By now you’ve probably got the hang of recycling the easy stuff, like newspapers, aluminum cans and cardboard boxes. But what about other frequently used items, such as appliances, game systems and cell phones? According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2009 about 54% of our waste (243 million tons!) ended up in landfills. Surprising, right? Luckily, “everything we use comes from some natural resource,” says Marti Matsch, communications director of the nonprofit recycler Eco-C...
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With climate change and carbon dioxide emissions dominating the environmental conversation much of the time, the issue of plastic pollution tends to get short shrift. Still, the problem is worrying enough to be stirring serious concern among environmental and scientific experts, especially when it comes to plastic that ends up in the oceans, where it never quite biodegrades and can form a swelling gyre of sludge.

Beach and river cleanups simply no longer suffice. With plastic consumption gro...

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A new competition aims to introduce young people to electronics recycling.

Best Buy, the U.S. EPA and teen-oriented social advocacy group DoSomething.org are teaming up to sponsor the e-waste drive, which will run from August 15 to October 1. The drive encourages students to organize and collect old electronic gadgets and return them to a local participating Best Buy for recycling, with the winning team members each earning a $500 education grant.

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In six short years, I’ve watched as the products coming into our electronics recycling business have grown to include not just computers and televisions, but now a wide range of products we never envisioned, but now can’t imagine living without – Kindles and iPads, iPhones and mp3 players, and countless other devices.

By next year, every one of these innovative products will likely be obsolete – people will be buying new versions of their tablets, laptops, smart phones and flat-scree...

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TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound.

"Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many," said Harshad Velankar, a postdoctoral fellow in David Mullin's lab in Tulane's Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. "In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce bu...

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Organizations are spending time and money to become more sustainable but they could do more by leveraging new software and web technologies to maximize their positive environmental impact. There are (at least) three ways software and technology is making waste a resource. The first is the use of software to manage waste and resources like other parts of the organization are managed. Software is used for accounting, inventory, sales, and a multitude of other functions within an organization �...
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By Jen Balboa

The United States government has secured the cooperation of technology, electronics and telecommunications giants Dell Inc., Sony Electronics and Sprint, as they issue a national plan for recycling electronic waste.

The National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship was launched by the White House Council on Environmental Quality, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the General Services Administra...