The World Watch Institute at the nonpartisan Center for American Progress released a new report today on American investment in and consumption of energy. The document states that: “Next to the Internet, new energy technology has become one of the hottest investment fields for venture capitalists.” Investment in ways to use vegetable oil and waste as fuel has quadrupled over the last several years; and more people seem to be recognizing the potential of harnessing the gasses found in much of what we landfill.
Archive for the ‘TRA$H’ Category
high return on renewable energy
Wednesday, September 20, 2006amero-canadian trash accord
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
The city of Toronto held an emergency meeting on trash today to draft a “contingency plan to handle the city’s garbage and sewage sludge in the event of a border closure.” You see, the U.S. and Canada have been at war, or at least at skirmish, for years over which country is the other’s dump. Michiganders in particular are angry that companies like Waste Management can import foreign trash and deposit it in landfills in their state. In response, the House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would grant states the right to ban garbage from other countries. The bill is a long way from becoming law and will likely undergo many changes along the way.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s senators are brokering deals with Ontario officials to slow the flow of trash from our neighbor to the North.
tax breaks for good recyclers
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The U.S. Senate Finance committee is currently considering the Recycling Investment Saves Energy (RISE) Act, a tax bill introduced by Senator Jeffords of Vermont in July. Jeffords proposes we offer companies tax incentives to recycle and reuse materials and that we make buying recycling equipment tax free. The bill has a long way to go before it’s even considered by the full Congress and may go through many changes from the Senate Finance Committee or even get tossed out. Meanwhile, the solid waste industry supports the plan and has sent Jeffords a letter to make sure he tucks in juicey perks.
40 oz wishes and aerosol dreams
Friday, September 1, 2006
In addition to their This is a blog about trash.
Sunday, August 27, 2006This is a blog about Oscar the Grouch. It’s about the smoke of burning trash piles wafting through every developing country in the world. It’s about the billions of dollars a year spent exporting garbage from one state to another. It’s about diving into a dumpster and coming up with a still-warm burger and three packets of mustard. It’s about detonating landmines with old truck tires and building bookshelves out of milk crates. It’s about barges. It’s about battery acid. It’s about paying sixty bucks for a change purse made of soda can tabs because the label says a women’s group in Latin America glued them together. It’s about sorting plastics. It’s about beaches built on landfills and landfills built on beaches. It’s about the “away” in throw away and the “out” in toss out and the “rid” in get rid of it. This is a blog about the art, money, power, politics, people and literature of garbage. It’s a subject that shocks and amuses me nearly every day, which is about how often I imagine I’ll be posting. I hope you’ll share in the fascination.
everydaytrash 