Industry chat Peel Region calls for more packaging action by Emily Atkins Readers will find the complete text below of Peel Region's recommendation regarding the blue box (including the problem of 15 litre PET water bottles and various funding issues). It seems the blue box still has some serious issues to sort out, and the municipalities are tired of getting 50 cent dollars to handle strange new packages, and all the material that they have to dispose of that never makes it into the blue box in the first place. Here's the resolution:
Industry chat Hybrid Greenwash by Emily Atkins I'm back from a busy week in B.C. at SWANA's combined Canadian and Northwest Chapter Symposium. (You can read about that in the forthcoming April/May edition of the magazine.) Today I noticed an article from BusinessWeek Online about hybrid cars. (For convenience, I've pasted it below.) It turns out that many models are not nearly as environmentally friendly as folks have been led to believe. Often it appears the cars get just a couple more kilometres per gallon of gas than a similar car model produced as a regular vehicle. It appears that many people are buying them because the electric part of the engine (which utilizes waste energy from the braking system) develops tremendous torque and hence fast acceleration. So yuppies can have a fast-accelerating high-performance car, and "feel good" about the environment, yet the environmental benefit is almost non-existent. I've also read that the performance of even the better models (GM is supposedly the worst, Toyota the best) sounds a lot better in U.S. EPA reports (under lab conditions) than in "real world" driving tests performed by Car & Driver and other auto magazines. Way worse! In theory, hybrids could really have a positive environmental impact, but so far they don't justify the very large extra money required up front to buy one. As an aside, I have a friend from Ireland who says diesel is the way to go. Cars like his Volkswagon diesel -- which gets an amazing 1000 kilometres on a single tank -- are ubiquitous in Europe. And they burn clean -- not like the smoke-belching trucks that come to mind when you think of diesel. With fuel efficiency like that, maybe we should be switching to diesel before these other gimmicks. Anyone for a hybrid diesel car? Now here's the article.
Industry chat SWANA Northeast Symposium by Emily Atkins This week I will be in Vancouver attending SWANA’s 21st Annual Pacific Northwest Regional Solid Waste Symposium. This is being combined with the Canadian Solid Waste Symposium to provide…
Industry chat V for Vendetta by Emily Atkins Last night I attended the new movie “V for Vendetta” which was produced by the same brothers who produced “The Matrix” movie series (among my favorite films in recent years).
Industry chat Wine not? by Emily Atkins On Sunday evening I drove to the rear yard of a local restaurant in Collingwood (where I live) and, with the restaurant’s permission (Huron House, in case you’re interested) loaded…
Industry chat Stealth Doomsday by Emily Atkins Today’s Globe & Mail features an AP story about species under threat of extinction. (See below) The story fits in my mind with the global warming story, and the saga…
Industry chat Thought du jour by Emily Atkins I’m busy editing articles today and don’t have the time for a long entry, but I thought I’d just share a quick thought with you here. I sometimes read…
Industry chat A Munich Re article and James Lovelock profile by Emily Atkins I thought I’d share with readers two really good articles I’ve come across in the past few days that are both entertaining and informative. The first is from re-insurance…
Industry chat Cosmic rays and climate by Emily Atkins I seem to have opened Pandora’s Box by saying I’d like to engage readers in the debate over man-made global warming and climate change, and happily so. Several people have…
Industry chat John Hanson comments on climate change by Emily Atkins Today I got an email from friend and former Reycling Council of Ontario executive director John Hanson, who is now with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (see contact details below). He…