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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: landfill

landfill stories: 10 news summaries

 America's Worst 
 Recycling Cities 

Cities who divert the least from landfill named and shamed

May 13, 09 6:36 AM CDT
(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
... More »

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recycling • trash • landfill • garbage • cities • Oklahoma City

McAuliffe Tack: Virginia Is for Garbage Lovers

He's leading Dem race for governor with new zeal for solid waste

Mar 20, 09 10:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - For Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic party chief turned Virginia gubernatorial candidate, the way to Old Dominion’s heart runs through trash. “I love trash," he tells Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. "I love chicken litter, cow manure, garbage. This is the kind of thing that... More »

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trash • landfill • Virginia • Terry McAuliffe • governor

(Newser) - The current recession was fairly clear to a certain segment of the population as far back as late 2007, the Washington Post reports—landfill operators. Since then, dumps and garbage collectors have seen a steep drop-off in trash—in some cases up to 30%—along with their own jobs.... More »

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trash • landfill • garbage • waste • recession • consumer spending • packaging

Under Italy's Mob, Toxic
Trash Heaps Growing

Intimidation rife as garbage threatens public health

Aug 30, 08 3:24 PM CDT
(Newser) - Heaps of garbage tower in southern Italy’s legal and illegal dumps, and may even be contributing to cancer and birth defects in the area—but the mafia’s grip on disposal makes it near impossible to fix the problem, the Los Angeles Times reports. “For years the waste... More »

MORE ABOUT:
pollution • Italy • landfill • garbage • Mafia • intimidation • toxins

 Italy Calls In Shrinks
 for Garbage Crisis 

Berlusconi dispatches psychologists as part of promise to clean up mess

Jul 3, 08 8:50 PM CDT
(Newser) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has a “final solution" to Naples' trash problem—and it includes psychologists, Der Spiegel reports. Naples, whose overflowing landfills have led to intermittently trash-choked streets for years, will soon be invaded by an army of volunteers, including a group of psychologists trained in counseling... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Italy • landfill • garbage • Naples • Silvio Berlusconi • psychologist

OPINION

 Artists Are Making
 Junk—Literally 

Despite greenie claims, they flush chemicals, abandon art pieces

May 30, 08 8:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - Beware the scruffy artists at the corner cafe—they may be serial polluters and not even know it, Laurie Fendrich writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Many painters, tree-huggers by claim, will flush chemicals down the drain, and ignore the carbon footprint of their synthetic pigments. They just... More »

MORE ABOUT:
art • landfill • toxic chemicals • artist • toxic waste • environmental damage

As World's Belly Rumbles, Gluttonous US Tosses Food 

27% of available food ends up in the trash

May 18, 08 11:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - Americans throw out roughly a quarter of all food available for consumption, even as grocery prices skyrocket and global riots break out over food shortages, the New York Times reports. That works out to about a pound of food every day for every American—from grocery stories tossing spoiled produce... More »

MORE ABOUT:
food • landfill • waste • donation • food prices • food shortage

Plasma May Zap City's Garbage Crisis

New tech could burn off Vancouver's garbage and make electricity

Feb 17, 08 6:48 PM CST
(Newser) - Vancouver may have a fix for its garbage overflow crisis: Burn the trash into a gas that makes electricity. A Canadian company called Plasco Energy Group has proposed a plant that zaps waste into ionized gas, or plasma; about a fifth of it would run the plant and the rest... More »

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energy • trash • landfill • garbage • waste • Vancouver • plasma gasification • Plasco

Tax Helped the Irish Bag Plastic

When gov't enacted 33-cent tax, usage dropped 94% in weeks

Feb 6, 08 12:13 PM CST
(Newser) - "Paper or plastic?" is perhaps the last question you'll hear on the Emerald Isle, thanks to a 33-cent tax on each plastic bag that cut Irish consumption by 94% within weeks of its 2002 enactment, reports the New York Times. Cloth bags have become downright fashionable since, but... More »

MORE ABOUT:
plastic bags • taxes • environmentalism • plastic • landfill • Ireland • supermarket • paper bags

Naples Reeks as Garbage Dumps, Landfills Close

Trash crisis in
tourist mecca heats up along with weather

May 31, 07 6:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Mounds of smelly garbage are piling up in the streets of Naples, as a shortage of places to dump it has reached a crisis: the last landfill in Naples closed Saturday. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is pleading with politicians and citizens to save the the country's image, the Times reports. More »

MORE ABOUT:
Italy • trash • landfill • garbage • Naples • The Comorra • Giorgio Napolitano

10 Stories


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