UK residents are being urged to recycle their old phone books in order to prevent massive amounts of paper waste which has begun accumulating in UK landfill sites. Each year thousands of the popular Yellow Pages phone directories are issued to their customers, however many do not recycle the old phone books leaving paper waste to pile up across the country. Each year in Redbridge thousands of copies of the popular phone directory are being sent into the rubbish bin and hauled straight to a landfill. Now, the Redbridge Council is hoping to curb this environmentally unfriendly habit and encourage residents ... Full Story

A train station in Bromley will be the site for a new recycling scheme trial designed to help commuters recycle cans and plastic bottles. Three new recycling units will be placed at the station and Bromley Council will be in charge of emptying and recycling the waste collected there. Southeastern will partner with Bromley South station for the scheme set to began March 2. For the first time, commuters at this station will be capable of separating out their paper, plastic, and metal can garbage avoiding sending such waste to a landfill. The Bromley Council has said that it will be responsible ... Full Story

Last year, UK paper mills produced roughly 4.3m tonnes of board and paper. Although these numbers indicated a 14% drop from figures in 2008, the trend over the last five years has shown that paper production across the UK has been dropping steadily. In all the paper packaging industry has dropped in production by 31% since 2004. However, industry officials are arguing that the industry was struggling before the recession hit, and in some cases, according to Andrew Barneston, corrugated sector manager for Confederation of Paper Industries, this made the industry more prepared to handle the economic downturn. It seems that now ... Full Story

According to a new report, the U.S. airline industry currently generates over 880 million tons of waste each year. Of that waste only a very small percentage is actually recycled by these airlines. The recycling report card, which graded each airline for recycling habits, revealed that no airline was doing an A job. Topping the list for best recyclers included Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, and Delta. However, United and US Airways managed to fail miserably. Even with some of the airlines coming in first on the list, not a single US carrier rated above a B-. The report, entitled What Goes Up ... Full Story

Investors are flocking towards new environmental technology as this segment of the business world has seen massive growth over the last few years.  New recycling plants and energy from waste plants are popping up all over the world and many world leaders believe that one of the best ways to create new jobs will be through green technology.  However, this growth is still not happening fast enough, largely due to the sluggish global economy which has left many countries in severe debt.  The United Kingdom continues to be mired in an economic recession which is one of the longest in ... Full Story

It is nice to have Christmas cards on the mantle but even the most sentimental person knows that eventually even the card from dear old granny is still getting tossed in the rubbish bin.  The holiday season can be a time of great joy but also a time of great waste, as logic, common sense, and environmental propriety are often thrown out the window in the name of having something look pretty.  Christmas cards are one such thing, a nice sentiment but ultimately wasteful and damaging to the environment.  This is why the Woodland Trust launched its annual Christmas card ... Full Story

When most people think of trees during the holiday season they think of the evergreen that adorns their living room and acts as a shelter for Santa's many gifts.  After all, the Christmas tree is one of the most enduring symbols of Christmas and every year millions of homes around the world are filled with the scent of a freshly cut tree.  However, there are other trees that people should be thinking about during the holidays and those are the ones that must be cut down to produce the tonnes of greeting cards and wrapping paper that will be sent ... Full Story

A lot of things have changed about recycling in the last four decades.  The word itself has become a household term in that time as now nearly every person over the age of four is aware of what this word means.  Not only that but the education level of the public has increased dramatically when it comes to the environment.  Forty years ago only a small group of people even knew what recycling was and now nearly every home in the United Kingdom has multiple recycling bins and every member of the household knows how to use them.  All of ... Full Story

In the aftermath of Christmas many people look around their homes both inside and out and find a lot of waste leftover from holiday celebrations.   Some of these decorations will go into boxes where they will be stored until next Christmas when they will once again be strung and hung for a week.  However, most of the waste associated with Christmas cannot be re-used which leads to the holiday season being one of the most wasteful times of the year.  Wrapping paper goes unrecycled, Christmas trees are tossed carelessly into landfills, and old electronic devices are discarded in favor of ... Full Story

Everyone has felt the pressure of opening a gift on Christmas that they knew they were not going to like.  They've felt the eyes of their loved ones upon them as they open the hideous sweater or tie given to them by their Aunt, or had to watch with worry as their child turned their nose up at a new pair of socks.  Even though most people have learned to mask their disappointment when they receive a gif that they don’t' want or like it still leaves the question of what to do with a gift that will likely end ... Full Story

With all of the talk of the environment over the last few months it has become the hottest issue in the world.  After the Copenhagen summit, which many are calling a failure, it became even clearer that it would fall upon the shoulders of local authorities to produce real change.  This is why the government of the United Kingdom has put pressure on local authorities to roll out more innovative schemes that will motivate their residents to recycle more and produce less waste.  This has led to some of the better plans coming from small towns, where they are much ... Full Story

As people gather for the holidays most are thinking about family and friends and the various parties that they will go to.  They are buying gifts for loved ones, or waiting in anticipation for what surprises they might receive.  What many of them may be surprised to find out is that Christmas is one of the most wasteful times of the year and can be very damaging to the environment.  With all of the talk about climate change over the last year people are finally starting to recognize some of their most wasteful habits and are making an effort to ... Full Story