garbage

The trash and recycling services company Waste Management is expanding into the organic gardening business, the company announced Wednesday.

The Houston-based company has acquired Garick, which manufactures things like mulch, garden compost, and playground turf made from recycled organic materials.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. WM only went so far as to announce that Garick's composting facilities will be used to augment WM's existing organic recycling services, and offer a line of organic garden products made from WM-collected biomass waste.

The new line of products will include organic garden compost, which is often referred to … 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

Yes, Monday was a work holiday for most people. But the Toy Fair is in town at the Javitz Center in New York, and like every other online gadget publication, we wanted to give you a little taste of what's there.

Granted, with somewhere around 1,500 manufacturers, distributors, importers, and sales agents from 30 countries making the rounds at the convention center, we're only highlighting a small fraction of all the products that are on display. But hopefully there's a little something for everyone in this lengthy photomontage (click on any image to start the slideshow). … Read more

It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your trash is? A new project from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology hopes to find out.

A team of MIT researchers announced on Wednesday a project called Trash Track, designed to monitor trash from start to finish. The team will electronically tag different pieces of waste to trace their voyage through the disposal systems of New York City and Seattle.

By examining the patterns and costs of waste disposal, MIT hopes to educate people about the impact of garbage on the environment and make them aware of what they throw out.… Read more

If you live in an apartment like mine, you need to take extra precautions against critters in the kitchen. Especially during summer, the creepy crawly things that usually stick to the outdoors love to come inside. I keep a pretty neat kitchen space, but every once in a while, even my obsession with cleanliness is no match for bugs and bacteria. And in the war against the kitchen mess, the garbage can is my biggest opponent.

Just yesterday, I had to throw away a can of trash that was particularly stinky. If I can smell my trash, I can only … Read more

Nothing bugs me more on garbage day than digging my hands into the sides of my trash can, searching in vain for the bag that was so clearly at the top when I first began to fill it. I have a tall trash can, and the corner store sells bags that are perpetually too short, so the first time I throw a heavy ball of waste into the can, I can say "bye-bye" to the bag until it's time to dig it out for disposal.

This is something I've come to accept as a necessary evil … Read more

While we inadvertently promote a chain restaurant's free luncheon, we also talk a lot about space. Which annoys Brian Cooley to no end. We talk about Google Mars, and contacting the ISS and the NASA-sponsored Singularity university. But he gets his revenge when he announces the retirement of the inventor of the BMW-butt.

Google Earth adds Mars roving http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10154741-52.html

Google privacy counsel facing criminal charges http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F02%2F2337207 https://www.privacyassociation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1745&Itemid=228… Read more

I guess it's a function of having children; I see danger everywhere. Particularly in my garbage disposal. I have horrifying thoughts of a child's fingers somehow ending up where they shouldn't be, or a child somehow hitting a switch when my fingers are where they shouldn't be. And, needless to say, these constant worries really detract from my whole kitchen experience.

Some might suggest that I remove my garbage disposal completely, but those people are just mean. Not everything goes in the compost pile, and the disposal keeps the pipes happy and clean. So, I looked … Read more

Every time I try to turn on my garbage disposal, I first turn on the light over the kitchen sink. The two switches are right next to each other, and no matter how many times I make the mistake, I still can't remember which is which. I suppose I could label the switches, but that would destroy the minimalist look I love. Plus, I'd have to make a label, and that's just too much effort.

Far easier, at least for me, to tell my husband to install the InSinkErator SinkTop Switch. It mounts on the counter or … Read more