This Week in Waste: Top Stories March 4 - March 7

#5 - Cigarette Ash Littering Leads to Detainment and Search for Coeur d'Alene Man

Police officers approached James Mark Popp as he sat on the passenger side of the front seat of a vehicle in the parking lot of a bar in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  Popp was resting his arm out of the vehicle's window while flicking ash from his cigarette onto the parking lot.  An officer informed Popp that, by dropping his cigarette ash onto the lot, he was littering.

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#4 - How LanzaTech Keeps Carbon Out of the Sky and in Use

Synthetic biology and engineering company LanzaTech commercialized a technology that captures carbon from steel mills and ferril alloy mills before it is released into the atmosphere; it is then transformed into raw materials that are used in products traditionally derived from petroleum.

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#3 - Treading a Zero Waste Path

Reuse models, single-use plastics bans, extended producer responsibility, and bottle deposit schemes are among zero waste practices gaining traction. But even as these concepts catch on, only the most progressive and determined communities have made meaningful headway.

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#2 - Waste & Recycling’s Frontline: A Toxicologist’s Perspective

The materials we process at our waste and recycling facilities can present both physical and health hazards that range from minimal to severe. One hazard can be found in batteries, which contain gases that are highly flammable and toxic.

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#1 - Understanding the Role of Social Norms in Recycling Behavior: A New York City Study funded by EREF

The practice of recycling – the day-to-day decisions and actions consumers take, like correctly sorting waste and cleaning recyclables – can be tedious or just downright confusing. While the recycling infrastructure, which encompasses collection, transportation, Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), secondary processing, and re-manufacturing by product manufacturers plays a pivotal role, it's the consumer that plays the most critical role in the quality and efficiency of the recycling stream.

Read the full article here.