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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: garbage

garbage stories: 22 news summaries

1 - 20 of 22 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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 Egypt Kills All Pigs— 
 But Pigs Eat All Trash 

With no swine to eat garbage, waste piles up on city streets

Sep 20, 09 12:48 PM CDT
(Newser) - When the Egyptian government decided to kill all of Cairo’s pigs last spring in a pre-emptive measure to combat swine flu, they apparently forgot that the pigs performed a vital function in a city with poor public services: eating trash, the New York Times reports. The zabaleen, Cairo’s... More »

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trash • garbage • public health • Egypt • Cairo • Christians • swine flu

 Brown Begins 
 Community Service 

Singer cleans up in Va. as punishment for Rihanna beating

Sep 16, 09 7:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - Singer Chris Brown today began the community labor that’s part of his sentence for beating girlfriend Rihanna, MTV reports, with the singer posting a photo from the work to his Twitter feed. His 6 months of labor will include picking up trash in his native Virginia; Brown, 20, also... More »

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entertainment • garbage • domestic violence • Virginia • probation • community service • Rihanna • Twitter • Chris Brown • R&B • Jay-ZTV • Twitpic

(Newser) - Britain is accused of flouting international law by dumping toxic industrial and medical waste in Brazil and Ghana, the Times of London reports. Brazilian authorities were outraged to find over 1,000 tons of hazardous waste in 90 shipping containers labeled as holding recyclable plastic. "It is disgraceful that... More »

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Brazil • garbage • toxic waste • Britain • Ghana

Woman Tosses Mattress
Stuffed With Mom's $1M

It was her mom's life savings

Jun 10, 09 1:59 PM CDT
(Newser) - In hindsight, maybe the bank might've been a better idea: An Israeli woman dumped her mom's life savings when she decided to surprise her with a new mattress—and tossed the old one padded with nearly $1 million, CNN reports. City workers are helping the daughter search, and have... More »

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Israel • garbage • missing money • Tel Aviv • daughter • mother • mattress

 12 Museums of Odd Things 


May 18, 09 5:02 PM CDT
(Newser) - Trying to awake from the nightmare of history? Mental Floss' list of 12 "oddly specific" American museums may only give you bad dreams:
  • The SPAM Museum: Complete with a wall of 5,000 SPAM tins and a scale plant where visitors can suit up in white coats
... More »

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art • spam • garbage • museums • conspiracy • medical devices • pests • genetic abnormalities • ventriloquism • barbed wire • PEZ • hobo

 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

(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

 After Historic Day, 
 Historic Cleanup 

Trash-bin shortage caused tons of litter to pile up

Jan 22, 09 11:21 AM CST
(Newser) - Crews working into the wee hours hauled away at least 130 tons of garbage after America’s largest, and messiest, outdoor bash Tuesday, the Washington Post reports. With trashcans removed for security precautions, inauguration attendees littered the National Mall, leaving it looking like a rendition of Disney's Wall-E. Obama gear,... More »

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Washington DC • trash • garbage • National Mall • inauguration • President Obama • Inauguration Day

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 »

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pollution • Italy • landfill • garbage • Mafia • intimidation • toxins

 Houston Too Ornery to Recycle

'Independent streak,' cheap landfills have reuse rate at 2.6%, worst among US cities

Jul 29, 08 1:36 PM CDT
(Newser) - While other Texas cities are working hard to separate their garbage, Houston still considers recycling to be sissy stuff, earning the oil town the worst recycling rate of 30 top US cities. Houston recycles just 2.6% of its trash, the New York Times reports, while San Francisco is at... More »

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recycling • Texas • garbage • Houston

 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 »

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Italy • landfill • garbage • Naples • Silvio Berlusconi • psychologist

 Britons: New Trash 
 Laws Are Rubbish 

Controversial UK measures get tough on waste

Jun 27, 08 4:32 AM CDT
(Newser) - In the midst of a garbage overload, the UK is cracking down on trash with strict new rules, sparking a backlash among Britons, the New York Times reports. Many areas now pick up trash only biweekly, and accept only regulation amounts. Some reject recycling bins tainted with garbage. In response,... More »

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environment • recycling • trash • garbage • Britain

'Super' Mafia Witness Gunned Down in Naples

Slain informant was helping cops bust garbage gangs

Jun 3, 08 2:18 AM CDT
(Newser) - The boss of a garbage disposal firm with Mafia links who had turned informant was gunned down in a bar near Naples yesterday, the Guardian reports. The murdered man had been helping police target gangs that control waste disposal in the city, currently gripped by a garbage crisis. He had... More »

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organized crime • Italy • garbage • Naples • Mafia • Silvio Berlusconi • witness

 Trash Fires Blaze Across Naples 

Firefighters working overtime as angry residents burn excess garbage

May 19, 08 11:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - The prolonged garbage impasse in Naples has taken a new turn as angry residents began setting fire to thousands of tons of waste littering city streets. Firefighters were at work all night battling at least 90 burns across the city, AFP reports. “Every six to seven minutes, one of... More »

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Italy • trash • garbage • Naples • fire

Naples' Trash Tops Berlusconi's To-Do List

Incoming Italian PM says he'll be in garbage-strewn city three days a week

Apr 15, 08 4:52 PM CDT
(Newser) - Silvio Berlusconi said today his first task as Italy's prime minister will be to clean up garbage-strewn Naples, the BBC reports. After a clear victory for his center-right coalition in this week's elections, the 71-year-old media tycoon promised to spend three days a week in the city and to "... More »

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Italy • garbage • Naples • Silvio Berlusconi • Northern League

 Prized Cheese in Italy at Risk 

Toxins found in mozzarella after years of illegal trash dumping

Mar 27, 08 7:03 PM CDT
(Newser) - More consumers are turning up their noses at Italy’s prized buffalo mozzarella, and not over its smell, the New York Times reports. Toxins have been found in samples of the delicacy, likely caused by illegal dumping of garbage around Naples. Sales are down 40%, and farmers and restaurateurs fear... More »

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food contamination • Italy • garbage • Naples • cuisine • mozzarella • imported food • dioxin

 Got Junk? Call These Guys 

Company turns trash into profit

Mar 26, 08 12:56 PM CDT
(Newser) - A shed full of roller skates, 400 wedding dresses, 18,000 sardine cans, a diffused bomb—1-800-GOT-JUNK? hauls away more than just trash in its custom-built dump trucks. The largest junk-hauling company in North America turned clutter into revenues of $150 million this year, says NPR, while professionalizing the industry... More »

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trash • garbage • innovation • clutter • junk • 1-800-GOT-JUNK

Sea of Plastic Dooms Oceans, Expert Says

Pacific pollution—as
big as Africa—is too deep and broad to fix

Mar 5, 08 4:16 PM CST
(Newser) - A noted oceanographer says the aquatic pollution in the Pacific Ocean is too significant to be cleaned up. “We are damned to a future of pollution by plastic,” Charles Moore said after showing that the amount of Pacific plastic has ballooned fivefold in the last 10 years. A... More »

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recycling • pollution • global warming • plastic • Pacific Ocean • ocean • garbage • green revolution

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

Astronaut Takes Out the Trash, Into Space

Discarded equipment expected to burn up
in Earth's atmosphere

Jul 23, 07 4:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - A NASA astronaut hurled two large pieces of space junk—a 1,400-pound reservoir filled with ammonia and a 212-pound piece of video equipment—off the International Space Station and into the Earth's orbit today. NASA does not approve of space littering, Reuters reports, but the agency had no other... More »

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NASA • space • ocean • garbage • astronauts • space shuttle • atmosphere • International Space Station

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