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Source: Environmental Expert.com

(PRWEB) November 29, 2012 — In March 2012, the GSA announced that only certified e-waste recyclers may handle end-of-life electronics from federal agencies including electronics which were bought with federal funds by government contractors. The only certifications that the GSA recognizes for electronics recyclers are R2 and eStewards.

This means that hard drive shredding needs to be done by a certified recycler to be in compliance with the GSA, Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), Federal Management Regulation and Executive Order 13514. Hard drives have circuit boards which are a designated “focus material”. These focus materials are of particular concern because of the hazardous, toxic and rare-earth metals contained therein. “Focus materials” are the main reason for these new restrictions.
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Source: Fuel Fix.com

WASHINGTON — The Senate gave the green light to the Pentagon’s investment in green energy.

By a vote of 62-37 on Wednesday, the Senate backed an amendment that would delete a provision in the defense bill prohibiting the military from spending money on alternative fuels if the cost exceeded traditional fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. The Pentagon has opposed the provision that a sharply divided Senate Armed Services Committee added in May.

The Navy and Air Force have pushed to use more biofuels to operate its aircraft and ships, with military leaders suggesting a greater reliance on alternative sources in the next decade to ease dependence on foreign oil.
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Source: US EPA Water Quality

WASHINGTON — Pursuant to an order from a U.S. District Court and as required by the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today recommended new recreational water quality criteria for states that will help protect peoples’ health during visits to beaches and waters year round. The science-based criteria provide information to help states improve public health protection by addressing a broader range of illness symptoms, better accounting for pollution after heavy rainfall, providing more protective recommendations for coastal waters, encouraging early alerts to beachgoers and promoting rapid water testing. The criteria released today do not impose any new requirements; instead, they are a tool that states can choose to use in setting their own standards.

The criteria provide states and communities with the most up to date science and information that they can use to determine whether water quality is safe for the public and when to issue an advisory or a beach closure. EPA has provided a variety of other tools to help states evaluate and manage recreational waters.
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Source: Environmental Leader.com

The American Institute for Packaging and the Environment’s Product Recovery Knowledge Maps, a web-based tool that aims to increase recovery rates for packaging material, has gone live to the public on the company’s web site.

The product was previously reserved for Ameripen members only. Now most aspects of it have been made freely available.

PKRMs are web-based matrices of primarily publicly-available data and report findings, designed to house data in an interactive way. One PRKM has been developed for each of the Ameripen Recovery Work Group’s three teams: Packaging Material Data, Collection and Processing Infrastructure, and Recovery Systems.

Users can click on a matrix to compare different packaging materials’ quality issues, recovery rates, public participation in recycling, environmental attributes and costs. Further information of each of these attributes is available by clicking through for detailed analysis of the packaging products. Information in the PKRMs covers aluminum, glass, paper, plastic, steel and wood.

The aim of the product is to help determine the next most logical steps to drive recovery of packaging materials.

Click here to use the PKRMs.

Ameripen aims to improve and promote the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of packaging through increased material recovery rates, better packaging design and materials selection, and public awareness. The organization was launched in 2011 by a consortium of companies including Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble.

Source: Environmental Leader.com

Despite the worst recession since the 1930′s, sustainability has found its way into the consciousness of progressive boardrooms around the world. Clearly companies see sustainability as part of a successful approach to business, even during, or perhaps especially during, difficult times. But what does this really mean? Are companies actively embracing sustainability as a defining aspect of their corporate strategy or are they just talking the talk but not really changing their fundamental business approach? I would argue that we’re getting better but we’re still a long way from where we need to be.

Sustainability Is a Loaded Word

The word sustainability still makes many business people cringe.  It’s a loaded word with a complex definition and it often creates rifts rather than harmony among people.  To some sustainability is about energy efficiency, to others it’s about carbon reduction and climate change, while for others it’s about factory working conditions.  People’s interpretation of the word and their motivations for embracing sustainability may vary, but what’s interesting is that the corporations that have found success by embracing sustainability have all done so by following a similar path.

It May Sound Easy But…
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Three of the four inventors of the urine-powered generator (Eric Hersman)Four African girls have created a generator that produces electricity for six hours using a single liter of urine as fuel.

Source: Yahoo News

The generator was unveiled at last week’s Maker Faire in Lagos, Nigeria, by the four teens Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, all age 14, and Bello Eniola, 15.

So how exactly does the urine-powered generator work?

• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.
• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder.
• The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax, which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.
• This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator.

And as for delivering the fuel itself? Well, we’ll leave that up to the consumer.

The Maker Faire is a popular event across the African continent, drawing thousands of participants who travel to Lagos to show their inventions and other practical creations.

As the Next Web describes it, the Maker Faire is intended to highlight creations “that solve immediate challenges and problems, and then works to support and propagate them. Put another way, this isn’t just a bunch of rich people talking about how their apps are going to change the world.”