Hayward to Introduce Greener Fleets for Garbage, Recycling
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By Matt O'Brien  HAYWARD -- The fruits of a 33 percent trash rate hike will begin rolling through the streets of Hayward on Monday.   And they don't smell yet.
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Major vendors including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Sony are working together to push through a legislative mandate in the U.S. that will make it easier for users to recycle their consumer electronics.The mandate calls for companies to cut&#160;consumer electronics recycling&#160;costs and to make their reuse and recycling the highest priority when manufacturing products, panelists said during a talk at the International Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas.The cost to consumers of recycling products, including things like collection fees, is high, the panelists said, and some manufacturers have taken advantage of weak recycling laws to manufacture products that cannot be effectively recycled or reused.Some companies have standards in place to manufacture products that are easy to recycle, but others hope to drive down their own costs by adopting lower production standards, the panelists said.A legislative mandate would create a level playing field for manufacturers, said Tod Arbogast, director of sustainable business at Dell. A common approach to designing for recycling will promote the production of products that can be recycled and drive down manufacturing costs through effective product design and distribution.As an example of what can be done, Sony&#39;s new OLED (organic light-emitting diode) TV is designed to be disassembled by common household tools, said Douglas Smith, Sony&#39;s director of corporate environmental affairs. It is a step toward making products that can be easily recycled, he said.To be effective, recycling processes will be needed to convert used components back to original raw material for other products, followed by reuse or resale. Production costs can be cut through recycling and reusing materials rather than extracting and processing raw materials, said Dell&#39;s Arbogast.&quot;There are significant economic benefits in doing so as well as significant environmental benefits, which I think are often forgotten,&quot; Arbogast said.HP is adopting standards to recycle printers with plastic that doesn&#39;t convert to raw material, said Renee St. Denis, director of recycling at HP. The end-of-life resale value of printers after seven to 10 years of usage is minimal, but the high cost of plastics versus other printer components has made the company come up with innovative reuses of those plastics, she said.Dell already follows a Texas state law that requires PC manufacturers to dispose of products as easily as they are placed in the market, Arbogast said. The company accepts used Dell PCs for free via mail, Arbogast said.Sony is taking full responsibility for the products its manufactures -- cell phones, TVs and other devices -- by offering the ability to recycle them at no cost, Smith said.In March, Sony will launch a program in the U.S. where consumers can recycle consumer electronics for free by dropping them off at locations within a 20-mile radius of any SonyStyle store. Though the company has only 55 SonyStyle stores in the U.S., the company hopes to expand the effort by involving its distributors and other companies.Sony takes full responsibility for products it manufactures and has already recycled a giant TV screen belonging to the city of Tampa Bay for free, and the company wants to deliver the same recycling ability to users, said Smith.
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By Todd Defeo, Athens Banner-Herald, Ga.  Dec. 7--JEFFERSON -- A company that manufactures foam packaging material  wants to increase emissions at its Jefferson plant, saying it needs to do so  to expand its operations.
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STOCKHOLM, Aug 23 (IPS) - Stockholm is cutting the edge on ecologically  sustainable development by assessing new local solutions on  longstanding global environmental problems.
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The congested East Coast is a lot more environmentally friendly than you thought.
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The British government is developing a plan that would include a new tax on trash pickup aimed at bolstering recycling in the country.
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By Katie Mulvaney; Journal Staff Writer  SOUTH KINGSTOWN - Legislation that would give the Town Council the authority to hire a single trash hauler to pick up garbage and recyclables townwide has passed the state Senate and the House.    Sen. V.
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By Geoffrey Lean  Take one of the world's greatest waste problems, and turn it into one of the planet's most precious habitats. It seems a classic green win-win. But dumping used tyres in the sea to make artificial coral reefs has proved to be an environmental disaster.
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Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith is leading a delegation on a seven-city tour of Europe starting Sunday to look at trash-to-energy plants and other alternatives to landfills.
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NBC Universal has revealed a set of initiatives, called the Get on Board campaign, to boost the California company's green image.
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Nissan Motor Co.  outlined plans on Monday to launch its own hybrid, bio-ethanol and other "green" cars as it seeks to dash its image as an environmental laggard behind Toyota Motor Corp.  and Honda Motor Co.
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The Skyline Drive trash cleanup that began in March will be completed in July when a state program hires a contractor to scour the banks for junk, Mayor Tom McMahon said Tuesday.
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By Molly Parker, Journal Star, Peoria, Ill.  Feb. 24--PEORIA -- The hazardous waste landfill in Pottstown moved one  step closer to expansion Friday with a move that could also put an end to  costly and time-consuming litigation.
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Big Blue is going green with an initiative that focuses on environmental technologies and services.
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Recycling of consumer electronics may get a boost in the U.S. through a planned legislative mandate supported by HP, Dell and Sony.
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By Randal Edgar; Journal Staff Writer  NARRAGANSETT - With a system of independent trash haulers that offers residents little or no incentive to recycle, Narragansett and South Kingstown have two of the lowest recycling rates in the state.
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By Mary Macdonald, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  Jun. 2--Used to be fixing the sewers, adding sidewalks and getting the  trash picked up on time was enough.    Now cities feel they need to help save the planet.