recycling

It's no surprise electronic garbage commonly referred to as e-waste is piling up in our nation's landfills, but the Australian National Park Service has a creative alternative: Repeat Plastics Australia just opened a new bike path made entirely out of excess plastic materials from discarded printer cartridges.

The 10.6-mile bike path stretches between Alice Springs and Simpsons Gap in the northwest territory of Australia and sees over 120,000 visitors every year. According to Parks and Wildlife Minster Karl Hampton, the bridge echoes the Australian government's commitment to sustainable development, "saving landfill, trees, and ensuring … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--With its sleek architectural lines, extensive acoustic setup, and cultured patrons in fancy garb, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is generally considered an elegant place. On May 9, however, the stage at the home of the San Francisco Symphony will be covered in garbage.

Sewer pipes, deck railings, dresser drawers, bike wheels, saws, bathroom fixtures, and bird cages. Symphony musicians will bang, clang, tap, and thump on these and other bits of detritus as they perform Junkestra, a composition played with 30-plus percussive instruments made entirely of objects scavenged at the San Francisco Dump.

Davies "is definitely not used to seeing garbage onstage," says Nathaniel Stookey, the composer of Junkestra. "It doesn't go with the velvet seats."

Then again, musically savvy audience members expecting to hear something akin to toddlers beating pots and pans may come away surprised--Junkestra's odd acoustic mix sounds way more world music than garbage music. (Listen to the third movement in the audio player at right).

"I had no idea when I started writing this piece how beautiful the instruments could sound...I was very surprised by how rich the palette was," Stookey says. "It's really not just a bunch of banging. It sounds like an orchestra. It just sounds like a very strange, exotic orchestra."

Stookey composed Junkestra in 2007 while participating in an artist-in-residence program sponsored by San Francisco waste management company Recology. He collected his sonorous stash by heading onto city trash piles in a helmet, safety goggles, gloves, and steel-shank boots and, amid giant moving tractors, testing the musical potential of discarded objects. He then placed his findings in a shopping cart, which he pushed down city streets back to his studio.

The 12-minute Junkestra, which is always performed with the same assemblage of instruments, has drawn listeners to San Francisco warehouses and public squares, and in 2008 helped mark the opening of the redesigned California Academy of Sciences building in the city's Golden Gate Park. At its May 9 Davies debut (PDF), the audience will hear Stravinsky's Octet for Wind Instruments, Prokofiev's String Quartet No. 2, and Ravel's Piano Trio alongside the strains of pans and oil drums.

The May performance will also mark the official release of a new Innova Records Junkestra CD conducted by Benjamin Shwartz and performed by members of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. The CD includes all three movements of Junkestra, plus a dance remix written by Stookey. … Read more

Ford Motor announced Wednesday that 85 percent (by weight) of each Ford vehicle made now is recyclable.

Apparently, CEO Bill Ford's misspent youth carousing with "known and suspected environmentalists" back in the day has paid off. And it seems to be the little things that count, according to Ford Motor.

In addition to the usual car parts that have been recycled for years, Ford has also been adding sustainable raw materials or recycled materials for components in select cars.

Ford's use of components like splash shields and engine covers made from post-consumer recycled plastics has prevented an estimated 25 million to 30 million pounds of plastic from going into landfills, according to company statistics.

The 2010 Ford Taurus, for example, will be the 11th Ford vehicle to have seat cushions, seatbacks, and headrests made from soy and biomass-based foam. Ford-produced vehicles that already have this include: the Ford Mustang, F-150, Focus, Flex, Escape, Expedition, Econoline, Mercury Mariner, Lincoln MKS, and Lincoln Navigator.… Read more

Microsoft announced Wednesday its joining Dell and Goodwill Industries International in their ongoing recycling program.

Goodwill, in addition to being a used clothing and furniture repository and store, is also a place where people can drop off their old electronics.

Through a program started in partnership with Dell in 2004 called Reconnect, participating Goodwill centers allow people to drop off their used computers and related peripherals to be recycled for free.

You can now add Microsoft products like Zunes and Xboxes to the list of electronic items Goodwill accepts.

The program is not completely convenient as there are many states … Read more

If you're looking for an alternative to plastic containers and zip-top bags for food storage, consider LunchBots. The containers and their lids are available in four sizes and are made from 18/8 stainless steel that won't leach chemicals into food. Designed to fit in lunch boxes, backpacks, and even purses, LunchBots are dishwasher safe and are lab certified to be lead-free.

The Uno and Eco models each offer a single storage compartment: the Uno is sized for a burrito, sushi, or a sandwich, and the Eco is designed to hold larger portions. The Duo and Pico have … Read more

Though some moviegoers' powerful identification with "Avatar" may have inspired them to ponder the planet and rethink their carbon footprint, they likely missed the irony: millions of nonbiodegradable, plastic 3D glasses were reportedly distributed for the movie.

Luckily, cinemas may be on their way to adopting a more sustainable technology. Cereplast, an L.A.-based maker of bioplastics, has partnered with Oculus3D to create what appear to be the first biodegradable 3D glasses. Unlike current 3D glasses that are made using petroleum-based plastic, these will be manufactured with plastic derived from plant materials.

Cereplast and Oculus3D say they'… Read more

With literally hundreds of millions of mobile phones piling up in U.S. homes, how to profitably recycle these devices is a pressing question.

Start-up eRecyclingCorps on Tuesday is scheduled to announce that its customer Sprint is offering a phone buyback program in which consumers can get money for older phones when they upgrade to a newer model.

eRecycling Corp has developed an in-store application and a Web service, offered from Sprint's site. The application lets a person see how much an older phone is worth and get a credit for its residual value when buying a new one. … Read more

A large-scale, collaborative effort to clear polluting boats, barges, and buildings out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is under way. But hauling these sometimes decades-old structures out of the rivers isn't easy. This week, CNET went along on one outing to see how it's done.

We've posted a handful of oversize photos from the tour in this blog. For more, see our photo gallery here.

Living in Japan, you have to sort your household garbage into burnable trash, non-burnable trash, recycling, and probably one other category I've forgotten. Each goes to the curb on a different day. I'm tickled to see that Japanese researchers have built a recycling robot that automatically sorts different kinds of plastic by using laser-sensing technology. They call it the first of its kind in the world.

The engineers at Osaka University's Photonics Advanced Research Center and automation firm IDEC, along with Mitsubishi Electric Engineering, say the sorting robot is designed to improve low recycling rates for plastics … Read more