Tuesday, 20 May 2003
Too Cool, from School
Pennsylvania State University has undertaken a massive new recycling program -- not for paper or plastics or food waste, but for the mammoth piles of stuff that students leave behind at the end of every school year, from sneakers to TVs to sofas. The end-of-term junk problem grew into a major headache on U.S. campuses during the 1990s, as students brought more and more stuff with them to school. Many colleges and universities just toss the left-behind items into dumpsters, but Albert Matyasovsky of Penn State couldn't bear to see all those useful goods sent to landfills, so last year he funneled the detritus to the campus stadium for a massive flea market. This "trash-to-treasure" sale raised $15,000 for United Way and is now set to become an annual event. Other colleges are partnering with a Massachusetts nonprofit called Dump and Run that helps them set up a system for collecting student castoffs, selling them, and channeling the proceeds toward nonprofits.Swiss Miss
In a closely watched referendum, Swiss citizens voted overwhelmingly on Sunday to keep nuclear power going strong in the country. Although Switzerland has abundant sources of hydroelectric power, voters rejected two initiatives on the ballot that would have phased out the nation's five nuclear power plants over the coming decades. Philippe de Rougemont, representative for an anti-nuke coalition, predicted that the "no" vote would discourage companies from pursuing renewable-energy projects, and he blamed the initiatives' defeat on the powerful nuclear industry. "It seems that money determines the outcome of the vote," he said. The Swiss electorate also rejected a citizens' initiative that would have established car-free Sundays in the country.Turtle Wane
Having depleted their own nation's once-plentiful turtle populations, Chinese buyers are now offering top dollar for turtles from the southern U.S. In the last three years, there's been a dramatic upswing in the number of turtles exported to China, where the animals' meat is considered a delicacy and their shells are ground up to make virility powders. In 2002, 23,000 turtles were extracted from the waterways of North Carolina, up from just a few thousand in 1999. So troubling is this trend that North Carolina is poised to impose a moratorium on turtle fishing. South Carolina is also considering a moratorium, and Alabama and Mississippi have put strict limits on turtle trapping. Southern populations of the slow-moving creatures don't seem to be in danger yet, but lawmakers want to act before it's too late.
only in Grist: Shell-shocked -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker
A Shore Thing
Controversy is bubbling along the East Coast of the U.S. as a handful of companies press forward with plans to build offshore wind turbines -- 858 off the Maryland shore, 221 off Virginia, and 130 off Cape Cod, Mass. There are now some 15,000 wind turbines on U.S. land, providing clean, renewable power and decreasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, but no turbine farms have yet been constructed in U.S. waters. Not-in-my-backyard complaints from wealthy communities in Cape Cod and other spots have thrown a wrench in some wind-energy plans. By contrast, officials in Northampton County, Va., the poorest county in the state, asked Winergy, one of the more aggressive wind-development companies, to move a proposed wind farm closer to shore, into local waters, so the community could better benefit from tax revenues and job opportunities. While the U.S. now gets less than 1 percent of its energy from wind, the Department of Energy has set a goal of increasing that figure to 5 percent by 2020.
only in Grist: Tilting at windmills -- activists are split on a proposed wind project off Cape Cod -- by Amanda Griscom in Powers That Be
