Environment Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Midtown Composting & Recycling

Oil Companies File For Bankruptcy While Paying Executives Massive Bonuses

As the demand for fuel drops and gas wells go unused, methane gas is spewing into the environment and companies are filing for bankruptcy while paying large bonuses to business executives within the companies.

Germany Bans Single-use Plastic by 2021

Plastics, although recyclable, still require a lot of energy to produce and are not endlessly recyclable

Microplastics are In Your Poop

Researchers from the Medical University of Vienna and the Environment Agency Austria tested eight volunteers from a variety of countries, including Finland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, the U.K., and Austria. These volunteers were asked to keep a food diary for a week leading up to having a stool sample taken.

The Loss of Honeybees is Effecting Crop Production

Data from the UN’s food and agriculture organization shows that the amount of bee dependent crops had increased 300% over the past 50 years.

California Passes Zero Emissions Mandate by 2045 for Trucks

The Freightliner eCascadia and the eM2 are two of the first electric semitrucks to hit the highways for test-driving.

Heavy-duty trucks are California’s largest source of smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution

Michigan Aims to Recycle More and Send Less Waste to Landfills

Currently Michigan’s recycling rate is currently at 15%, more than half the national average recycling rate.

Crops to Grow for Self Sufficiency

If you are purely trying to sustain yourself should the food supply chain collapse, Luke recommends high calorie, starchy crops like potatoes, carrots, and corn.

Cleveland Mayor Reports Recycling is Going to Landfills

After several attempts to obtain a new recycling contract, the city was only offered one bid.

What Composting Looks like in South Korea

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - DECEMBER 10: Food scraps are seen in a compost bin at The Slanted Door restaurant on December 10, 2010 in San Francisco, California. One year after the San Francisco board of supervisors passed the nation's strictest recycling law, the residents of San Francisco have composts more than any other city in the country, with a 200 percent one year jump in composting. The city has also achieved a better than expected 77 percent diversion from landfill goal that was set at 75 percent by 2010, the nation's highest for any city. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Today recycling materials are picked up for free and all other trash has a fee calculated by the size and number of bags. Today people in South Korea generate around 3 quarters of a pound of waste a day, and a family in Seoul spends about 6 dollars a month composting.

Recycling, Yard Waste, and Composting During the Pandemic

Of course, the recycling industry was already in an era of massive upheaval BEFORE the global pandemic. COVID-19 is just making things worse. You’ve no doubt noticed the effect that the pandemic has had on gas prices. Low oil and gas prices mean recycling makes less and less sense economically – since plastic is made from oil, cheap oil means cheap plastic. And when oil is cheap, using virgin plastic makes more economic sense than using recycled plastic.