Tagged: Waste

North Carolina residents are throwing less trash in the state’s 40 landfills than they have in 22 years. Numbers began trending downward three years ago, and the state average is now less than a ton per person per year. Ellen Lorscheider from the state division of solid waste says that the plastic bottle ban of 2010 is cutting the amount of waste. While that trend is good news for the environment, she says it could also have something to do with the ongoing financial crisis.

North Carolina is hoping to find better uses for discarded food. A new study from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources finds that residents and businesses generate over a million tons of food waste a year. Scott Mouw is director of the state recycling program.

Scott Mouw: We now should turn our attention to diverting that material from landfills and to other kinds of uses, whether it's using the food for donation to food banks, or to composting, or to other uses that may eventually turn into energy like in anaerobic digestion.

Tate Rogers never expected to enter the world of waste management, but when presented with the challenge of finding a way to safely extract human waste from latrines in third-world countries, this environmental engineering student found himself struck with a brilliant idea. The idea was so simple, Rogers figured it had already been invented. It hadn't. He received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop his waste removal technology.

A clean-up is underway along the shoreline of Jordan Lake. Corporate sponsors are picking up propane tanks, bottles and cans near the southern end of the lake where the Haw River brings in debris from storm water runoff. Fran DiGiano is the president of the group Clean Jordan Lake. He says volunteers will try to finish the job this weekend.

Opposition is mounting against reopening Greensboro’s only landfill to solid household waste. The proposal upsets nearby residents who say it could harm their health and future development. A previous city council voted to close the landfill, which is located in a residential area. Former Councilwoman Goldie Wells is part of the Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro.

"It shouldn’t have been brought up again because we had fought the battle once before. It’s not good for the community, not good for economic growth in this area, and really for the city of Greensboro."