Could converting the huge amounts of garbage sitting in landfills around the world into biofuel be the answer to the growing energy crisis and a means of wrangling out-of-control carbon emissions?

Scientists in Singapore and Switzerland think so. Their research, published in Global Change Biology: Bioenergy, shows that by converting processed waste such as paper and cardboard into what is known as cellulosic ethanol, a second-generation biofuel, it would be easy to cut global carbon emissions by 80%.

Using data from the United Nation’s Human Development Index, the scientists estimated that …

Tags: biofuel , cellulosic ethanol , garbage to fuel , landfill , urban waste

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How often do you have to empty the trash cans around your home? If you take a trip outside to the dumpster every couple days, it’s time to examine why your garbage bins fill up so quickly. To cut down the amount of waste you send off to the landfill, here’s a list of things you shouldn’t be throwing away.

Water Bottles

Yes, they can be recycled but, with a water filter on your faucet and a reusable thermos, there’s no need for disposable water bottles. Stopping the bottle habit …

Tags: disposables , garbage , how much do Americans throw away , landfill , things you can recycle , trash , waste

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What to do with waste when there is no land on which to dump it?

Such was Singapore’s dilemma back in the 90s when the existing landfill ran out of room. But as a small island on the tip of the Malay peninsula, Singapore was land poor.

So the nation came up with a novel idea to solve its problem.

The country designated the sea space between two adjacent island as a new landfill site called Semakau and beginning in 1999 proceeded to fill it with primarily incinerated ash. Receiving 1400 tonnes of …

Tags: conservation , environment , landfill , National Environment Agency , park , reclamation project , Singapore

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After thousands of years of striving to develop the longest-lasting, hardest-wearing items for daily use, inventive-minded humans are now being urged to design things that deliberately fall to bits as quickly as possible, for the good of the environment.

Of course it’s only the throwaway parts of modern life that need to be shorter-lasting. (Everything else can simply be reused). Packaging, office supplies, newspapers ““ either we need to rethink our need for them, or stop making them so durable. There’s a difference between organic (in …

Tags: biodegradable , innovation , landfill , science , technology , waste

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I remember when bottled water went on sale in my home town sometime in the 1980s. I was just a kid but I clearly recall that the universal reaction among both children and adults was mockery. Who would be dumb enough to pay for water when it comes out of the tap for free? Fizzy water maybe, but otherwise it was just a waste of money.

Two and a bit decades on and it’s quite a different story. Bottled water is big business, worth over $60bn a …

Tags: bottled water , going green , landfill , plastic , recycling , tips

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