaper to send it to landfills

(NEWSER) - With the economy tanking, recyclable material is selling like, well, trash. Mixed paper, which sold for $105 per ton as recently as October, now fetches $20-$25, the New York Times reports. “It’s awful,” said one recycling rep, who says her yard is packed with refuse that can’t be sold. “Either it goes to landfill or it begins to cost us money.” More»

Plan was part of bid to host games

(NEWSER) - As part of London’s bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, organizers offered a plan to keep the Games green—but they’ve changed their minds. The committee will “no longer pursue formal offsetting procedures,” it said, dropping its pledge to balance carbon emissions from the Games with clean-energy investments in developing countries. Such offsetting would have “diverted” attention from Britain, says the Games’ sustainability chief. The decision also saves the organizing committee up to $4.4 million, Bloomberg reports. More»

Think 1% the size of Texas, not twice as big

(NEWSER) - The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is often said to be twice the size of Texas—but that and other scary-sounding claims are “grossly exaggerated,” some scientists are now insisting. A new study shows the plastic waste patch is actually 200 times smaller than previously claimed when comparing its mass to the amount of water; if you need a Texas-sized visual, it’s actually closer to 1% of the state's area, says researcher Angelicque White. More»