Recycling

Rule to accelerate American leadership in lowering climate-damaging HFCs used in air conditioning, refrigeration equipment finalized by EPA

WASHINGTON – Today, Sept. 23, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final rule to establish a new program to better manage, recycle, and reuse climate-damaging hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act. The final rule includes provisions that will reduce wasteful leaks from large refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and will … Read more

UMass Campus Center launches AI-driven recycling pilot

AMHERST, Mass. – rStream, a robotics company focused on waste management and recycling formed by two UMass Amherst students and incubated at Greentown Labs, Somerville, is rolling out a pilot program with UMass Dining Services. Running through the fall semester, the program will test the AI’s ability to identify in real time what is going … Read more

The wild-and-woolly world of waste

When it comes to waste (and the disposal thereof), it’s a, figuratively speaking, jungle out there. And, it’s seemingly everywhere: It’s in outer space and in the seas. It’s in the air (in the form of air pollution), produced by living, breathing beings (nasal discharge, earwax, in the context also of evacuated or excreted bodily … Read more

An up-close look at Fresno’s dirty-air condition as Air Quality Awareness Week approaches

With Air Quality Awareness Week fast approaching, the focus of discussion today centers on Fresno, a central California city that year after year sees some of the country’s worst air pollution. Having said that, what better time than this to bring attention to the air-quality deficit that Fresno has long been hamstrung by, done in … Read more

California adopts new recycling and composting law

According to information printed on a mailed City of Fresno, California distribution I received on Jan. 6, 2022 pertaining to (as best I could tell) residential waste recycling, American households produce in excess of, on average, one quarter more waste (by weight, presumably), between Thanksgiving and New Years, than what is presumably generated per residential … Read more

California GHG in the plus column. Emissions-reduction steps state can take to get back on track

California has been a leader when it comes to climate-change-correction work, meaning efforts by the state to reduce annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions output have been working. But the most recent numbers tell a slightly different tale. This is reflected in the latest (2018) California GHG emissions inventory. Compared to annual Golden State GHG output … Read more

Improved air quality from project benefits highlighted in 2020 Calif. HSR sustainability report

The below Oct. 15, 2020 news release is from the California High-Speed Rail Authority. The California High-Speed Rail Authority (Authority) today released its 2020 Sustainability Report: Building Resilience. The annual report details ongoing efforts to advance the nation’s largest and greenest infrastructure project and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transportation. In the past year, the … Read more

Doing double duty creating energy, cutting emissions: A unique organic waste-conversion concept

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is big business. But being big business doesn’t necessarily ensure profitability. The recycling industry as a whole, meanwhile, after holding its own for several decades at least, today the outlook, truth be told, appears less rosy. Whether recyclable or non-recyclable material like MSW, finding alternative uses for such refuse can not … Read more