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Source: Environmental Protection Online

Researchers have presented an extensive analysis of the role of nanomaterials in environmental remediation and monitoring, which can be used to clean up toxins and bacteria from natural waters, wastewaters, and the air.

Nanomaterials’ unique properties allow them to remove pollutants from the environment. The extremely small size of nanomaterial particles, typically in the range between 1 and 100 nanometers (billionth of a meter), creates a large surface area in relation to their volume, which makes them highly reactive, compared to non-Nano forms of the same materials.

Silver, iron, gold, titanium oxides and iron oxides are some of the commonly used nanoscale metals and metal oxides cited by the researchers that can be used in environmental remediation. Silver nanoparticles, for example, can be effective antimicrobial agents and can treat wastewater containing bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Nanoscale titanium dioxide can also kill bacteria and disinfect water when activated by light.
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SEVILLE, Calif. — Like most children, the students at Stone Corral Elementary School here rejoice when the bell rings for recess and delight in christening a classroom pet.
Source: New York Times

An unlined animal waste lagoon at a Tulare County farm.

But while growing up in this impoverished agricultural community of numbered roads and lush citrus orchards, young people have learned a harsh life lesson: “No tomes el agua!” — “Don’t drink the water!”

Seville, with a population of about 300, is one of dozens of predominantly Latino unincorporated communities in the Central Valley plagued for decades by contaminated drinking water. It is the grim result of more than half a century in which chemical fertilizers, animal wastes, pesticides and other substances have infiltrated aquifers, seeping into the groundwater and eventually into the tap. An estimated 20 percent of small public water systems in Tulare County are unable to meet safe nitrate levels, according to a United Nations representative.

In farmworker communities like Seville, a place of rusty rural mailboxes and backyard roosters where the average yearly income is $14,000, residents like Rebecca Quintana pay double for water: for the tap water they use to shower and wash clothes, and for the five-gallon bottles they must buy weekly for drinking, cooking and brushing their teeth.
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Ceremony at UC Berkeley to announce participation in EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge

SAN FRANCISCO – In celebration of America Recycles Day 2012 (November 15), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will honor 18 California, Nevada, Arizona, and Guam universities for their participation in the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge.  The Food Recovery Challenge is a voluntary program that aims to limit wasted excess food nationwide through donations to charity, reducing consumption, and increasing composting.

An honor ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley, campus will be held on November 15, and will include a tour to follow of the university’s student-led composting network and innovative LeanPath computerized food waste tracking system.  The LeanPath system provides real time data to avoid food waste and save money. The tour will provide a behind-the-scenes look at UC Berkeley’s innovative approach to food management.

Media Kit:  http://www.epa.gov/region9/mediacenter/foodrecovery/

Primary Visuals:     Walk-through of waste diversion and recycling network

Demonstration of LeanPath food waste tracking system

Honor ceremony with representatives from state and federal agencies

Who:        Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator, U.S. EPA Pacific Southwest

Kyle Pogue, Division Director, State of California Materials Management and Local Assistance

Gary Wolff, Executive Director, Alameda County Waste Management Authority  (StopWaste.org)

Michael Laux, Associate Director, UC Berkeley Housing & Dining Services

Lisa McNeilly, Director, UC Berkeley Office of Sustainability

What:      Tour of waste minimization practices in the dining facility

Demonstration of food waste tracking system

Honor ceremony announcing 18 schools participating in program

When:      November 15, 2012, 10:00-11:00 a.m.

Where:    UC Berkeley Crossroads Dining Hall

2415 Bowditch Street, Berkeley, CA 94720 (map)

For more information on the Food Recovery Challenge, visit:  http://www.epa.gov/foodrecoverychallenge/

Source: Environmental Leader.com

“B Corporations,” for-profit companies that also have social or environmental missions, need more oversight by state regulators in California, legal experts said at a National Association of State Charity Officials conference.

About 75 companies have registered as “benefit” or “flexible purpose” corporations since Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills into law last year to give businesses greater freedom to pursue social and environmental objectives, NBC reported.

Patagonia, which is a B Corp, was the first company to take advantage of the new California law.
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Source: Healthcare Finance News>/a>

[See also: Commonwealth Fund launches Web site for hospitals to compare, improve quality]

“This study turns on its head the belief that introducing environmental sustainability measures increases operating costs,” said Blair L. Sadler, an author of the study and a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in a press release.

HHI is a national campaign that began in April 2012 to implement a new approach to improving environmental health and sustainability in the healthcare sector. Eleven of the largest U.S. health systems, comprising approximately 500 hospitals with more than $20 billion in purchasing power, worked with HCWH, the Center for Health Design and Practice Greenhealth to create HHI as a guide for hospitals to improve sustainability.

The HHI is a set of six challenges for hospitals nationwide aimed at improving the healthcare sector’s environmental footprint that include engaged leadership, healthier foods, leaner energy, less waste, safer chemicals and smarter purchasing, said Gary Cohen, president and founder of HCWH. The HHI provides a free framework to support the nation’s hospitals in taking on the six HHI challenges.

[See also: Commonwealth Fund launches Safety Net Medical Home Initiative]

“One of the core mandates for healthcare reform is to reduce costs and eliminate waste in the system, so we’re offering a unique way to reduce waste literally, and through that, how to save money,” said Cohen. “And even more than that, if we’re going to address the epidemic of chronic diseases like obesity, asthma and diabetes, healthcare needs to play a role outside of the four walls of its facilities; it needs to create healthier communities and food systems so we aren’t getting our communities sick.”

Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wis., was the first hospital system to sign up for all six of HHI’s challenges.

“This is not only good for the community, but you can really save money. Our $2 million investment saves us $1 million a year,” said Gundersen Lutheran Health System CEO Jeff Thompson. “The HHI set a high standard for us, and we signed up for all six challenges. It’s a great product to quantify best practices so people can get educated and be inspired.”

The report’s authors suggest that given the return on investment, all hospitals should adopt programs, such as the ones offered by the HHI and noted that “… (I)n cases where capital investments could be financially burdensome … public funds (should) be used to provide loans or grants, particularly to safety-net hospitals.”

Source: Environmental Protection Online

A team of researchers led at the University of Maryland School of Public Health has found that the superbug MRSA is prevalent in several wastewater treatment plants across the U.S.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is well known for causing difficult-to-treat and potentially fatal bacterial infections in hospital patients, but since the late 1990s it has also been infecting otherwise healthy people in community settings. Infected people can shed MRSA from their noses and skin and through their feces, so wastewater treatment plants are a likely reservoir for the bacteria. Swedish researchers have previously identified the presence of MRSA in wastewater treatment plants in Sweden, and this new UMD-led study confirms the presence of MRSA in U.S. facilities.

The research team, including University of Maryland School of Public Health and University of Nebraska Medical Center researchers, collected wastewater samples throughout the treatment process at two Mid-Atlantic and two Midwestern wastewater treatment plants. These plants were chosen because treated effluent discharged from these plants is reused as “reclaimed wastewater” in spray irrigation activities. The researchers were interested in whether MRSA remained in the effluent.

They found that MRSA, as well as a related pathogen, methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA), were present at all four wastewater treatment plants, with MRSA in half of all samples and MSSA in 55 percent. MRSA was present in 83 percent of the influent, but the percentage of MRSA and MSSA-positive samples decreased as treatment progressed. Only one wastewater treatment plant had the bacteria in the treated water leaving the plant, and this was at a plant that does not regularly use chlorination, a tertiary step in wastewater treatment.

93 percent of the MRSA strains that were isolated from the wastewater and 29 percent of MSSA strains were resistant to two or more classes of antibiotics, including several that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has specifically approved for treating MRSA infections. At two wastewater treatment plants, MRSA strains showed resistance to more antibiotics and greater prevalence of a gene associated with virulence at subsequent treatment stages, until tertiary chlorination treatment appeared to eliminate all MRSA. This suggests that while wastewater treatment plants effectively reduce MRSA and MSSA from influent to effluent, they may select for increased antibiotic resistance and virulence, particularly at those facilities that do not employ tertiary/chlorination treatment.

“Our finding raise potential public health concerns for wastewater treatment plant workers and individuals exposed to reclaimed wastewater, “says Rachel Rosenberg Goldstein, environmental health doctoral student in the School of Public Health and the study’s first author. “Because of increasing use of reclaimed wastewater, further research is needed to evaluate the risk of exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria in treated wastewater.”

Source: Environmental Leader.com

The U.S. EPA estimates that more than 350 million rechargeable batteries are purchased annually in the U.S. These batteries power a variety of mobile devices that we use daily — from smartphones to laptops to cordless power tools and e-readers.

A typical rechargeable battery can be recharged up to 1,000 times, but once it loses its charge, it should be recycled. Call2Recycle^® provides an easy and free solution for businesses and the public to recycle batteries and cellphones. In 2011, Call2Recycle recycled over 8.9 million pounds of rechargeable batteries — with your help, even more can be diverted from the waste stream.

Learn how you can start recycling your batteries today

Source: Environmental Protection Online.com

According to a new study, silver nanoparticles in clothing can have a severe environmental impact on the environment. The nanosilver, which is toxic to bacteria and higher organisms, is released into water systems after clothing has been washed.

In a study conducted by Chalmers researcher Rickard Arvidsson, the risks associated with nanomaterials were addressed. Arvidsson has developed new methods to assess the risks of nanomaterials, as well as used the methods on a few specific materials such as silver nanoparticles.

Silver nanoparticles have an antibacterial effect, and are used in a variety of consumer products such as workout clothing to prevent the smell of sweat. When the clothes are washed, nanoparticles are released and enter waste water treatment plants through waste water. The particles release silver ions that cannot be broken down at waste water treatment plants or in nature.
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Source: Triple Pundit.com

Sunshine, wind and geothermal heat are all examples of renewable energy, as they are all replenished naturally and thus have a lower impact on the environment. Now imagine if there was an energy source right here in America that humans generated at a rate of approximately 250 million tons per year?

There is, and it’s likely sitting in your waste bin right now.

Through innovative technology, waste can be converted into energy that is cost-effective and sustainable. In fact, waste is already hard at work producing electricity and fuel across the country. For example, Waste Management alone currently produces more electricity with landfill gas to energy (LFGTE) facilities than the entire U.S. solar industry.

Landfill gas to energy is a process that collects the gases naturally produced by decaying waste and converts it into electricity. Special wells are drilled into a landfill to collect the methane naturally emitted from the waste. The gas is then pumped to a special facility to convert it into electricity.

Explore this interactive infographic to learn more.

According to the EPA, there are currently more than 575 LFGTE facilities in operation in the United States, producing more than 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. In layman’s terms, that amount of electricity could power more than 10 million homes. The EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) estimates that hundreds more landfills could be tapped to begin producing even more renewable energy in the future.

The computer you’re reading this from could be powered by the waste you disposed of months or years ago. But what if your car was also powered by waste? The technology to make that scenario a reality already exists and is become more and more popular every year.

For example, at Waste Management’s Altamont Landfill Resource and Recovery Facility in Livermore, California, waste produces up to 13,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per day. This LNG fuels hundreds of trucks in Waste Management’s fleet and reduces particulate and greenhouse gas emissions.

Even without a landfill, companies are developing innovative ways to convert waste into fuel. One renewable energy company, Agilyx, has developed technology to convert difficult-to-recycle plastics (mixed, contaminated or hard plastics) into crude oil through a process of gasification. The technology takes finely-ground chips of plastic, heats them until they evaporate into a gas and then condenses them back into a synthetic crude oil. That oil can be processed into gasoline or other products.

Another company, Renmatix, can convert organic waste products (inedible agricultural waste, wood chips, etc.) into sugars that can be used to create fuels – much like corn sugars can produce ethanol. All organic material is made up of sugars, and the Renmatix Plantrose™ process breaks organic waste down into sugars using water at its “supercritical” state. These sugars can then be used to produce fuel and other chemical products. As a matter of full disclosure, Waste Management is an investment and development partner with both Agilyx and Renmatix.

Both of these companies – and others like them – currently operate on a relatively small scale, but the future is bright. October is dedicated to energy awareness, and across the nation, more and more individuals and organization have made it a priority year-round.

Lynn Brown is Vice President of Communications at Waste Management.