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Recycled waste could be stored on MoD bases
Mark Townsend, The Guardian
Huge waste mountains could be sited on military bases under emergency plans to protect Britain’s recycling revolution from the economic downturn.
Local authorities have requested government permission to site rubbish dumps on Ministry of Defence land in order to stockpile growing amounts of recyclable waste for which there is no use and no market.
Under the proposals, thousands of tonnes of cars, tin cans, plastic bottles and glass will be temporarily stored on military-owned land because the financial crisis has induced a slump in demand for recycled raw materials from manufacturers. With landfill sites almost full, thousands of tonnes of paper, plastic and steel are piling up because councils can no longer find buyers.
Councils say they will apply for permission to store recycled paper and cardboard inside derelict factories or abandoned airfield hangars…
(16 November 2008)
For the Digitally Deceased, a Profitable Graveyard
John Hanc, New York Times
HARD DRIVES, printers, fax machines and cellphones move along a conveyor belt at the rate of six tons an hour into the gaping maw of a 16-foot-tall, 60-foot-long shredder at e-Scrap Destruction, in Islandia, N.Y.
Inside a chamber covered to prevent flying debris, the machine’s steel blades noisily chew through the components, reducing them to shards no more than four inches long. The shredded material goes back on the belt, where an overhead electromagnet removes material containing iron as the waste moves along.
There is something poignant about the process, the systematic destruction of these unwanted, in some cases never used, components. One more reminder of our disposable society.
This detritus of the digital age spells profit for Trace Feinstein, who founded e-Scrap Destruction two years ago.
“I saw computer recycling as the next big wave,” said Mr. Feinstein, 37, who previously ran a paper-shredding business with his father, Bob. “We did some research and found that not too many companies were doing it the right way.”…
(12 November 2008)
Cash for Trash Spurs Recycling Boom
Bob Woodruff, James Hill and Jaime Henessey, ABC (text & video)
When was the last time you got paid to take out the trash?
A town in Massachusetts offers rewards and discounts to residents who recycle. Residents of Everett, Mass., are finding the chore more rewarding as they cash in their recyclables for store coupons…
(18 November 2008)
