Youth Recycling
Hanna Welch is like most 10-year-olds.
The Montgomery resident loves to watch Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place, get her country on with Taylor Swift and swoon to the Jonas Brothers – who, if her parents would get tickets to their Houston concert this August, she will “never ask for anything ever again.” more…
Waste Management Releases First Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb Packaging and Recycling Program
Waste Management. (PRNewsFoto/Tropicana)
CHICAGO AND HOUSTON, IL AND TX UNITED STATES
Consumers can purchase and recycle their compact fluorescent lightbulbs in one convenient package from ThinkGreenFromHome.com
HOUSTON, April 28 /PRNewswire/ — Waste Management, Inc., today announced that it will provide Earthmate(R) compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) in recyclable packaging that also doubles as a CFL recycling kit. Earthmate(R), is a business unit of Litetronics International, Inc.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090402/NY93570LOGO-b)
This new product includes Earthmate CFLs packaged in a resealable box lined with Waste Management’s patent pending Mercury VaporLok(TM) technology, which is designed to reduce the risk of airborne mercury exposure and environmental contamination from lamps broken during storage and shipping. The box is suitable for storing used CFLs and is approved for shipping by the United States Postal Service. Consumers return used CFLs in a postage paid shipping container to the Waste Management lamp recycling center simply by mailing them from home or any one of over 34,000 United States Postal Offices across the country.
The recycling kits are available at www.ThinkGreenFromHome.com, Waste Management’s streamlined online service for the recycling of universal household waste, including CFLs, batteries, and household electronics.
Weathering the short term, planning for the long haul
Whether they had a foul 2008 or a fair — and some Gulf ports had a surprisingly healthy year, considering the turbulent economy — nearly all are hunkering down for the rough weather they expect in 2009.
Steel imports increased 33 percent at Houston and 21 percent at Brownsville in 2008. Bagged cargo is booming at the Port of Lake Charles; steel and other metals are up at Beaumont and Mobile; wind cargo is still strong at Corpus Christi and Freeport.
None of these ports are immune to the souring economy, however, and others are already feeling the pinch. Forest products have fallen off almost everywhere. Florida’s decimated housing industry has meant a tough time for breakbulk at the ports of Tampa and Manatee, and falling U.S. and global demand has hurt New Orleans. But no matter how 2008’s fierce winds affected them, these and the rest of the Gulf’s ports have big plans for the future.
Texas ports
Houston
The Port of Houston’s general cargo jumped 20 percent during 2008, to 8,009,262 tons from 6,676,520 tons. Steel was a primary driver, with the port handling 6,303,464 tons in 2008, up 33 percent from 4,742,414 tons in 2007. Only about 5 percent of the 2008 total was exports; about 7 percent of 2007’s total was exports. more…
Obama order on environment prompts state lawmakers to get Texas on board the ‘California train’
By Ben Wright
“The auto-manufacturing industry for 19 years has been an industry whose mantra has been ‘No we can’t.’ Today President Obama is saying, ‘Yes we can,’ ” says state Rep. Mark Strama.
State Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and state Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, held a press conference at the Capitol this morning about tightening Texas’ emission standards for automobiles. The conference was in response to the Obama administration’s imminent reversal of a Bush era policy on emissions. [Editor's note: State Rep. Mark Strama's name was reported incorrectly in an earlier version of this story, which was corrected at 2:05 p.m. Jan. 26, 2009.]
Organizers of this year’s RecycleMania run are using new techniques to encourage on-campus recycling - but they’re recycling ideas from last year, too.
Although last week marked the beginning of RecycleMania’s second run at Penn, the competition won’t formally begin until Thursday, when a kickoff event at Houston Hall will feature director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability Mark Hughes speaking about ways Penn and Philadelphia can work together to improve environmentalist efforts.