The focus on power industry may be much more efficient than that of implementing laws to stop environmental pollution

Public concern rising over the past decade about the impact of air pollution on the environment, pressure is mounting on national and supranational governments need to take action to slow down the pace of climate change and improve air quality.

The spotlight has fallen on a much easier target – the power industry than that of implementing politically unpopular measures to tackle pollution from automobiles. In spite of Western European countries being considered as highly developed by global standards, utilities in a number of countries were only required to comply with fairly lax environmental standards, usually citing the defense that to place tough restrictions on the power industry which could harm the country in question’s ability to economic competence.

The EU has come forward to take some steps as they always do. This situation has now been challenged by the European Union (EU), which has passed a series of laws designed to reduce emission levels of greenhouse gases. Other factors like the introduction of emissions trading and higher electricity prices have created the best investment climate for power infrastructure spending for a number of years.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and complete the circle by purchasing recycled products

Isn’t it great news that it takes five two-liter bottles to make one extra large T-shirt? This not only an environment friendly concept but also a profitable project too. An environmentally friendly use for recycled materials has proven to be profitable over the last 10 years for Graham and Steve Jarrett.

They operate a corporation in Palm Coast, Florida called Clothes Made From Scrap, Inc. They make clothing, hats, and totes made from recycled plastic bottles and re-claimed cotton. Reclaimed cotton is scrap gathered from the manufacturing floor and re-polymerized as recycled cotton fiber.

The pioneer of this project is Graham Jarrett, who was exposed to some of the initial T-shirts manufactured by Hoecht, Inc., a German chemical company. Even, He decided to leave his career in finance as a chartered accountant.

“I started his new business and showed no profit his first year. A modest income was achieved every year thereafter. Clothes Made From Scrap, Inc. buys their recycled polyfiber from Wellman, Inc., a mill located in North Carolina. Wellman introduced the first polyester textile fiber made from post-consumer PET packaging in 1993", said Mr. Jarrett.

The organization gathers more than 2.5 billion PET bottles and containers in a year. The material purchased from Wellman by Clothes Made From Scrap, Inc. is marketed under the name of Fortrel® EcoSpun®. This fiber is used to make products such as blankets, T-shirts, soft luggage and socks.

Mr. Jarrett's mantra is "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and complete the circle by purchasing recycled products."

Gresham needs our help to make a pollution free environment.

An important thing to remember about using the blue dustbin is to keep glass in another container such as a curby or a bucket as well as and no plastic bags are allowed there.

We generally just grab the cans, cardboard, paper and plastic tubs and throw them into the big blue rolling container. And when the big tub is full, we just roll it out to the sidewalk and the process starts all over again. But we do not think of recycling the stuffs in an efficient way.
But do we know how to recycle it?

Well, the Staff members at the city of Gresham have thought a lot about this and provides us with some some guidelines to help recycling go as smoothly as possible. Recycling refresher on using the blue roll carts

Gresham’s blue roll carts were introduced first in summer 2007, the amount of residential recycling collected in the city has increased and feedback from the public has been overwhelmingly positive, says Recycling and Solid Waste city staff.

They also say-“To keep the community’s recycling success moving forward, Gresham’s haulers need your help on a few issues.”

There are some tips given by Gresham’s haulers:

* Never include plastic bags with recycling. These get tangled up in the processing equipment and cause serious problems for processors. You can recycle plastic bags at most grocery stores.

* Always keep glass bottles and jars in a separate curby/bin from other recyclables. Broken glass shards are too difficult to separate from other recyclables.

*Place garbage and recycling containers out with adequate space for the trucks to lift each bin. Many of the collection trucks are using automated arms and need 3 feet between containers, and no obstruction from trees, cars and basketball hoops, to work properly.

*Only put out your recycling roll cart when it is full.

*Make your weekly “garbage day,” and you get up early to roll out your blue recycling cart to the curb before the trucks start coming down the street to empty your container.

So let’s give our hand to Gresham’s haulers to get a pollution free environment.

COPELAND Council’s recycling has been very active throughout Copeland.

COPELAND Council’s recycling percentage have reached over 41%. And they have branded their refused and recycling vehicles newly to help drive up the rates even further.

According to Janice Carrol, the waste services manager for Copeland Council, “We’ve changed the panels on our waste vehicles to give a fresh, clear message about the importance of recycling and minimising waste.”

“As we wanted the message to be as relevant as possible, we’ve used our own employees and their families in the striking designs. Hopefully, this will help us raise our recycling rate even further.”

Between April 2009 and March 2010 over 41 percent of all waste collected by the authority was recycled. Copeland aims to increase this figure to 45 per cent by the end of the current financial year. The council has seen the amount of waste sent for landfill disposal decrease by 2000 tones. This is the equivalent of around 200 full refuse-vehicle loads. It gathers paper, glass and cans for recycling from the curbside of over 90 per cent of households in the borough.

It also runs recycling points in towns and villages throughout Copeland.

Keep the soil safe like South Australia

Which is the most top rubbish? Plastic bottles, poly bags, cans and so on. But according to the head of Clean UP Australia Day South Australia is the only state where drink containers are not among the top five types of rubbish collected.

Ian Kiernan has repeated invitation calls to other states to introduce levies to cut the number of cans and bottles that are dumped.


"To make cans out of recycled material, you can make seven cans out of the same energy it would take to make one new can," he said.

"So with global warming and emissions, that sort of thing, that's a very good reason to look to increasing your rates of recovery."






Cans harm the soil. So keeping the soil safe it has been an important step

Residents participating in the city of Dalton curbside recycling program.

People participating in the city of Dalton curbside recycling program gathered more than one million pounds of recyclables products during the first six months of 2010.

According to the city of Dalton Curbside Recycling Report, produced by the Dalton-Whitfield Regional Solid Waste Authority’s Materials Recovery Facility or Recycling Center,Some 550.1 tons or 1.1 million pounds of recyclables were collected during the months of January to June.

Recycling takes a product at the end of its utility and makes the best use of it by utilizing all or part of it to make another product instead of more garbage. Plastic bottles, such as water and soda bottles, yield enough fiber to make one extra large T-shirt, one square foot of carpet, or enough fiber to fill one ski jacket. That’s the equivalent of a stack of newspapers 5.95 miles long.

The destination for this year is 1,200 tons or 2,4 million pounds. Products collected for recycling include papea square foot carpet, aluminum cans, bi-metal, Dalton curbside recycling program, glass bottles, jars, large T-shirt, plastic and glass bottles, plastic bottles, recyclables, ski jacket, tin cansr, magazines, newspaper, cardboard, plastic bottles and jugs with the No. 1 or No. 2 recycling symbol, aluminum cans, bi-metal or tin cans, and glass bottles and jars that are clear, brown, green or blue.

At present recycling unused products has been an important issue to save the environment. It helps to protect the environment, a profitable business as well.

The Sierra Club and Environment Texas punishes Exxon Mobil Corporation.

The Sierra Club and Environment Texas announced to the public about their intention to sue Exxon Mobil Corporation for violations of the Clean Air Act by their refinery and chemical plant complex in Baytown. This decision was based on self-reported violations from the oil giant to the state of Texas over period of about five years.

The plant in Baytown is the largest oil refinery in the nation consisting of over 562,500 barrels refined a day.

Sierra Club and Environment Texas started their complaints by notifying Exxon Mobil of their intent to sue for over 400 emission incidents of equipment breakdowns and malfunctions in the November. Then, on July 2, the groups sent a second notice of intent to sue with several hundred additional emission violations listed.

"It's simple" said environmental attorney Josh Kratker.

In fact, Sierra Club and Environment Texas want to stop the environmental pollution that is billowing out of the refinery and chemical plants at astonishing rates.

Exxon Mobil has released more than ten million pounds of air pollutants over their already generous limit. Exxon Mobil's own reports says, they have released pollutants including Benzene, Butadiene, Nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide. Benzene and Butadiene are known carcinogens while Nitrogen oxides, VOCs and carbon monoxide help form ground-level ozone which is dangerous for the environment as well as a contributing factor of other health problems.

So it can be said that this measures taken by The Sierra Club and Environment Texas would be very much helpful to prevent pollution from the environment.

Human’s illiterate activities put the Weija Lake’s water is under threat.

The city authorities has taken steps to remove structures from water ways to prevent flooding in Accra. More structures keep springing up along the Weija Lake, putting one of the main sources of portable water for residents of Accra in danger.

The lake’s water is under threat from pollution as several people made structures along the lake on the Mallam-Kasoa road for business purpose. The businessmen including car dealers, food sellers and hawkers who are amenable for destroying the vegetation in the buffer zone between the lake and the road to develop unauthorized structures for their businesses. Millions of garbage generated through activities of the encroachers, had gathered in the buffer zone, with some, mainly plastic waste blown by the wind into the lake which was seen during a visit to the area.

So for human’s illiterate activities the lake’s water is under threat.

Investigations have found that many of the car dealers who were ejected along the Tetteh Quarshie-Apenkwa road to pave a way for that road construction had relocated to the Weija area. More than 100 hawkers were also found around the toll booth area, generating litter that are blown by the wind into the buffer zone, and further into the lake.

The authority is trying to take necessary steps to stop these activities, but it seems like they have been unable to make the issue important to them. They are not paying heeds to the warning

European Union’s imposing laws to control environmental pollution

The European Union has imposed strict rules on air, water and soil pollution on 52,000 after industries a compromise on how much extra time electricity, oil and steel companies should get to comply.

The European Parliament voted to tighten the 1996 Integrated Pollution Prevention and imposed strict laws covering such discharges as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, dust particles, dioxins and heavy metals. These create a lot amount of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas regulated by Europe’s cap-and-trade program.

“This offers more clarity and a better chance of a level playing field across Europe on environmental requirements for industrial installations,” said Holger Krahmer, a German member who imposed the new rules through the 27-nation EU assembly in Strasbourg, France.

The national governments have already prepared and supported the draft law, making their final approval after two-and-a-half years of deliberations which is actually a formality .

The new laws may enhance the role of the most effective emissions-reduction technology, known as best available techniques, in the granting of permits for electricity plants, oil refineries and metals, minerals, chemicals and waste- incineration sites would be subject to the rules. Large pig and poultry farms are also expected to be affected by the law, which is due to be phased in starting around the end of 2012.

Smoke Testing Project by The City of Moline Water Pollution Control Division

The City of Moline Water Pollution Control Division will be conducting smoke testing along River Drive throughout July 2010.

The smoke testing consists of using of specialized equipment to blow dense smoke into the sanitary sewerage system and systematic observation of the surrounding area to find places from which the smoke may exit from the sewer system. The smoke testing is part of the city’s continuous efforts to identify and address deficiencies in the sewer collection system.

But people need not be alarmed with the nontoxic smoke that is created by the testing. However, the presence of smoke within a building during smoke testing is an identification of a potential sewer piping defect which should be investigated.

Residents of those buildings are asked to contact the city if smoke is observed within one’s premises during the testing.

Environmentalists warned people against Burning tires

According to a top environmentalist, ARSONISTS who torch tires on Bahrain's roads are exposing themselves and others to a potentially "deadly" cocktail of chemicals.

Bahrain gets through almost a million tires a year - with many of them burned in the streets. More than 800,000 tires a year are discarded in the country, just under one for every person living here, said Rehan Ahmed, a senior environment specialist at the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife.

He is now suggesting a recycling plant should be set up to process used tires safely - and take them out of the hands of fire-lighting youngsters. "Open burning of tires on roads is becoming common and a part of life," said Mr. Ahmed

"Burning tires is used to protest as it creates smoke, which catches the attention of public authorities, disrupts traffic and social life.

"Tires are voluminous, cheap and easily available from workshops and can be incinerated so easily.

"The question of environmental pollution and health impact of such activities has been raised several times, but a change in our behavior and an understanding of the pollution and health impacts is needed to eliminate this deadly habit," he added.

Mr. Ahmed said the illegal dumping of used tires was a major environmental pollution., as well as a continuous source of materials for arsonists.

But , he said there was little incentive to collect discarded tires since they were worthless without a recycling facility.

He warned people against breathing in the visible smoke plume coming from burning tires. He wants the people to be conscious about it.

A great get together of recyling industries to expand business.

The 10th International Electronics Recycling Congress IERC 2011 will be held from January 19 – 21, 2011 in Salzburg, Austria. Approximately over 450 experts from industry, authorities and academia will discuss and present the latest information and challenges of the WEEE recycling business.


The preliminary program includes the activities:

* Contributions for sustainability
* The way to stop climate change
* Cradle to cradle
* stopping illegal export
* The War of raw materials
*Most available technologies for dismantling, sorting and recycling
* Worldwide reports of recycling business
* Quality standards –to check & monitor
* Recycling standards – chance or pain
* Harmonization of recycling standards
*Parallel Session: Reports on regulation & markets in Asia
* Workshop: Flat screen, lighting and solar panel recycling

A large exhibition area has been integrated into the conference facilities, where inventors meet their clients. Cocktail receptions and a networking dinner create an exclusive atmosphere to get in touch with business partners, friends and competitors.

Recycling goods have been very much important for the present world. This conference would be hopefully successful to establish and improve recycling industry.

Researchers warn to stop using poly bags to reduce public health danger

The United Kingdom may have to remake a new policy on recycling shopping bags. A study by experts at the University of Arizona showed that reusable shopping bags may pose a danger to public health because of high levels of bacteria on the bags.

The researchers experimented on the reusable bags of 84 consumers in Tucson, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Tests showed 50 percent of the bags have traces of E. coli, a toxin which could be harmful to people.

The researchers also found that consumers do not regularly wash their reusable bags, which contain bacteria from raw meat packaging where as the bags must be washed at high temperatures. Study leader Professor Charles Gerba launched an educational campaign among shoppers to wash their reusable bags regularly. But alarmingly, another study showed that 97 percent of recyclable bag users do not wash or bleach their bags.

The U.K. has not officially banned single-use shopping bags, but the government has set a target of cutting plastic bag use by 50 percent. About 45 percent of Britons claim they have purchased a recyclable bag, although only 12 percent use these bags regularly. The only way to save people is to band shopping bags and instead of that the shops can order their bags, made of cotton and jute. So stop using poly bags to reduce public health danger.

You can easily take part in saving the environment by recycling your old mobile phone

Mobile phone Recycling is the easiest and simplest way to reduce environmental pollution and to save our environment. As well as now it is also one of the best ways to earn some extra money.

One can do mobile phone recycling through several online portals. As the technology is rising day by day, we can easily say that mobile phones have become our basic need. Now one doesn’t need to be at home for using Internet, one can simply enjoy it on his/her mobile phone.

It seems like we are getting all the high technologies in small size in a form of mobile phones. A mobile phone has many elements like Cadmium, Rhodium, Palladium, Beryllium, Lead, Nickel, Manganese, Mercury, Lithium, Zinc, Arsenic and Copper which are quite harmful for the human body as well as for the environment also. So recycling your old mobile phone will surely help in saving environment.

At present, Mobile phone recycling is a very common and known process for everyone. One can recycle his/ her mobile phone easily through an online portal. Which is the easiest way for people to recycle their phones.

We just have to log in to the site and we will be provided with the registration form online. One just have to fill that form and have to state the condition of his/ her mobile phone . After that we just have to pack your mobile phone in an envelope and post your mobile phone to the mobile phone recycling center. Their they will check your mobile phones and according to that they will send you money for your mobile phone.

So mobile phone recycling is the best option to earn some money and with that you will also help in saving the environment. Isn’t it great?