garbage

Stories 61 - 74 | << Prev 

Under Italy's Mob, Toxic Trash Heaps Growing

Intimidation rife as garbage threatens public health

(Newser) - Heaps of garbage tower in southern Italy’s legal and illegal dumps, and may even be contributing to cancer and birth defects in the area—but the mafia’s grip on disposal makes it near impossible to fix the problem, the Los Angeles Times reports. “For years the waste...

Houston Too Ornery to Recycle
 Houston Too Ornery to Recycle
Jul 29, 2008 1:36 PM CDT

Houston Too Ornery to Recycle

'Independent streak,' cheap landfills have reuse rate at 2.6%, worst among US cities

(Newser) - While other Texas cities are working hard to separate their garbage, Houston still considers recycling to be sissy stuff, earning the oil town the worst recycling rate of 30 top US cities. Houston recycles just 2.6% of its trash, the New York Times reports, while San Francisco is at...

Italy Calls In Shrinks for Garbage Crisis

Berlusconi dispatches psychologists as part of promise to clean up mess

(Newser) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has a “final solution" to Naples' trash problem—and it includes psychologists, Der Spiegel reports. Naples, whose overflowing landfills have led to intermittently trash-choked streets for years, will soon be invaded by an army of volunteers, including a group of psychologists trained in counseling...

Britons: New Trash Laws Are Rubbish

Controversial UK measures get tough on waste

(Newser) - In the midst of a garbage overload, the UK is cracking down on trash with strict new rules, sparking a backlash among Britons, the New York Times reports. Many areas now pick up trash only biweekly, and accept only regulation amounts. Some reject recycling bins tainted with garbage. In response,...

'Super' Mafia Witness Gunned Down in Naples

Slain informant was helping cops bust garbage gangs

(Newser) - The boss of a garbage disposal firm with Mafia links who had turned informant was gunned down in a bar near Naples yesterday, the Guardian reports. The murdered man had been helping police target gangs that control waste disposal in the city, currently gripped by a garbage crisis. He had...

Trash Fires Blaze Across Naples
 Trash Fires Blaze Across Naples 
May 19, 2008 11:53 AM CDT

Trash Fires Blaze Across Naples

Firefighters working overtime as angry residents burn excess garbage

(Newser) - The prolonged garbage impasse in Naples has taken a new turn as angry residents began setting fire to thousands of tons of waste littering city streets. Firefighters were at work all night battling at least 90 burns across the city, AFP reports. “Every six to seven minutes, one of...

Naples' Trash Tops Berlusconi's To-Do List

Incoming Italian PM says he'll be in garbage-strewn city three days a week

(Newser) - Silvio Berlusconi said today his first task as Italy's prime minister will be to clean up garbage-strewn Naples, the BBC reports. After a clear victory for his center-right coalition in this week's elections, the 71-year-old media tycoon promised to spend three days a week in the city and to "...

Prized Cheese in Italy at Risk
 Prized Cheese in Italy at Risk 
Mar 27, 2008 7:03 PM CDT

Prized Cheese in Italy at Risk

Toxins found in mozzarella after years of illegal trash dumping

(Newser) - More consumers are turning up their noses at Italy’s prized buffalo mozzarella, and not over its smell, the New York Times reports. Toxins have been found in samples of the delicacy, likely caused by illegal dumping of garbage around Naples. Sales are down 40%, and farmers and restaurateurs fear...

Got Junk? Call These Guys
 Got Junk? Call These Guys 
Mar 26, 2008 12:56 PM CDT

Got Junk? Call These Guys

Company turns trash into profit

(Newser) - A shed full of roller skates, 400 wedding dresses, 18,000 sardine cans, a diffused bomb—1-800-GOT-JUNK? hauls away more than just trash in its custom-built dump trucks. The largest junk-hauling company in North America turned clutter into revenues of $150 million this year, says NPR, while professionalizing the industry...

Sea of Plastic Dooms Oceans, Expert Says

Pacific pollution—as big as Africa—is too deep and broad to fix

(Newser) - A noted oceanographer says the aquatic pollution in the Pacific Ocean is too significant to be cleaned up. “We are damned to a future of pollution by plastic,” Charles Moore said after showing that the amount of Pacific plastic has ballooned fivefold in the last 10 years. A...

Plasma May Zap City's Garbage Crisis

New tech could burn off Vancouver's garbage and make electricity

(Newser) - Vancouver may have a fix for its garbage overflow crisis: Burn the trash into a gas that makes electricity. A Canadian company called Plasco Energy Group has proposed a plant that zaps waste into ionized gas, or plasma; about a fifth of it would run the plant and the rest...

Astronaut Takes Out the Trash, Into Space

Discarded equipment expected to burn up in Earth's atmosphere

(Newser) - A NASA astronaut hurled two large pieces of space junk—a 1,400-pound reservoir filled with ammonia and a 212-pound piece of video equipment—off the International Space Station and into the Earth's orbit today. NASA does not approve of space littering, Reuters reports, but the agency had no other...

Ten Worst Jobs in Science
Ten Worst Jobs in Science
Jul 4, 2007 11:47 AM CDT

Ten Worst Jobs in Science

The less glamorous side of research, from toxic waste to whale feces

(Newser) -
  1. Hazmat diver: They swim in sewage, toxic spills and other undesirable liquid environments.
  2. Oceanographer: With the coral reefs dying, pollutants rising, and overfishing it's just one long stream of bad news.
  3. Elephant vasectomist: With a testicle a foot in diameter, it isn't exactly a walk in the wildlife preserve.
...

Naples Reeks as Garbage Dumps, Landfills Close

Trash crisis in tourist mecca heats up along with weather

(Newser) - Mounds of smelly garbage are piling up in the streets of Naples, as a shortage of places to dump it has reached a crisis: the last landfill in Naples closed Saturday. Italian President Giorgio Napolitano is pleading with politicians and citizens to save the the country's image, the Times reports.

Stories 61 - 74 | << Prev