Waste | Grist

Nigeria’s oil pollution is stark example of resource curse, says Amnesty International 2
Posted 4 days, 1 hour ago
The pollution caused by half a century of oil extraction in Nigeria is one of the world's most disturbing examples of the curse of natural resources, a global rights lobby group said Tuesday.
Murder by breath

Goodbye to Cancer Valley: In remembrance of my friend John Soley 0
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago
After a long struggle with cancer, my friend Mr. John Soley died at his home in Carbon County, Pa. on Saturday, June 20. He was only 62, which is too young to die of natural causes. But then, neither John nor I believe he got sick from natural causes. We believe he and many of his neighbors were poisoned by pollution, and that the perpetrators should be held to account.
Talking Trash

‘Garbage Dreams’ explores life in Cairo’s garbage villages 3
Posted 1 month ago
Winner of the Al Gore Reel Current award for film, Mai Iskander's new documentary film, "Garbage Dreams," explores the world of the Zaballeen -- a group that makes its living recycling the trash of Cairo.
Hello, Mr. Chips

Ask Umbra on chippers 3
Posted 1 month ago
When it comes to chipping yard waste, what are the alternatives? Umbra digs up a few ideas.
DUMPING IN DIXIE

Toxic waste from New York river cleanup headed to Texas 0
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Work got underway this week to clean up hazardous PCB pollution that General Electric dumped into New York's Upper Hudson River. But the toxic waste is being sent to a landfill that sits atop the Ogallala Aquifer, a key drinking-water source for West Texas.
Hot potato

Pennsylvania rejected TVA coal ash that’s going to poor communities in Alabama and Georgia 2
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Some of the more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash that spilled from an impoundment at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee last December is making its way to landfills in poor and black communities in Alabama and Georgia, as we reported last week at Facing South.

It turns out that TVA also looked into sending the waste to Pennsylvania for dumping into abandoned mines -- but that state's Department of Environmental Protection rejected the ash as substandard.
Talkin' Bout Cogeneration

Two homeowners, one monster, and a cutting-edge power source 6
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago
There's a monster in the basement, but Peter and Edith are going to slay it. They're replacing their outdated furnace with a state-of-the-art micro-cogeneration system -- one of the first used in a residential setting.
Urine Trouble

If it’s Yellowstone, leave it mellow-stone? 1
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
After editing Grist's three-part series on poop recently, it's easy to explain why the weird news out of Yellowstone National Park caught this writer's attention.
Runaway Joe

Debate: Roberts v. ‘clean coal’ flack Joe Lucas 0
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Here's an online debate between me and clean coal spokesflack Joe Lucas, originally run by the PBS show NOW.
Gold in them piles

Businesses struggle to profit from sewage sludge 7
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago
Part 2 of Grist's series on poop: What if we could use sludge -- the dark brown, complex material that's left over after wastewater is treated -- as energy? Some enterprising businesses are figuring out ways to do just that.
Poop + Marketing = Biosolids

Sludge, farmer’s friend or toxic slime? 18
Posted 2 months ago
Eat, crap, fertilize, and eat again. For thousands of years, this arrangement worked just fine. So what's so controversial about applying our poop to the farms of America?
The Sludge Report

Regulating biosolids 0
Posted 2 months ago
The federal regulations governing what you can do with sludge are so complicated that the EPA had to issue a "plain English" description. Here's what you need to know.
Every day is recycle day

Green your landfill 0
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Tip # 6: If you find yourself holding a plastic water bottle, recycle it. Lots of plastic -- bottle-form or not -- is recyclable these days.
Insert Teabagging Joke Here

Green Tea Party 3
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
It's Tax Day, but since our eco-advice on that front is pretty straightforward (save paper and file online!), we thought we'd focus instead on the other event that's brewing: the "tea parties" planned across the nation.
The Bay vs. The Bag 1
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Screw Earth Day

Avoid the bottle blues 0
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Save money (and the planet) by avoiding bottled water. Already heard it? Then get busy converting your friends and family to the anti-bottled-water campaign.
It's not easy being, um, corporate

‘Getting Green Done’ speaks hard truths about sustainable business 6
Posted 3 months ago
Corporate sustainability guru Auden Schendler lays out the problem with corporate sustainability gurus in his new book "Getting Green Done."
Umbra’s video advice on greening your office 0
Posted 3 months ago
Ask Umbra’s video advice on battery recycling 0
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
Do not mail

What works for telemarketers might work for junk-mailers 0
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
I have a foolproof plan to fight spam: if the government gave out Viagra for free, then most spammers would quickly go out of business as their market would be undercut. Foolproof. Our friends at ForestEthics are trying to do the same for junk mail, except they have an even better plan: a Do Not Mail Registry, modeled on the effective Do Not Call Registry.