I wrote as early as 2008 about plastic being a curse for our oceans. It seems the situation may completely out of control as according to the World Economic Forum plastic could outweigh fishes in our oceans by mid century.
recycling
Lego to ditch oil for its bricks
I have played with Lego bricks all my childhood, something that sparked my curiosity and inventivity. But as they are made of oil, and the age of oil is going to an close. Plus climate change urges to act. So what to do ?
Using the most natural gas there is
What if we recycled absolutely everything ? We are on our way to recycle or valorize all kinds of wastes but what about the body ones ? If I had written about urine a few times, it wasn’t that frequent I wrote about…
The American success story of tire recycling
Here is an impressive environmental success story that took place in the United States. According to Mother Nature Network, up to 90 percent of the two to three billion tires dumped in the USA have been recycled over the past few decades.
To MNN : ” In 2011, 197 million scrap tires were recycled or repurposed, a number that’s growing. The biggest category is tire-derived fuel, (…) but more than 500,000 tons (26.2 percent) became ground rubber and playground walkways “
In the full article there is a link to a great story from Maryland, where 1.2 million old tires were dumped in a wetland. After having them removed, Nature got back to its original state.
Could we get a composting bin ?
This is the question I am currently asking myself often as I discard every day my used tea leaves – I drink around a litre of tea every single day – and other fruit skin and peel as well as other compostable stuff into my refuse bin.
As I have been sorting out my waste for nearly twenty years, it has been part of my daily life and would have a hard time NOT sorting my stuff. (It only was the case for a year, when I lived in Dublin back to 2004/5)
So I have three bins in my place : one for the glass, one for what can be recycled – cartons, papers and metal cans – and the third for everything else.
Turning trash to gold : global waste market to double
According to a leading American bank, the global waste industry could double to $2 trillion by 2020. This is due to as Business Green notes to ” the combination of urbanisation, looming resource shortages and environmental regulation “
This takes into account municipal and industrial waste management, recycling, waste-to-energy and sustainable packaging. Europe is seen as facing the “toughest strategic challenges ” while Asia and Latin America see the fastest growth.
Opportunities are due to abound in waste management, waste to energy (WtE), wastewater and sewage and recycling among others.
Recycling and composting are progressing in Europe
Here is another article I wrote for Cleantechies, this time tackling a vital sustainability issue : our waste, and what we do with it. This post takes a look at what share we are recycling and composting. Here is the introduction : ” According to the European statistics agency, Eurostat, in the 27 members of … Read more
Composting matters
Within my current involvement with the local JCI, I have been collecting information about biodegradable waste and composting. This is a question of importance as more than 30 percent of French waste could be biodegradable.
Meanwhile, recyclable waste – paper, cartons, glasses – represent just one percent more and are sorted out and recycled. I thus believe food leftovers, fruits and vegetable peelings, coffee and tea waste belong to a special bin.
This would have a lot of advantages as we will see in today’s post and I hope this will be as common as sorting out recyclables in a decade.
Worth an article – My March 2012 tweets
I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector.
However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are worth reading. This is why I use Twitter to share dozens of news that are worth your time.
I believe it offers a good complement to this website. So if you are on Twitter and like this selection, don’t hesitate to start following me.
Sony slashed its emissions by 31% since 2000
To TreeHugger : ” Electronics giant Sony announced today that since 2000, it has achieved a 31 percent reduction in global CO2 emissions. The company boasts that means it surpassed its 2006 “Green Management” goal by 24 percent ” ” It did also achieve, though, a 54 percent reduction in waste generation (the goal was … Read more
How green is the iPhone ?
This is the question one might ask as there are so many of them nowadays. Geekaphone answers this with a brilliant infographic by having a close look at its fabrication and lifecycle. Did you know that during its lifecycle, an iPhone 4 will emit the equivalent of 45 kgs of carbon dioxide ? 57 % … Read more