Rotorua has just received a $1 million grant to construct its new human waste processing plant. New Zealand Environment Minister Nick Smith announced that the funding would be granted to the council from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund. Making a statement at Scion yesterday, the Minister said that the project would benefit both Rotorua and the country overall. He added that the nation prided itself in using methods that were 100 per cent pure and said that Rotorua would have a challenge in that a large portion of the population lives away from the coast. The minister further said that New Zealand ... Full Story

Construction began today on the world’s first ever industrial scale waste-to-biofuel facility. Being built by privately-owned Enerkem Inc, the $75 million plant will be in Edmonton, Alberta and be able to generate enough biofuel to run over 400,000 vehicles each year using a five per cent ethanol fuel blend. Canada has been taking a forefront in the internationally community in biofuel investments as a means to reduce its carbon footprint. The country will announce in September that all petrol must have five per cent renewable content. Enerkem has obtained a 25-year agreement with the local Edmonton council to use 100,000 tonnes of ... Full Story

Cerebra Integrated Technologies, one of India’s premier total IT Solutions retailers, announced a new partnership with Cimelia Resource Recovery Pte Ltd, India’s biggest e-waste recycling firm. The alliance will allow Cerebra Integrated to begin work on its proposed e-waste recycling facility, set to be constructed near Bangalore. Located on 10 acres of land in the region, the new electronic waste recycling unit will be set-up entirely by Cimelia including machinery. The recycling firm will also aid Cerebra in the managing of the new facility. Appropriately dubbed the E-waste plant, the new recycling unit will allow Cerebra Integrated to double its e-waste recycling ... Full Story

According to Local Government Minister Rodney Hide, Aucklanders’ will save up to 20 per cent on their water bills as soon as next July. As the Super City Council looks to outline new ratepayer gains, the announcement follows Auckland’s water providers being consolidated into one firm, Watercare Services Limited. The new utility will introduce one tariff that will cover 1,000 litres for $1.30 as opposed to the previous range of $1.31 to $2.33. According to Mr Hide, the council has reviewed 11 reports that stated that one water agency would lead to significant savings for local residents. Wastewater charges have not yet ... Full Story

A joint research team from China and the US has been studying the effects of e-waste recycling on both people and the environment. Recycled electronic waste may be the next major environmental issue on the horizon for developing countries as they try to deal with high pollution levels and a degrading environment. Scientists have now uncovered that the chemicals and toxins emitted by recycling e-waste could pose severe environmental and health risks. Scientists in both China and the US used various toxic elements, separated from a recycling workshop at an e-waste facility within China’s Shantou City. Using base technology, they filtered out ... Full Story

A new scheme in Cleveland will see residents having to ensure their recycling is out in a timely manner or risk receiving a fine of $100. As the fine-based recycling schemes grow in popularity worldwide, many local authorities in the UK and US have taken to adopting the scheme. Prior to the coalition government’s announcement that the UK would focus primarily on rewards-based recycling, councils across the country were beginning to adopt penalty-based initiatives. This latest scheme in the US city in Ohio will see RFID smart chips placed into bins in order to monitor which residents are placing rubbish out on ... Full Story

Westfield Shopping Centre announced today the launch of its new recycling initiative, which will see an expected 675 tonnes of beverage containers diverted from landfill per year. The scheme, which will be rolled out on a national level, could collect enough recyclable material to fill nine Olympic swimming pools per year. The Parliamentary Secretary for the NSW Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Angela D’Amore MP was on hand to official kick-off the campaign at the Westfield mall in Burwood, NSW yesterday. According to Ms. D’Amore the coordinated recycling plan was a first for Australia and that it would significantly ... Full Story

In a new report by the US Department of Labour, the number of deaths within the solid waste collection industry has declined significantly since 2009. Compared with figures in 2008, the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, revealed that the fatality rate in both landfill and solid waste collection employees has continued to drop in recent years. The report shows that both refuse and recyclable materials collectors have seen 12 fewer fatalities during 2009, which constitutes a 39 per cent drop in deaths in the industry. With 31 deaths in 2008, there were just 19 ... Full Story

The EPA’s chief administrator, Lisa Jackson, has announced that the governing body would amp up efforts to prevent e-waste and move towards a more sustainable approach to the growing issue of electronic debris. The move comes as part of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s top six global priorities that were recently announced. The others include carbon emissions, improving water quality, reducing toxic exposures, improving air quality and building stronger institutional framework. Ms Jackson’s comments were given when she spoke at the public reception launching the 17th Session of the Commission on Environmental Co-operation. Jim Puckett, executive director for the Basel Action Network, said ... Full Story

A container filled with e-waste has been seized within the Southern Indian city of Chennai after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence dubbed it ‘e-waste dumping’. The Indian media reported yesterday that the shipment had been confiscated after DRI investigators deemed the shipment an illegal dump sent over from Brunei. The container, which arrived marked for Venus Metals located in the Chennai suburbs, had been marked ‘switch board scrap’. However, when authorities opened it, they found 166 computer monitors, circuit boards, loose electrical motor parts, 89 control panels and several broken computer accessories. C. Rajan, the Additional Director General for DRI, said ... Full Story

Environment authorities in Brazil are outraged after it was discovered that contaminated household waste had arrived in a shipment from Germany. Falsely declared as safe items for recycling, the cargo had been illegally shipped from the port of Hamburg. Totally 22 tonnes of hazardous household waste, the refuse was immediately shipped back to its origin. Brazilian officials seized the waste after it was found arriving into the port of Rio Grande last week. The shipment arrived labeled as plastics arriving from the Czech Republic for recycling and resale in South America. Officials opened the cargo to instead find used diapers, ... Full Story

... Full Story