Trash Trash Trash

Kaarin Patterson | Apr 14, 12:31 PM | digg del.icio.us

Yesterday, the New York Times presented an insightful article on waste to energy plants and the smart green energy factor that these plants are providing in Germany and Denmark.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html?ref=earth

Following yesteday's article the Times has an opinion section with various parties representing the discussion.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/should-the-u-s-burn-or-bury-its-trash/

While New York City seriously lags behind in addressing the garbage problem both on a residential and commercial scale, there is hope. Buried in a neighborhood blog, I came across this annoucement that new legislation is to be introduced (April 22) to help boost the current anemic recycling initiatives.  This includes accepting more household waste, additional plastics, more public bins and textile recycling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/nyregion/12recycle.html 

Please note that a number of community based non-profits have filled the gap for residential composting and in some instances recycling.

http://www.nyccompost.org/resources/organizations.html

And here's a commercial example I just came across.

http://www.preserveproducts.com/recycling/gimme5.html

Lastly, in some wealthy countries design, function and usablity factor into a waste management program. The Zuri-Sack http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/zurich-zuri-sack-popular-rubbish-sack-policy introduced in 1993 was part of a larger program to cut down on consumption and increase waste disposal fees.