11. Who should pay for recycling appliances after natural diasters?

Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, fires and other natural disasters result in the massive collection and recycling of "white debris" or destroyed appliances by governmental entities.  They contain hazardous materials that must be removed before they can be recycled for their scrap metal value.  The oils and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have to be evacuated by trained technicians.  Foam insulation has to be dealt with separately.  It's an  expensive process.  FEMA does assist communities with the cost of recycling white debris.  Yet today, taxpayers are demanding that manufacturers--and their shareholders--take-back and recycle their own products.  Should a recycling fee be collected at the point- of-sale for appliances to offset these expenses?  Who should

10. From Sweden: Official Trailer One Tonne Life

We're watching the English videos on the One Tonne Life Channel on YouTube.  We like the fact that the house produces its own energy and that the family can track its energy use in real-time.  The presentations are sometimes like infomercials.  We'd like to see more data posted on the project's homepage and hear more from the family on their social networking pages.  The unique house

9. Fun UNFCCC-winning animation: landfill methane to electricity

This entertaining short video by Olivier Diamant won first-place in a 2010 UNFCCC competition.  It's about a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in Colombia.  The UNFCCC website states: "Under the Clean Development Mechanism, emission-reduction (or emission removal) projects in developing countries can earn certified emission reduction credits. These saleable credits can

8. Why I like Oregon's separated-glass recycling policy

Old glass > new bottles in 1972

Oregon enacted the nation's first unrepealed bottle bill to deal with the problem of highway litter from throwaway carbonated and malt beverage containers in 1971.  Consumers pay a 5-cent deposit per can or bottle at purchase and received 5-cents back per bottle if redeemed at a store.  Consumers can also put them out in their recycle bins.  Most Oregonians are directed to put their glass in a separate bin for a number of reasons. Among them are: 

• Worker safety--glass shards injure workers.
• Damage to expensive machinery--glass shards score metal, cut rubber conveyors and cause maintenance problems.
• Commingling glass with other recyclables causes contamination from food.
• Separating glass results in a cleaner product that won't be rejected by glass plants.
• The price paid for glass by glass plants is too low to justify the extra costs of trying to separate glass from commingled recycling.
• Transportation costs are high relative to its commodity value.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality estimates