The Singapore Environment Council (SEC) has launched a new certification scheme to facilitate the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices among local food-court operators.

SEC's Executive Director, Howard Shaw, said food courts generate huge amounts of waste and consume massive amounts of energy and water every day.

The Eco-Foodcourt certification assesses the environmental management system in a foodcourt, from its environmental policies to water, energy and waste management.

One of the mandatory requirements is that takeaway orders must not be placed in styrofoam boxes.

Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Khor, who was at the launch, gave certificates to Singapore's first two Eco-Foodcourts - The Deck at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, and the Kopitiam @ City Square Mall.

Examples of environmentally sustainable practices implemented at The Deck include organic food recycling, the recycling of cooking oil, and the use of eco-friendly and reusable boxes as well as the promotion of meat-free meals.

Kopitiam's Corporate Communications Manager, Ms Goh Wee Ling, said the tenants saw a bonus for being environmentally responsible.

They saw operating expenses fall when they managed the use of energy and water wisely.

It was reported last year that Singapore saw a 31 per cent increase in waste generated since 2000, with food waste as one of the top five waste types.

The SEC aims to give the Eco-Foodcourt certificate to 10% of the food courts in Singapore by the end of this year.

Going forward the SEC says it is working towards a certification for community clubs and retail establishments.

(Source: New eco-label for food-courts [Channel News Asia])

Danny Clark's idea was simple: If he could make plastic water bottles biodegradable, it would reduce the impact on landfills, curb roadside litter and reduce the amount of plastic garbage that eventually washes into the oceans.

But the Mesa, Arizona, man's venture has run into opposition from a large and unexpected source: the $400 billion recycling industry, which fears that making plastic bottles biodegradable will reduce the stream of plastic refuse used to make everything from carpet to clothing to new bottles. In addition, the industry fears that changing the makeup of plastic bottles could make it more difficult to recycle them.

With plastic-bottle sales already slowing and only a small amount being recycled, the industry is meeting threats to its profits head-on, actively campaigning against attempts by companies like Clark's to make bottles biodegradable.

Billions of plastic bottles, which take millions of barrels of oil to produce, appear on supermarket shelves every year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Only about 28% of bottles manufactured in the U.S. end up being recycled, the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers said. The other 72% wind up in landfills or as litter.

"Bottles are a big issue. It's talked about, and it's pretty visible," Clark said.

He launched his start-up, Enso Bottles, in 2008 and says he has come up with a truly biodegradable and recyclable polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic bottle.

PET is used to make a wide range of products, particularly packaging containers for consumer goods, such as water and soda bottles. Traditional plastic PET bottles can take hundreds of years to break into smaller pieces, but those pieces never actually decompose.

Clark's company produces an additive used in the plastic-manufacturing process and says on its website that independent testing data show bottles start to biodegrade in as little as 250 days in a controlled environment or as long as five years in the elements. In addition, Clark's data show that the additive doesn't diminish the quality or effectiveness of the plastic, he says.

Clark said that technologies allowing plastics to biodegrade have been around for several decades but had not been applied to PET bottles.

Recycling-industry experts have concerns about Enso's biodegradable efforts, saying they are not convinced the technology works, but they also worry that if it does, it will damage their business.

Dennis Sabourin of the National Association for PET Container Resources said the association is not in favor of anything that disrupts that recycled-product stream.

"We want to make sure it does not affect the raw material," Sabourin said. "Does it affect the service life of products that are being made today with (PET bottles)?"

More than a year ago, the association sent out a news release to all PET manufacturers asking them to refrain from using biodegradable additives. The experts say biodegradable products are more difficult and costly to recycle than PET bottles.

David Cornell of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers said Enso has tried to convince them that the biodegradable additive will not hurt their business, but the recycling industry still fears it poses a threat.

"So far, we haven't seen that it does degrade or is not hostile to recycling. If it doesn't degrade, then who wants it? If it does degrade, what does it do to recycling?"

Cornell credits Enso for trying to solve a problem and said that, unlike some other companies, Enso has tried to work with the industry and communicate about product tests.

"They're working on it. I will give them credit," Cornell said.

(Source: Eco-friendly plastic bottles stoke recycling fight [USA Today])

Today's plastic resins are all based on petrochemical sources. Moreover, their production involves highly toxic ingredients, such as epichlorohydrin, bisphenol-A, melamine, formaldehyde, and phosgene. Such resins are not biodegradable, and cannot be burned safely, because their combustion releases many toxic components. Even the sawdust of coated plywood and medium density fiberboard (MDF) is harmful.

Rising to this challenge, University of Amsterdam scientists have developed a range of new thermoset resins starting from 100% non-toxic renewable raw materials derived from biomass. By choosing the appropriate components and conditions for the cross linking/polymerization process, they succeeded in making a variety of bio-plastics, including rigid foams, elastic foams, and rigid and elastic plates. These new materials are fully biodegradable, non-toxic and non-hazardous. Moreover, the starting materials are cheap and readily available worldwide.

The new resins can in principle replace polyurethane and polystyrene in building and packaging applications, as well as epoxy resins in the production of plywood and MDF. The University of Amsterdam has filed European and US patent applications on the invention and is currently working on developing industrial applications and upscaling of the process.

(Source: Biodegradable and 100% renewable non-toxic plastic resins from biomass [University of Amsterdam])

Less than one-third of the biofuel used on British roads meets government environmental standards intended to protect water supplies, soil quality and carbon stocks, according to new figures.

The Renewable Fuels Agency says that just 31% of the biofuel supplied under the government's initiative to use fuel from plants to help tackle climate change met its green standard. For the remaining 69% of the biofuel, suppliers could not say where it came from, or could not prove it was produced in a sustainable way, the figures show.

In April 2008, suppliers began mixing biofuel into all petrol and diesel supplies under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), and by 2009-10 – the time period to which these latest figures relate – biofuels accounted for 3.3% of UK transport fuels. Suppliers were supposed to ensure that 50% of biofuel met government environmental standards, but the target is not mandatory and was not met.

Several suppliers, including BP, Total, Morgan Stanley and Chevron, also failed to meet targets on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing data on the source of their biofuels.

The Renewable Fuels Agency's chief executive Nick Goodall said: "We've seen some progress from suppliers in meeting the challenge of sourcing their biofuels responsibly, but in many cases it has been disappointingly slow. Too many are lagging behind and dragging overall performance down. With mandatory sustainability criteria due to be introduced with the [European] Renewable Energy Directive, companies currently missing all three targets need to make a step change in performance."

Scientists and campaigners have warned that biofuels could cause more problems than they solve, with concerns over the destruction of tropical forests and impact on global food supplies.

The majority of UK biofuel is imported. Biodiesel from soy was the single biggest source (31%) in 2009/10, with a large increase in Argentinian soy compared to the previous year, something that Friends of the Earth biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter calls a "huge cause for concern".

There are also concerns about the impact of biofuels on food prices. The United Nations has singled out biofuel demand as a major factor in what it estimates will be as much as a 40% increase in food prices over the coming decade.

The Renewables Fuel Agency published the Gallagher review into biofuels in 2008, which recommended that the government slow the introduction of biofuels until more was known about the possible negative impacts.

Ministers responded by reducing the rate at which the RTFO's biofuel targets will increase, so that the total biofuel content in petrol and diesel will reach 5% in 2013-14. A separate EU plan aims to include 10% biofuel in transport fuel by 2020.

(Source: Two-thirds of UK biofuel fails green standard, figures show [Guardian])

At age 9, while traveling with his family and being "roadschooled," Birke Baehr began studying sustainable and organic farming practices such as composting, vermiculture, canning and food preservation. Soon he discovered his other passion: educating others -- especially his peers -- about the destructiveness of the industrialized food system, and the alternatives.

Now, 11-year-old, speaking at TED, he presents his take on a major source of our food -- far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight promotes a rosy, unreal picture of big-box agriculture, he argues, as he outlines the case to green and localize food production.

(Source: Birke Baehr: What's wrong with our food system [TED])

An American company is about to begin construction of a US$12 million anaerobic digester in Richmond, Canada that it claims will be North America's first high-efficiency system to produce renewable energy from food and yard waste.

Harvest Power's digester technology, if successful in Richmond, could be deployed at landfills across Canada according to Natural Resources Canada, which is investing $4 million into the company’s Richmond facility over two years.

The company is breaking ground on its digester, which will sit directly adjacent to the composting facility, within a month, according to Paul Sellew, Harvest's co-founder and CEO.

Sellew said the company chose Richmond because of federal and provincial government policies supporting renewable energy production. It also liked Metro Vancouver’s landfill diversion policies.

Although some Metro Vancouver municipalities divert more waste from the landfill than others, they are all participating in the Zero Waste Challenge, which aims to divert 70% of the region's solid waste from landfills by 2015.

Most of the 200,000 tonnes of food and yard waste that Fraser Richmond, a Canadian company acquired by Harvest Power in 2009, turns into fertilizer each year comes from Metro Vancouver.

In an email, the City of Vancouver's engineering department said 20,000 tonnes of yard trimmings and food scraps were collected from Vancouver homes from May to December 2010 – an 8% (1,500-tonne) increase compared with the same period in 2009.

Sellew said that in the U.S., about 97% of food waste is incinerated or taken to landfills.

"So places like Vancouver that are beginning this source separation of organics, those are the exceptions to the rule right now."

Sellew added that only about 100 communities in North America are separating organic garbage from the main waste stream.

Waste that enters the digester becomes a meal for microbes in an oxygen-free environment. A byproduct of the process is biomethane, or biogas, which can be converted into electricity.

Wastewater treatment plants and other facilities gasify liquid waste through digesters, but Sellew said Harvest's will be the first North American-based digester to gasify "high-solids" (food and yard waste).

Harvest's digester requires the high-calorie content of food waste to create usable biogas.

Give the imbalanced ratio of yard to food waste delivered to Fraser Richmond, only about 27,000 of the facility's 200,000 tonnes of collected waste will initially enter the digester annually.

The City of Vancouver says that approximately 35% of household garbage is compostable food scraps and food-soiled paper.

As more residences and businesses divert their food waste, Harvest will expand the digester's capacity from two to around five megawatts (MW) of biogas-generated electricity. Roughly 250 to 300 homes can be powered by one MW.

Once the waste is converted to biogas, its leftovers are composted with other garbage.

Sellew said the waste is largely the same volume and quality before and after it's digested.

The company is negotiating with local electricity companies about selling its biogas.

(Source: Food waste helping feed Harvest Power’s garbage-to-gold ambitions [Business in Vancouver])

Anthony "Van" Jones is a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress and a founder and senior policy advisor at Green for All, an NGO dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.

He lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice. Plastic trash, he argues, hits poor people and poor countries "first and worst," with consequences we all share regardless of where we live and what we earn. At a recent TEDx that focused on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (TEDxGPGP), he offers a few powerful ideas to help us reclaim our throwaway planet.

(Source: The economic injustice of plastic [Guardian])

The Santa Monica City Council has approved a ban on single-use plastic bags.

The council voted 4-0 Tuesday night to approve a ban affecting most retail outlets in the city beginning in September.

Under the ordinance, plastic bags will no longer be available at grocery stores, clothing shops or other retailers. The exception will be restaurants providing food and liquids for takeout. Vendors at the popular Santa Monica Farmers Markets will no longer provide single-use plastic or paper bags.

Heal the Bay, an environmental nonprofit group, called the action "one of the most aggressive" on single-use bags in the United States.

"Sending a powerful message that the plastic pollution plague can be abated, the vote furthers the recent momentum for enacting local bag measures throughout California," the group said in a statement.

Santa Monica joins other areas in California that have similar bans, including parts of Los Angeles County, Marin County and the city of San Jose. The city of Calabasas will consider a ban on plastic bags Tuesday.

Santa Monica had first planned to hear the item two years ago, but an industry group's threat of a lawsuit prompted the city to conduct an environmental review of the ordinance.

"The Santa Monica Council's leadership today shows that local governments are going to address this critical issue despite threats from industry and state inaction," said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay. "The plastics industry knows the writing is on the wall."

Shoppers who forget their reusable bags may purchase paper bags at checkout for at least 10 cents each.

Heal the Bay said the measure seeks to end the "environmental and fiscal waste" created by the use of about 26 million single-use plastic shopping bags each year in the city of Santa Monica alone. California municipalities spend nearly $25 million each year to collect and dispose of plastic bag waste, the group said.

Yet fewer than 5% of plastic grocery bags are recycled each year statewide, with others filling space in landfills and harming animal life when the bags wind up in waterways. In offering his support for the measure, Santa Monica Councilman Richard Bloom also noted that many bags float on the breeze, creating hazards for motorists.

(Source: Santa Monica approves ban on single-use plastic bags [Los Angeles Times])

Twenty-one reusable bags sold as alternatives to disposable plastic or paper bags had dangerous levels of lead, according to new test results provided to USA TODAY. The non-woven-polypropylene bags bags, sold by chains including Safeway, Walgreen's and Bloom, all had lead content above 100 parts per million — the highest level that many states allow in consumer packaging. The tests were conducted by Frontier Global Sciences for the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), which plans to release the results Monday. The group tested 71 bags and inserts from 44 retailers and organizations.

Often it was the bags' inserts that contained the high lead levels. The Safeway bag inserts had the highest level of lead — 672 ppm — behind only CVS bags recalled in November. Earlier this month, the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) reported finding lead levels 15 times the federal limit for kid's products in Disney-themed Safeway reusable bags.

Safeway said Friday night it was pulling the O by Organics reusable bags from sale while it awaits information from the bag maker. It recommends throwing away the bottom insert. It stopped selling the Disney bags, as well.

Bloom says it stopped offering the bag tested in November and will refund anyone concerned about the bag. Walgreen's says it now tests for lead and other toxins, and all current bags pass. It sells several bags and wasn't sure exactly which bag CCF tested.

CEH says there is no safe level of lead exposure, which can lead to brain and kidney damage.

Bruce Lanphear, a public health doctor who has testified before Congress about lead exposure, says "it's hard to quantify" the risk of bags' lead, but notes lead builds up in body tissues and that levels once thought safe are not.

"It just doesn't make sense to allow a poison to be used in reusable bags," says Lanphear, a health sciences professor at Canada's Simon Fraser University.

Food and Drug Administration spokesman Douglas Karas says the agency would need more time to review the results, but would "expect the use of safe materials" in bags. Still, he says lead in some bags "would present little or no likelihood of migration to (packaged) food."

While CEH and CCF are both testing for lead in reusable bags, CEH favors bans on disposable bags that the business-funded CCF opposes. CCF wants to show the "unintended consequences" of "fad legislation."

Thirteen cities and Los Angeles County ban the use of disposable plastic bags, and Washington, D.C., has a five-cent tax on them. Environmental groups favor bans or fees for disposable bags, especially those made of plastic, because they can last hundreds of years and harm fish and animals.

The American Chemistry Council, which is pushing recycling instead of bans or fees, has also paid for testing showing bacteria in reusable plastic bags. The group says it is for "consumer choice" and that people need to know that they have to wash the bags between uses.

"It's an interesting irony for them to say that we should stay away from plastic bags," says CEH's Charles Margulis.

(Source: Tests find high levels of lead in reusable bags [USA Today])

Amid a debate on environmental hazards caused by the use of plastic, India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh is not in favour of a blanket ban on it across the country but said it could be area specific.

"I don't think India can afford to take a position on blanket ban on plastic all over the country. I am not in favour of a blanket ban on plastic all over the country," he told reporters after a discussion with industrialists on the subject organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

However, he said there can be specific areas where the use of plastic could be discouraged.

Ramesh said his ministry is in the process of notifying the plastic waste management rules.

"We have the objective of minimizing the environmental hazards caused by the large scale disposal of plastic waste. At the same time we don't want to kill the plastic processing industry, which is very important in terms of employment generation in our country," he said.

"The objective of the plastic waste management rules is not just to manage the environmental hazards caused by plastic disposal, but also to ensure that we don't kill the plastic industry," he said.

Noting that hazardous waste management is a very serious issue, the minister said though 6 million tonnes of hazardous waste is generated in the country every year, only 2.5 million tonnes of it can be recycled.

"So we have to increase the facilities for treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes and we have to ensure that these are done in environmentally sustainable manner," he said.

He said there was a lot of discussion on converting waste into energy as the municipal solid waste management is becoming a very serious environmental challenge.

Both the ministry of urban development and environment and forests should address that challenge, Ramesh added.

(Source: Ramesh not in favour of blanket ban on use of plastic [Economic Times])

German sculptor H.A. Shult used 12 tonnes of recycled junk to build the hotel in central Madrid's Callao Square and draw attention to the amount of flotsam spoiling Europe's beaches.

"We must know and we must understand that the oceans are the biggest garbage dumps of the world," Schult told Reuters.

His Corona Extra Save the Beach Hotel opened its doors on Jan. 19 and operators say its five double rooms have been fully booked for the four days in which it will be taking guests.

"The world is a hotel and so as a parable, I show the world as a hotel, and this world we only have rented and we have to realise that we in this time fill up the whole world with garbage," Shult said outside the hotel.

Schult has been getting support from some pretty famous patrons, including Danish model Helena Christensen -- who has spent a night in the hotel -- French explorer Alexandra Cousteau and jewellery designer Jade Jagger.

(Source: "Rubbish hotel" booked up for Spanish tourism fair [Reuters])

A UK government-commissioned study into food security has called for urgent action to avert global hunger. The Foresight Report on Food and Farming Futures says the current system is unsustainable and will fail to end hunger unless radically redesigned. It is the first study across a range of disciplines deemed to have put such fears on a firm analytical footing.

The report is the culmination of a two-year study, involving 400 experts from 35 countries. According to the government's chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, the study provides compelling evidence for governments to act now.

The report emphasises changes to farming, to ensure that increasing yields does not come at the expense of sustainability and to provide incentives to the agricultural sector that address malnutrition. It also recommends that the most resource-intensive types of food are curbed and that waste is minimised in food production.

"We know in the next 20 years the world population will increase to something like 8.3 billion people," he told BBC News.

"We know that urbanisation is going to be a driver and that something of the order of 65-70% of the world's population will be living in cities at that time.

"We know that the world is getting more prosperous and that the demand for basic commodities - food, water and energy - will be rising as that prosperity increases, increasing at the same time as the population."

He warned: "We have 20 years to arguably deliver something of the order of 40% more food; 30% more available fresh water and of the order of 50% more energy.

The authors are calling for food and agriculture to move up the political agenda and be co-ordinated with efforts to tackle the impact of climate change, water and energy supplies and the loss of farm land. They also warn that there is no "silver bullet" that will solve the problem but concerted action is needed on many fronts.

Professor Beddington said: "We've got to actually face up to the fact that this is a complicated problem which involves vastly different levels of society and we need to be persuading policy makers not to think about food in isolation, not to think about climate change in isolation, not to think about water in isolation, not to think about energy in isolation. All of them are intimately related."

The report adds that new research can play an important role. It also says that the use of any particular technology, such as genetic modification, cloning and nanotechnology should not be ruled out. But it acknowledges that there is resistance to the application of controversial technologies.

"Ending hunger is one of the greatest challenges to be considered by this project," the report observes. It calls for protection of the poorest from sharp price increases through government intervention and greater liberalisation of the trade in food in order to offset market volatility.

The report also calls for new measures to hold governments and food producers to account. This would involve developing objective measures on how well they are doing to reduce hunger, combat climate change and environmental degradation and boosting food production.

(Source: Report: Urgent action needed to avert global hunger [BBC])

Farmers in Argentina have found that simply using jumbo plastic bags can help protect their harvested corn from the elements before it's sold and heads for processing.

Measures like that -- which could cut down on the millions of pounds of grain that spoil or otherwise go to waste each year -- will be the focus of a new effort at the University of Illinois to find ways to help feed the developing world.

Archer Daniels Midland (AMD) CEO Patricia Woertz and university officials announced plans Wednesday for the new ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss at the university's campus in Urbana. ADM plans to spend $10 million over the next five years on the effort.

"There are existing technologies today that we know are not being implemented in developing countries," University Vice Chancellor Steve Sonka, who will lead the institute, said in an interview. "We need to know why."

The United Nations estimates that 10 to 15 percent or perhaps more of the world's grain goes to waste each year. At the same time, roughly a billion people around the world don't have enough to eat -- ADM cited University of Illinois research that indicates the wheat and rice lost around the world in 2007 could have fed about 380 million people.

"Clearly, preserving what is already grown is fundamental to feeding the world, and to making the most of the land, water, energy and other inputs already used to grow crops," said Woertz.

ADM, based 50 miles southwest of the university in Decatur, is one of the largest processors of corn, soybeans and other grains in the world.

The new institute will start work by trying to find and develop easy-to-use technologies like the corn bags in Argentina, studying why they're not being used in the developing world and figuring out to put them to work there, Sonka said.

"What's being done and what are the impediments?" Sonka said. "Just assessing the current situation in a rigorous fashion."

Then he anticipates using the money to put researchers to work and getting the technology to the farmers and others who can put it to use. He isn't sure how many people he will need.

The institute also plans to work with similar efforts at schools like the University of California-Davis, where research focuses on wasted fruits and vegetables, Sonka said. He also hopes to work with government agencies and other groups around the world.

While ADM's commitment to the institute lasts five years -- at $2 million a year -- Sonka hopes the work attracts attention and funding from governments and other companies.

"We believe this is a topic that has legs," he said.

(Source: ADM, U of Ill. start new food-waste research [PBS])

What's garbage to most people is the perfect nest decoration for some birds. Black kites adorn their nests with bits of white plastic they find littering the ground. Although most birds decorate their nests to woo mates, the kite's adornment says, "Don't mess with me." Researchers have discovered that these humanmade objects warn off rivals, signaling that the nest owner is willing to put up a fight if challenged for its territory.

Ornithologists have long marveled at the ability of certain birds to add sticks, shells, and berries to nests and other structures to impress mates. Among black wheatears, a small songbird found in North Africa and Spain, for example, males show off their muscles by the size and number of stones they incorporate into their nests. And well-decorated stick structures called bowers signal that a male bowerbird is able to keep other males from stealing its ornaments.

But some birds add objects to their nests for no apparent reason. Male black kites—a medium-sized bird of prey that lives in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa—embellish their nests with litter, but they don't do it to attract females, as both genders build nests together. Fabrizio Sergio, an ecologist at Doñana Biological Station in Spain, wondered whether the birds might be using these decorations as signals of another sort. He and his colleagues tested their idea on black kites that have been banded and followed for years in a marsh in southwestern Spain.

The researchers cataloged and quantified the nest decorations of 127 nests, monitoring the survival of the nest owners and their young for that season to determine whether nest decorators were the fittest of the flock. They also walked along nearby roadsides to find out what garbage was available and compared that with what the birds actually placed in their nests. In one experiment, Sergio's team set out green, transparent, or white, 20-centimeter-square sheets of plastic to determine which ones the birds preferred. In another test, the researchers added more decorations to certain nests and evaluated how those additions affected the behavior of other birds.

The birds were particular about their decor, bypassing green and transparent pieces of plastic for the bright white stuff that could be seen from far away. The fitter birds, which survived better and produced the most young, had nests closer to their marshland hunting grounds and tended to put up the most decorations, whereas birds with poorer territories had none. Very old and very young birds also had plain nests.

Thus, nest decorations were correlated with how fit the birds were. And potential intruders took notice. Birds interested in stealing food or commandeering a nest almost never bothered the most adorned nests, but plain nests could undergo up to six raids per hour, Sergio and his colleagues report online this week in Science.

Timothy Wright, a behavioral ecologist at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, thinks this may be the first study to show that organisms use nest decorations for more than just courtship. "It's a very thorough demonstration that such signals may function in the context of territory defense," he says. "I think few ornithologists will look at nests in quite the same way again."

Nor should they, adds Sergio: "We do believe that hundreds of species could be using their nests not just to contain or protect their offspring but also to convey information about the builders."

(Source: Nest Garbage Says, 'Keep Out!' [Science])

This May, Duke University students will be wearing commencement apparels made of material produced from recycled plastic bottles.

Jim Wilkerson, the director of Duke Stores and the person responsible for outfitting the graduates, said this effort "is representative of what the university is doing as a whole."

"Everyone on campus, it seems, wants to do what they can to be more environmentally responsible," Wilkerson said. "When we were approached with this opportunity to purchase caps and gowns made from recycled materials, and we were satisfied that the quality of the garments would not be compromised, it was an easy decision."

The academic regalia will be made of fabric spun from molten plastic pellets. Each cap and gown will keep 23 used plastic bottles from winding up in landfills. The caps and gowns will be shipped in boxes made of recycled cardboard and in storage bags made from recycled plastic.

Each year, about 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students receive diplomas from Duke, although not all of them participate in commencement ceremonies. If half of them were to use the eco-friendly regalia, that would keep more than 50,000 plastic bottles out of landfills. It also will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and the amount of energy used in manufacturing fabric from plastic instead of virgin polyester.

The new "green gowns" for commencement look like traditional ones but are made from recycled plastic bottles. "Duke has really committed to sustainability in many different areas, and I am excited that they are continuing to make new initiatives to reduce our impact on the planet," said Duke senior Katie Swails.

Wilkerson said the new caps and gowns cost about $2-$3 more than the old ones. The manufacturer has pledged to contribute 25 cents for each gown sold to a campus environmental group designated by the university.

"These gowns will help our graduates literally 'walk the walk' for sustainability and, hopefully, encourage them to think about ways they can address environmental issues in their lives beyond Duke," said Tavey McDaniel Capps, Duke's environmental sustainability director.

(Source: Blue Devils to Don ‘Green’ Gowns at Commencement [Duke University])

Entering the Lucknow Zoo in northern India with a polythene bag will not be possible from now onwards. The place has been made a no-polythene zone. Instead of plastic bags, jute bags will be made available at zoo gates for a charge of Rs 70.

"We already provide paper bags to people, but there are few visitors who come with so many things that paper bags are not sufficient," said Renu Singh, zoo director. The jute bags are big enough to carry lot of things. People can always take their polythene bags back after submitting the refund coupon and returning the jute bag to the zoo staff. The refund coupons can be taken from zoo gates. On Tuesday, at least 94 such coupons were sold.

Plastic and polythene had always been a big menace inside zoo. Two zoo inmates, a hippo and a sambar deer had died after they swallowed plastic. "Hippo's post-mortem had shown undigested polythene in his stomach," said an old keeper. Later, a sambar deer too died the same painful death. Entering premises with a polythene bag was banned immediately after hippo's death. Though the plan was not successful.

"We have now also written to the district magistrate and nagar ayukta seeking their help," said director. The zoo authorities have requested district administration to make at least 100 metres area around zoo as a no-polythene zone. The zoo already has a refund coupon facility for plastic bottles. Visitors are required to buy a refund coupon of Rs 20 to carry water bottle inside zoo.

The visitors can claim their money back only when they deposit the bottles at ticket counters at the time of leaving. In case people still enter zoo with plastic bottle and polythene bags, they would be fined. Under section 38(J) of Wildlife Protection Act, littering the place or teasing animals can make one undergo an imprisonment of six months or shell out Rs 2,000 as fine or both.

A lot of shops outside the zoo sell snacks in polythene bags and wrappers outside its gates. When asked how will such shops be checked from using polythene bags, the director said, "It is for the same reason that we have sought help from the district administration."

(Source: Lucknow zoo is no-plastic zone [Times of India])

Food is so plentiful in Canada that even our garbage cans are full of it. Canadian throw away 40 per cent of edibles every year according to most recent estimates.

Many of us blithely toss the food that rots in our fridges, kitchen scraps and unwanted leftovers into the green bin and congratulate ourselves for sending our waste for composting and keeping it out of landfill.

Food waste is an unappetizing problem. It involves the entire food chain, from farmers and manufacturers right down to supermarkets, restaurants and consumers. Though they are linked, one level doesn't care much about the other.

There hasn't been much political or industry will to analyze the problem. That's what the Value Chain Management Centre in Guelph, Canada hopes to combat with the release of its November study, Food Waste in Canada.

The unpublished study estimates $27 billion worth of food finds its way into landfill and composting each year, which it considers a crisis.

While "food miles (at the distribution level) are often portrayed as the environmental demon and creator of waste," they cause just 3 per cent of it, the study estimates. Consumers who throw food out at home are to blame for 51 per cent.

"All of the incremental elements of waste add up," stresses centre director Martin Gooch, a researcher who co-authored the study with Abdel Felfel and Nicole Marenick. "As a society, we look for simple solutions when we need to redesign the entire system."

Gooch says our food industry is "pretty dysfunctional" because links in the chain do not understand, or want to understand, each other. For example, food producers and processors don't talk much except about price and volume. Small restaurants may bond with some farmers, but that should be happening on a larger scale.

Jo-Anne St. Godard, executive director of the Recycling Council of Ontario, calls food waste "the elephant in the room" and admits it's difficult to create policies and regulations around it.

"Food is put on to the marketplace to be consumed," she says. "The steward expects you to eat it. If it goes into the composting stream, who pays the bill?"

In Ontario, there are multiple fees for everyone from manufacturers to consumers to handle the disposal of e-waste (electrical and electronic equipment like televisions and computers). But how do you do that with a head a lettuce?

"I think we ignore this more than we should, especially given the environmental and economic impact of food waste," says Gooch.

"It's a bizarre sort of culture we've cultivated," says St. Godard. All-you-can-eat buffets, fast food lunches with options to supersize, weekly supermarket binges, chest freezers and a "buy now and pay for it later" mentality all contribute to the problem.

In England, the government is working hard to combat the culture of overshopping. A government-funded agency called Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) analyzed the trash of more than 2,000 households a few years ago and discovered that about one-third of food bought in United Kingdom is thrown out every year. Gooch would love funding for a similar study in Canada.

Like Canada, the United States suffers from a dearth of data. Jonathan Bloom, a Chapel Hill, N.C., journalist, has been investigating the subject for more than five years.

In his book American Wasteland, he notes that "depending on who you ask, we squander between a quarter and a half of all the food produced in the United States."

He outlines the ethical, economic and environmental consequences of wasting food, like the fact it rots in landfills and releases harmful greenhouse gases.

"There's just something wrong with throwing away food when so many people go without," Bloom said in a telephone interview. 'There are ways to get that food to people before you put it in the garbage.'"

(Source: Waste land [Toronto Star])

A new charity is aiming to reduce food waste and help disadvantaged people in Britain's Devon and Cornwall. The Plymouth-based Devon and Cornwall Food Association (DCFA) wants local supermarkets and producers to donate food destined for landfill. It will then redistribute it to homeless shelters and food banks.

Organisers said local charities were struggling to find enough food for people in need because of the economic climate. Christine Reid, from DCFA, said: "There is deemed to be a lot of poverty in Devon and Cornwall because of low wages and high unemployment." She added, "The aim of this project is to alleviate food waste."

"We're getting good food that would otherwise be thrown away." She said the charity would be able to use food coming up to its sell-by date.

(Source: Needy in Devon and Cornwall to be given waste food [BBC])

The Canadian federal government is making good on a promise to ban a toxic chemical additive in soft plastic toys and other children's products.

The new regulations, to be implemented in June, take aim at six phthalates, a family a chemicals known to cause reproductive harm and commonly used to make vinyl plastic soft and flexible. The additive will no longer be permitted to be used in a slew of items that are designed or are likely to be put in the mouths of children under four. These include bath toys, squeeze or inflatable toys, teethers, rattles and vinyl bibs.

Additionally, the use of three of the six phthalates, known as DEEP, DBP and BBP, will be restricted in all children's toys and childcare items, even if designed for and used by older kids.

Canada Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who is slated to make the official announcement Tuesday, is taking the step after Health Canada's own market survey in 2008 found the widespread presence of phthalates in soft plastic toys and other items for young children to help with feeding, sleeping or relaxation and made out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Health Canada found the widespread presence of phthalates in these children's items, despite a decade-long voluntary ban in North America.

The Canadian ban, under consultation since June 2009, comes more than a decade after the European Union restricted the allowable concentrations of phthalates in children's products to 0.1 per cent. Following the European ban in 1999, a similar ban in the United States came into effect in 2009.

As it is in lead, the mere presence of phthalates in the soft vinyl is not dangerous, so touching soft vinyl does not constitute a health risk. Rather, it is the amount of phthalates that can leach out of the soft vinyl and migrate into the body that can be harmful.

Phthalates are not chemically bound to the plastic toys to which they're added, so leaching occurs when young children mouth or suck on items such as rubber ducks and other bath toys, and migrates into the body through saliva.

Low-level exposure to these endocrine-disrupting chemicals blocks production of the male sex hormone testosterone.

When it comes to older soft vinyl toys, Health Canada is advising parents and caregivers to remove products from the child's environment if they observe the child sucking or chewing on them for extended periods.

(Source: Feds to ban toxic chemical additive to plastic children's products [Vancouver Sun])

Plastic bag use in Britain is on the rise after the limited success of a voluntary agreement by retailers to cut the number of bags given to shoppers, according to figures compiled this week.

By contrast, in Ireland, which imposed a tax on plastic bags in 2002, the number of plastic bags has plummeted. Consumers in the UK now use nearly four times as many plastic bags as those in Ireland.

According to the figures by the New Statesman from official government sources, the number of bags used a month by each person in the UK dropped from 11 in 2002 to 7.2 in 2009, but then rose again to 7.7 last year – equivalent to 475m bags in total per month. In Ireland, the equivalent figure – compiled from plastic bag tax receipts – has dropped from 27 in 2002 to 2 in 2009, suggesting that the tax is having a strong impact on consumer behaviour.

"Ireland's shoppers are enjoying freedom from the endless unnecessary plastic bags, as these figures show," said Julian Kirby, resource use campaigner for Friends of the Earth. "A standard charge in England would help save resources and cut climate-changing gases."

Four years ago, single-use plastic bags became an environmental issue in the UK. But, despite support from many sides, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown backed away from imposing either a ban or a levy on the bags, and instead allowed retailers to create a voluntary agreement. The New Statesman's waste policy report suggests the agreement – although initially leading to a drop in bag use – has had only a limited success.

Ireland introduced a tax of 15 cents a bag in 2002, increasing it to 22 cents in 2007. The tax, which retailers are required by law to pass on to the shopper, is ring-fenced for green projects. Wales plans to follow suit this year.

"We certainly support a ban on plastic bags," said Sam Jarvis of campaign group Wastewatch, "as we would support a ban on any single-use disposable items such as disposable razors, as a general principle. Plastic bags are a totemic issue, and a ban might well encourage people to think about waste more broadly. The Irish example shows this really can work."

(Source: UK plastic bag use on the rise [Guardian])

Food prices are at an all-time high: the latest figures show food price inflation at 5.5 per cent, outpacing the overall inflation figure of 3.3 per cent. You'll be paying as much as 25 per cent more for your regular cuppa as tea prices rise; and we already saw the cost of Christmas turkey go up by more than £3 before Christmas in the United Kingdom, due to the doubling in feed costs in 2010.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's Food Price Index, released last week, shows that a range of basic food prices are actually higher than they were when food riots broke out in places like Mozambique, Egypt and Haiti just two years ago. In the first week of December, the benchmarked US wheat price reached $327 per tonne, which is a staggering 70 per cent higher than that for July 2010, just six months earlier.

Although the long-term trends do point to a gradual rise in prices, due to a range of reasons from climate change and biofuel production to increasing consumption, basic supply and demand alone doesn't account for the high price volatility and huge changes being seen in recent months.

A few extra pence for a loaf of bread doesn't seem like a lot to most of us, but the story is rather different if you're in a developing country, relying on imported staple foods just to get by.

Meanwhile, the replay of food riots began last week, with three people killed and 300 injured in disturbances that broke out in Algeria. For some of the poorest people in the world, as prices rise, education falls by the wayside; basic assets such as farm animals get sold, and a short-term crisis can lead to long-term chronic malnourishment for a generation.

(Source: The threat of rising food prices [New Statesman])

With the growth in consumption, plastic production in India is likely to grow by 60 per cent to touch 12.75 million tonne by 2012, according to a industry body.

"Plastic is an integral part of our life and its consumption is growing every year. We are expecting the production to grow by 60 per cent in line with the consumption which will be around 12.75 million tonne by FY 12," All India Plastics Manufacturers' Association (AIPMA) President Yogesh Shah told reporters in Mumbai, India.

At present, the plastic production as well as the consumption is about eight million tonne.

He said the consumption has grown significantly over the last two decades and India is projected to be number three in plastic usage by 2015.

"The per capita consumption of plastic is presently about eight kg, which is likely to double in next five years."

In finished goods exports, AIPMA expects it to reach USD 5.3 billion this financial year in line with the yearly growth of 15 per cent.

"There is a shift in demand in plastic finished segment from China to India, which is contributing to this growth," Shah said.

India exports plastic finished goods to countries in Africa, parts of Europe and the US.

AIPMA is now exploring other overseas markets like China, he added.

The plastic industry in India employs about 3.5 million people, which is expected to double in next five years, keeping up with the growth in the sector, Shah said.

(Source: Plastic output may touch 12.75 mn tonne by 2012: Industry body [Economic Times])

Later this year – on 31 October, to be precise – a boy will be born in a rural village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. His parents will not know it, but his birth will prove to be a considerable landmark for our species as his arrival will mark the moment when the human population reaches 7 billion.

There is no way of knowing for sure, of course, the identity of this baby boy. But demographers say that this date, place and gender are the most likely. India has the largest number of births each year – 27 million, roughly one in five of all global births – and Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state with nearly 200 million citizens, would be the sixth most-populated country in the world if it were a nation. The majority of the state's births occur in the rural areas and the natural sex ratio at birth favours boys by a narrow margin.

We do not need a guiding star to direct us to the symbolism of this boy's birth: the world has known about this approaching milestone for many years. After all, it is only 12 years since the six billion mark was reached.

The urgent search for solutions to population growth has been a hot topic ever since the Rev Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798, stating that the "power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". Every generation since has seen a prophet predicting doom for our species if we don't curtail our numbers. And yet the rise in headcount has continued inexorably and exponentially.

But with rising greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion ever-growing concerns, the approach of this year's population landmark has become an awkward, even unwelcome presence in the environmental debate. No one likes to talk about it, for there are no easy answers.

Increasingly, several environmental thinkers have made the case that population growth is not, in fact, the real problem, rather that a rapid rise in consumption is our most pressing environmental issue. There are more than enough resources to feed the world, they say, even in 2050 when numbers peak. The problem is that we see huge inequities in consumption whereby, for example, the average American has the same carbon footprint as 250 Ethiopians. The French report concluded bluntly that "the rich must stop consuming so much".

Stood shoulder to shoulder, the entire human population could fit within the city limits of Los Angeles. We've got more than enough land upon which to collectively sustain ourselves, we just need to use it more wisely and fairly. But, given the stubborn realities of global inequalities, the question remains: are there too many of us to achieve a sustainable future?

(Source: The population explosion [Guardian])

Researchers have made genetically modified chickens that can't infect other birds with bird flu. The H5N1 strain of influenza — which raged through southeast Asia a decade ago and has killed hundreds of people to date — remains a problem in some developing countries, where it is endemic.

The birds carry a genetic tweak that diverts an enzyme crucial for transmitting the H5N1 strain. Although they die of the disease within days, the molecular decoy somehow impedes the virus from infecting others.

The researchers said that although large-scale distribution of the genetically modified (GM) birds will one day be feasible, their study is meant only to show proof-of-concept of the technique.

"We have more ambitious objectives in terms of getting full flu resistance before we would propose to put these chickens into true production," said Laurence Tiley, a molecular virologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, and lead investigator for the study. His team is now working on further genetic tweaks that would inhibit the virus in different ways. "It would be a bit like combination drug therapy for HIV," he said.

Other experts pointed out that even if the GM chickens carried full resistance to influenza, there are political and economic hurdles to their widespread commercial use — not least the public's aversion to GM food.

"It's the beginning of something which will require a certain number of years to see whether it is accepted by the public," said Ilaria Capua, head of virology at the Experimental Animal Health Care Institute of Venice in Legnaro, Italy.

Helen Sang, a geneticist at the Roslin Institute of the University of Edinburgh, UK, said that using their methods, it costs approximately £50,000 (CAD$79,000) to produce "a small number of stable transgenic birds you can characterize and breed from". She and Tiley argued that getting similar transgenic birds into global production would be possible because there are only a handful of companies providing purebred chicken lines.

But this approach would not be feasible in poorer countries. "This will only become affordable for the people who are well off," said Marc Van Ranst, a virologist at the Dutch-speaking Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

(Source: Transgenic chickens curb bird flu transmission [Nature])

Claiming wide acceptance of its programme targeted to reduce environment hazards due to the use of plastic, the Indian government announced on Wednesday that sale and use of disposable plastic plates and glasses were likely to be banned in the Himachal Pradesh, a state in northern India.

Till now, under the "Polythene hatao, paryavaran bachao" scheme, the state has managed to remove at least 311 tonnes of plastic waste at over 1,600 critical locations. The waste is now used either in incinerators of cement plants to generate energy or for tarring of roads after shredding and mixing it with bitumen.

During a meeting with the Central team that is in Himachal to assess the state's scheme to reduce the use of polythene and plastic, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal announced the state's proposal to ban disposable plastic plates and glasses. The "ban-polythene" scheme has been shortlisted for the Prime Minister's award for best governance practices. Dhumal said: "Instead of plastic, alternate paper products for disposable use will be explored and encouraged."

The government is also considering a proposal to transfer all fines collected on account of environmental challans to the Environment Fund. The Chief Minister said this amount would be further disbursed among the deputy commissioners to more effectively implement various environment protection programmes in their respective districts.

Soon, the tourism department is expected to launch another scheme to educate those coming to the state about "Mindful Travel in Himachal Pradesh".

(Source: HP likely to ban disposable plastic glasses, plates [Indian Express])

California should more aggressively enforce the state's ban on wasteful water use and crack down on inefficient irrigation practices, a state watermaster recommends.

In a report that will be presented next week to the State Water Resources Control Board, Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson wades into a potentially explosive area of water law: the "reasonable use" doctrine in the state Constitution.

The principle, reinforced in statute and court decisions, holds that a water right does not include the right to waste water and mandates that "the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use."

Although it's a cornerstone of California law, the clause has been enforced mostly on a case-by-case basis, usually when one person claims another's water use is unreasonable.

"The doctrine could and perhaps should be applied more broadly," said Wilson, an attorney who devoted his report to agriculture — the sector that uses most of the state's developed water supply.

"Agriculture is using so much water. … You don't need a lot, at least on a percentage basis, of better efficiency to start adding up to serious water" savings, he said.

His report recommends that the state board convene a summit, create an enforcement unit and streamline what Wilson characterized as "cumbersome" enforcement procedures.

"I think it's long past time that the state focus on what is really a reasonable and beneficial use of our water," said Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick, who has argued that California agriculture could cut its water use by 10% to 15% if it adopted more sophisticated irrigation techniques. "There's been no effort to identify and challenge unreasonable uses of water."

"It's a hard issue to raise," Gleick added. "Because one person's reasonable use is another person's unreasonable use."

Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition, disputed Wilson's conclusion that "small changes" in irrigation methods can yield "significant amounts" of water savings. He also said some of the report's suggestions would be prohibitively expensive to implement.

For instance, Wade said, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for irrigation districts to build systems that could deliver supplies to farmers on demand, as opposed to commonly employed rotation schedules that may send water to fields regardless of whether it's needed.

Wade also took issue with Wilson's suggestion that irrigators evaluate more efficient practices as part of their water diversion permits. Such a requirement would rob farmers of flexibility in deciding which crops to grow and how to grow them, he said.

(Source: Report targets waste, inefficiency in agricultural water use [Los Angeles Times])

Trustees in Winnipeg, Canada's largest school division are contemplating a ban on the sale of plastic bottles in their 77 schools. They agreed during a Winnipeg School Division board meeting Monday night to study whether such a move makes sense.

The proposal was pitched by trustee Mike Babinsky, who said he was prompted by a series of CBC News stories on plastics, particularly reports on the polluting of landfills and the tainting of hundreds of freshwater lakes in Manitoba. He was also motivated by the plastics industry's efforts to get its corporate message into schools.

It has begun offering "industry volunteers" recruited by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) to provide one-hour in-class presentations to children in elementary schools, according to CPIA documents. The in-class presentations will show students the history of plastic and its modern day uses.

Babinsky wants the sale of plastic bottles banned across the division, which has more than 30,000 students and 5,000 staff. He would like that to happen by the fall, if possible. He applauded his colleagues' willingness to look into the idea.

"I'm not sure how watered down it may get or what other ideas might get thrown into the mix, but I'm glad that, you know, there is an interest," he said.

Babinsky sees the University of Winnipeg as a role model. It stopped selling bottled water on campus more than a year ago — the first Canadian university to do so.

"We've seen 38,400 bottles of water actually that haven't been consumed from the first year it was eliminated," said Jason Syvixay, president of the students' association.

Babinsky also wants the city or the province to refund deposits on plastic bottles to encourage people to bring them into recycling depots.

(Source: School division ponders plastic bottle ban [CBC])

Taiwan's environmental authorities said on Wednesday they are planning to promote potty training for pigs to help curb water and waste pollution.

The Environmental Protection Administration made the pledge following the success of a pig farm in southern Taiwan, where the breeder started to potty-train his 10,000 pigs in late 2009, it said in a statement.

To keep his animals from defecating in nearby rivers, the breeder has established special 'toilets' smeared with faeces and urine to attract the pigs, it said.

This reduced the amount of waste water by up to 80 per cent. As well as making the farm cleaner and less smelly, it also helped reduce illness among the pigs and boosted their fertility by 20 per cent, it added.

Taiwan has about six million pigs, most of them raised on farms in the centre and the south of the island.

Waste from livestock farms is among the main complaints about water pollution received by the administration.

(Source: Taiwan wants pigs potty-trained to curb pollution [France 24])

Once upon a time, cupboards and drawers in kitchens across the country were overflowing with plastic bags collected from grocery stores and shopping malls.

But beyond lining trash bins or being used to pick up after the dog, no one seemed to have a clear use for the mass of non-recyclable, one-time-use bags. Eventually, most would be thrown out, left to accumulate in landfills or be blown into waterways, posing risks to marine life.

Reusable shopping bags have started to change that. They're fairly durable, can be used multiple times and are quickly becoming a symbol for environmental stewardship among consumers.

But is this new breed of bag really all that good for the environment, or your health?

Many bags sold by grocery chains and other retailers require significant energy to be made and are shipped all the way from China – not exactly environmentally friendly or sustainable.

Recent revelations that many popular reusable bags contain lead have also raised questions about their safety, while concerns have also emerged about bags containing harmful bacteria.

As reusable bags grow in popularity, some experts say it's clear not all are created equal – and that consumers may want to take a critical look at the bag slung on their arm.

In recent months, major retailers in Canada and the United States, such as Lululemon, Sears, grocer Winn-Dixie and New York-based Wegmans, have recalled, stopped selling or offered refunds for reusable bags after tests showed they contained lead.

Lead is typically only considered a health threat if ingested, but the fear is millions of reusable bags containing lead could contaminate soil and water if they end up in landfills.

Concerns over lead in reusable bags are so great that U.S. Senator Charles Schumer has asked that country's Food and Drug Administration to investigate.

In addition, tests commissioned by plastic lobby groups have revealed some reusable bags carry bacteria that could be harmful. A 2009 study funded by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association found about two-thirds of reusable bags tested contained some bacteria, including fecal intestinal bacteria.

While many environmental groups dispute the objectivity of such industry-funded studies, Health Canada has warned consumers reusing bags can increase the chance food will come in contact with bacteria.

The environmental profile of some reusable bags also doesn't seem to hold up to scrutiny: Many of the inexpensive versions sold by retailers are made in China and shipped thousands of kilometres before reaching Canadian stores. The bags, often made out of a mix of non-recycled and recycled plastic, also require significant amounts of energy to be made.

That might not be so bad, if shoppers only kept a few on hand and used them religiously. But they've become a marketing tool for retailers who eagerly sell or give the bags away to shoppers, many of whom are now collecting reusable bags in the kitchen cupboards where plastic bags once reigned supreme.

A Vancouver-based reusable bag wholesaler takes issue with consumers who criticize the industry. Those same people wear clothes made in China and have the choice not to purchase reusable bags, said Randolph Yuen, owner of Smartbag Packaging. "It's the responsibility of the consumer to do what they should be doing instead of being hypocritical about the industry," he said.

But one retailer said consumers should question the validity of green claims behind reusable bags and other trendy environmental products.

"We mustn't lose our ability to question or not want to be challenged," said Trevor Smith, quality director at a Toronto-based online green retailer. "Sometimes being environmentally responsible takes extra work, extra effort."

(Source: Reusable bags get a black mark on a green reputation [Globe and Mail])

Bins are back in the news. It only takes a couple of missed collections, especially in the season of excess, to have irritable householders, beleaguered councils and sanctimonious ministers at loggerheads. We are a society squawking about our inalienable right to have rubbish out of sight and out of mind, when only a few short days ago a lot of that stuff was part of highly desirable goods whose consumption was propping up the economy.

From the food that didn't get eaten and the now-skeletal Christmas tree to the wrapping paper and oceans of other packaging, the stuff has been through our households as fast as a dose of seasonal salts, but now we want shot of it as quickly as possible. Unavoidable food waste is a not a pleasant thing to have lingering on the doorstep, but as to the rest – does it matter if it hangs around? More important, does it matter that it has become waste in the first place?

We know that waste is stuff we don't want, even if it still has utility, which a lot of it does. We know that waste correlates with GDP: the greater our wealth, the greater the discard rate. We know that waste has to be dealt with in some way, but that most of these ways are deeply unpopular with those near the facilities – landfill, incinerators, even recycling and composting plants.

At the other end of the chain, "upstream" from the waste, there are some things we know about consumption. The recession has put a bit of a brake on consumption in the developed economies, but the rest of the world is still growing vigorously and the trend in terms of basic resources needed to fuel that growth is ever upwards. Globally, the quantity of primary stuff needed to make the stuff we all buy (fossil fuels, minerals, timber and other crops) has increased by 50% over the past thirty years, and is projected to do nearly the same again in the next twenty. Yes, we've become more efficient at using materials to produce wealth, but the wealth is always increasing and outstrips the efficiencies. And most resources enter and exit the economy very rapidly, with a woefully small amount being recycled back into the system – in the UK, less than half if we're talking just about materials, but less than a seventh if you count all the stuff that enters the UK economy, including food.

Of course not all of it can be recycled, but much more could be than it presently is, if only the products were better designed. Our "linear economy" way of managing things and therefore losing materials before their productive lives are over means that the upstream damage – any mining or forestry not practiced with the environment in mind, any pollution not properly controlled, any greenhouse gas emissions, any species lost in the course of industrial development, any water contaminated or used irresponsibly – all of this happens more than it needs to. The trouble is that as we in the UK increasingly "offshore" the production of our consumer goods, most of that damage takes place out of sight and mind, just like the disposal of the waste.

Part of the answer lies in design. We still have packaging and products that feature non-recyclable plastics, paper contaminated with glues and other materials so as to confound reprocessing mills, and tricky mixtures of materials that can't be separated into useful components. Electronic goods are a particular problem – a fast-growing sector with high discard rates, featuring products that embed precious metals in complex mixtures of plastics so that separating them out is a specialist and expensive process. Disposable nappies are the saviour of many frazzled parents, but one of the main components of "black bag" (non-recyclable waste) and a materials nightmare, with their mix of paper pulp, plastic, chemical gels and human waste.

New materials are continually coming over the horizon - the composites and nano-technologies that give us stronger, lighter and cleverer products, from cars to face cream, from wind turbine blades to roller skates. But can they be recycled? Few scientists have even asked that question.

It is time we got a grip on our material world. We need some rules that mandate the recyclability and longevity of the products we use, of making it more easily upgraded and ensuring it comes from sustainable sources. Most important, we need these choices made for us, before products even get in front of us – that way we don't have do the information searching and agonising. I am weary of worrying about everything I buy.

Many people will argue that changing the nature of consumption does not alter the fact of consumption, and as the population heads for nine billion instead of six, the idea of designing our way out of the consequences of resource use seems impossible. My belief is that accepting the need to change the nature of products is the first step in understanding in depth the consequences of consumption, and trying to align it with a sustainable rate of exploitation of the riches that nature has bequeathed.

Without rules for products, we won't ever know in detail what materials are going where, and where the consequences are most serious. I also hold fast to the idea of a new design paradigm because it is about being creative and proactive rather than restrictive and resigned. We humans have a come a long way - why waste our talents worrying about bins?

(Source: Julie Hill: Time to get a grip on our material world [Guardian])

Kenya on Thursday outlawed the manufacture and import of plastic bags from March for damaging the environment, the Kenyan National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) said.

"We are telling Kenyans that we need these changes," acting NEMA agency chief Ayub Macharia said.

The ban is on bags up to 0.06 millimetres (60 microns) in thickness which winds often carry hundreds of kilometres (miles) from their source of origin.

"Our country has many colours and when God was creating the world, he only allowed plants to give us flowers, so when our landscape becomes flooded with many artificial flowers of varied colours due to poor management of plastic bags and wrappers, then it becomes a problem," said Macharia.

The Kenya Bureau of Standards has been tasked with overseeing the change "through factory inspection and ports of entry surveillance and monitoring,"

A 2007 attempt at cleaning up the country by banning the manufacture and import of bags of up to 0.03 millimetres (30 microns) widely failed.

Of all five members of the East African Community - Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda - only Rwanda has so far successfully banned all plastic bags since 2008, and replaced them with paper bags.

(Source: Kenya bans plastic bags [Independent])

More than 4,700 German farms have been closed after large amounts of animal feed were found to be contaminated with dioxin, a poisonous chemical formed by industrial processes and waste burning.

Officials insist the levels of dioxin do not pose a risk to humans, and that the closures are only a precaution.

The origin of the contamination has been traced to a distributor in the northern German state of Schleswig Holstein, where oils intended for use in bio-fuels were accidentally distributed for animal feed.

Initially, the scare was confined to Germany but then it emerged that a batch of eggs had been exported to Holland and from there to Britain.

The dioxin scare has prompted South Korea to block imports of German pork and poultry products from reaching consumers due to health concerns, local media reported on Friday.

European Commission health spokesman Frederic Vincent told a news conference how the problem had now reached Britain.

"Those eggs were then processed and then exported to the United Kingdom... as a 14-tonne consignment of pasteurised product for consumption," he said.

"Whether it went into mayonnaise, pastries, I don't know. So we will probably take a look at this with the UK authorities and see what was done with these eggs."

(Source: Dioxin animal feed scare shuts German farms [BBC])

Compiled by the Independent, below are this week's top five most viewed videos on video sharing site 5min and video tutorial site VideoJug under the category of Green Living.

5min
1. How to go green with your pet
Tips to go green with your pet include buying environmentally bedding, food and organic toys.
Total views 96,578.

2. A closed basement drainage system
More related to healthy living, this video shows what a "closed basement" is and how it can help protect against the earth's natural gas emissions.
Total views: 56,365.

3. How to slope the drainage pipe
This instructional video shows how to slope a drainage pipe and avoid water running into the basement.
Total views 41,172.

4. Earth Day crafts for kids
Hints and tips on how to get children involved in crafts for Earth Day, a worldwide environmental event celebrated annually on April 22.
Total views 44,074.

5. How your cell phone is recycled
Though slightly outdated, this video provides a disturbing insight into what happens to discarded cell phones and what happens to them if they are recycled.
Total views 59,189.

VideoJug
1. How to produce easy, free home heat
Tips on how to make "D.I.Y solar panels" for heating using merely pennies, foam and adhesive.
Total views 34,137.

2. How to make pop bottle biodiesel
Using methanol, sodium hydroxide and vegetable oil, this video shows how to make biodiesel, which the video makers claim will work in any diesel engine.
Total views 80,100.

3. The toilet tank trick
Save money, water and the environment merely by putting a weighted container in the toilet cistern.
Total views 106,277.

4. How to carry groceries with a square of cloth
Taking environmentally conscious actions a step beyond reusable bags by wrapping large amounts of food or groceries in a cloth.
Total views 171,357.

5. How to reduce your electricity bill
This slightly outdated video highlights the benefits of fluorescent light bulbs.
Total views 17,280.

(Source: Top green living videos: green your pet, make biodiesel and solar heaters [Independent])

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announced this week that food prices hit a record high last month. Its Food Price Index was 214.7 for December, the highest level since the organization created the index to measure the price of a standard basket of goods in 1990.

Some environmental groups are attributing this partly to an increase in extreme weather that scientists say is probably linked to global warming.

OxfamAmerica said that a "major contributor" to this price surge has been the disastrous effect of extreme weather events on harvests of certain crops. "The record rise in food prices is a grave reminder that until we act on the underlying causes of hunger and climate change, we will find ourselves perpetually on the knife's edge of disaster," said Gawain Kripke, policy director for the organization.

This summer, for example, Russian wheat crops were devastated by a season of unusual drought and wildfire. Pakistan's crop yields were reduced because of floods. In Laos and Cambodia, food production was compromised by "delayed and erratic rains," the Food and Agriculture Organization said.

Fortunately, the price of rice — a staple food for billions of poor people in Asia — has remained stable, so the high prices are not generally expected to create a hunger crisis. In contrast, the prices of sugars, fats and oils have risen by more than 50 percent since early 2009.

Factors other than climate influence the food supply, of course, including trade issues and the value of the dollar, the main currency for food aid.

But scientists say that crop failures related to climatic events will be inevitable in the planet's warmer future. If so, farmers will need help adapting to them.

(Source: Extreme Weather Helps Drive Up Food Prices [New York Times])

A new generation of smart packaging - which flags up when food is going off - is being developed in Glasgow in the United Kingdom. Researchers from Strathclyde University are working on indicators made from "intelligent plastics" which change colour when food loses its freshness.

British households are estimated to throw out about 8.3 million tonnes of food each year - most of which could be eaten. It is also thought that there are about one million cases of food poisoning annually in Britain.

The Strathclyde University team hopes new smart wrapping will alert consumers when food is about to lose its freshness because it has broken or damaged packaging, has exceeded its "best before" date or has been poorly refrigerated.

Freshness indicators currently used across the food industry usually take the form of labels inserted in a package but these come at a significant cost. Strathclyde researchers are looking to create a new type of indicator which is part of the wrapping itself and subsequently much cheaper.

The indicator it is working on will change colour when the freshness of the food deteriorates past a certain level. It will be used as part of a form of food packaging known as modified atmosphere packaging, which keeps food in specially-created conditions that prolong its shelf life.

Professor Andrew Mills, who is leading the project, said: "At the moment, we throw out far too much food, which is environmentally and economically damaging.

"Modified atmosphere packaging is being used increasingly to contain the growth of organisms which spoil food but the costs of the labels currently used with it are substantial. We are aiming to eliminate this cost with new plastics for the packaging industry.

"We hope that this will reduce the risk of people eating food which is no longer fit for consumption and help prevent unnecessary waste of food. We also hope it will have a direct and positive impact on the meat and seafood industries."

The Strathclyde team believes its work could resolve potential confusion about the different significances of "best before" dates and "sell-by" dates. It could also help to highlight the need for food to be stored in refrigerators which are properly sealed.

(Source: Smart wrapping developed to detect 'off food' [BBC])

The current high price of oil will threaten economic recovery in 2011, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

It said oil import costs for countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had risen 30% in the past year to $790bn.

The agency says this is equal to a loss of income of 0.5% of OECD gross domestic product (GDP).

The IEA's chief economist said oil was a key import of any developed country.

There are also concerns about the rising costs of other commodities.

The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said the high oil price had pushed the price of food to a new record.

Global food prices rose to a fresh high in December, according to its Food Price Index. The previous record reached in 2008 sparked riots in several countries.

Coal prices, too, are rising around the world after floods in Queensland north east Australia stopped most of the country's coal production.

Analysts warned that this would push coal prices higher, just as the world was beginning to need more raw materials to fuel the growing economic recovery.

In an interview with the BBC World Service, the IEA's Fatih Birol warned about the current high price of oil: "There is definitely a risk of major negative implications for the global economy."

He explained that the oil price was central to both national and personal budgets.

"If the oil price goes much higher, it affects everything from the trade balance to household spending."

He added that that meant pressure on household budgets and higher inflation.

(Source: Oil price is risk to economic recovery, says IEA [BBC])