E-waste plagues practically every country in the known world. There are some locales that are making decent headway in the battle to keep old CPUs out of the trash and among them are Romania and Turkey. Scientists in Romania and Turkey have succeeded in solving one of the world's most perplexing environmental dilemmas - what to do with discarded circuit boards. Discarded circuit boards and other computer waste contain high levels of toxic chemicals including lead, mercury, antimony trioxide, arsenic, polybrominated flame redundant, cadmium, selenium, chromium, and cobalt. Statistics show that by 2010 approximately 100,000 mobile phones and 300,000 PCs ... Full Story

Many of us can't wait to get our hands on the latest and fanciest mobile phone on the market. After all, mobile phones are the way to stay in touch and everyone likes to look good while using one. When the time comes to replace your old handset, you should be asking yourself, "Where do old mobile phones go to die?" Unfortunately, the answer is usually, "a landfill". Concerned about the astounding rate in which people are overturning their mobile phones and e-gadgets, the United Nations has chosen gadget-obsessed mobile phone users to be the keynote topic at the five-day conference ... Full Story

Heidelberg, the world leader in printing presses and digital technology, recently used the stage at drupa 2008 to announce that it is expanding its Saphira range of consumables. Based in Germany, drupa 2008 is the world's largest printing and graphic arts exhibition in the world. While at drupa 2008, Heidelberg will also launch an extended system solution for its InkLine automated ink supply system, which will now be known as InkStar. InkStar cartridges manufactured from recycled materials, which corresponds well with Heidelberg's two-stage cutting and shredding system, which will appear at drupa, can dispose of empty cartridges while reducing waste ... Full Story

On June 11, The Order to create the Waste and Recycling Board was laid before Parliament and is set to appear for approval before a General Committee in the House of Commons on July 2 and a Grand Committee in the House of Lords on July 8. The long term goal is for the Board to allocate the £84 million over three years to waste projects in the capital, to help London reach its aim of managing 85% of the waste it creates by 2020. If approved, the Order will create the London Waste and Recycling Board, a body responsible for providing ... Full Story

Renewable Energy Strategy, a consultation organisation launched by John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, has announced a proposal designed to restrict the amount of organic waste that typically goes into a landfill. The proposal also intends to maximise its use as a renewable fuel. The plan outlines a scheme to enable the UK to meet its projected 15% renewable energy target by 2020. If the programme goes as planned nearly one third of electricity will be generated from renewable items. As many eco conscious people know, renewable energy is a key element in a carbon neutral ... Full Story

Composters are finding themselves stuck in the middle between the high demand for fertiliser and the rapidly rising cost of petrol. This is both good and bad news for the composters. High demand means that their businesses are booming, yet the petrol prices are causing the cost for the compost to go up and in some cases, be a bit scarce. Last year, over 50% of all the compost manufactured from "source-segregated waste" was utilised by the agricultural marketplace. Earlier this week, industry members stated that the composting market was "buoyant" due to a booming interest from the farming sector and steadily ... Full Story

A new study has shown that kerbside collection schemes are more cost-effective for local authorities than the traditional single stream co-mingled, or mixed, collections. The research, recently published by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), was titled ‘Indicative Costs and Performance of Kerbside Collection Systems'. The purpose was to examine the cost effectiveness and performance of recycling services which include standard kerbside sort collections as well as single stream co-mingled and two stream partially co-mingled services. Kerbside collections remain the most cost effective yet two stream co-mingled collections, which keeps paper separate, have "similar net costs to kerbside sort schemes". Research did, ... Full Story

A Maricopa Meadows home builder should have read up on recycling methods before fleeing town. Frontier Homes, a home builder located in a city in Arizona, decided to flee town without a word but left behind the company PC as well as all its files. The refuse was found by Raymond Shaban, a homeowner who went to the company sales office to inquire about warranty work on his year-old home. When Shaban arrived, he didn't find any friendly salespeople. Instead he found a nearly empty trailer and a parking lot littered with various objects such as desks, a filing cabinet, ... Full Story

Two remarkable men have pledged to trek more than 4,000 miles from the source of the Amazon River into southern Peru finally, to the mouth in Brazil. Luke Collyer, a professional outdoor instructor, and Ed Stafford, a former British Army Captain, started on this once in a life time journey earlier this year and expect the trip to take approximately 16 and 18 months. Ed and Luke will become the first men ever to traverse the exotic world of the Amazon. The trip has utilised a number of fundraising schemes in order to fund the trip, including recycling efforts involving printer ... Full Story

In an attempt to further strengthen its hold in the region, Sims UK has purchased Halesowen-based Evans and Mondon Ltd., another West Midlands based ferrous metal recycling plant. Evans and Mondon Ltd. has been in operation since 1947 and currently employs a staff of 16 people. The facility recycles approximately 30,000 tonnes of metal per year. Sims UK, a subsidiary of global metal recycling giant Sims Group, acquired Evans and Mondon Ltd. A mere seven months after it purchased scrap metal merchant, ER Coley (Steel) Ltd. The cost of the acquisition of Evans and Mondon Ltd. has not been released ... Full Story

In an effort to boost its 22% recycling rate, the Liverpool City Council has announced that its new recycling contract will go to Enterprise-Liverpool. Enterprise-Liverpool is a partnership formed between the Liverpool City Council and Enterprise Plc, a Lancashire-based services firm. The new partnership will assume the city's waste and recycling collections from its current contractor Veolia Environmental Services. The contract change will take place in November. Enterprise-Liverpool already provides the city's street cleaning services. The council hopes the new contract for recycling will help to increase the city's "historically low recycling rate". Unless there are any successful appeals, the seven-year contract ... Full Story

By now, everyone knows that you're supposed to recycle your old mobile phone instead of tossing it into the trash where it will end up in landfill purgatory. Many people try to make a reasonable effort to be environmentally responsible but there are still some out there who, for some reason, still insist on keeping their old mobile phones around and eventually those old phones are forgotten. New fundraising and incentive programmes may help these hoarders let go of their old phones. The effort to recycle your old mobile phone is really quite minimal and the result may be a very ... Full Story