The Natural Resources Council of Maine was pleased to again participate in ecomaine’s annual recycling Open House and e-waste collection event on Saturday, September 28 at their location at 62 Blueberry Road, Portland (just off Exit 46 of I-95 near the Portland International Jetport). The morning included: Tours of ecomaine’s facilities Free electronic waste (e-waste) Read More
electronic waste
A Fresh Perspective on Recycling Responsibility
Municipalities and taxpayers in the United States have been footing the bill for recycling programs for too long. It is a funding model that is rooted in a time when our wastes were much simpler. The problem today is that our waste stream is more complex than it has ever been. It is filled with Read More
Maine’s Advanced Recycling Programs Succeeding
Keeping Mercury and Other Toxics Out of Environment NRCM news release Today, DEP officials presented a report to the Legislature’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee showing that Maine’s five advanced recycling “product stewardship” laws are a huge success and have prevented more than 45 million pounds of electronic waste and hundred of pounds of toxic Read More
Where Do Old Cellphones Go to Die?
Leyla Acaroglu New York Times op ed AMERICANS replace their cellphones every 22 months, junking some 150 million old phones in 2010 alone. Ever wondered what happens to all these old phones? The answer isn’t pretty. In far-flung, mostly impoverished places like Agbogbloshie, Ghana; Delhi, India; and Guiyu, China, children pile e-waste into giant mountains Read More
How Corporate America Might Just Save Recycling
Amy Westervelt Forbes Earlier in the week, this blog looked at some of the ways in which the U.S. recycling system has become dysfunctional. Today, we look at what might happen if recycling started to really work in this country, and turn to a potential solution–one that is being promoted by some of the very Read More
New Video: The Story of Electronics (and E-waste)
Hot of the presses! The Story of Stuff project has just released an excellent new 7-minute film, the Story of Electronics. You may already be familiar with the Story of Stuff Project’s series of wildly popular and fun web videos that expose the hidden costs of all the consumer products we buy and toss at alarming Read More
Big News from the Big Apple: E-waste Lawsuit Withdrawn
Good news for extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the United States! (i.e., manufacturer responsibility for end-of-life collection and recycling of unwanted consumer products). Yesterday, a large consortium of electronics companies formally withdrew their lawsuit challenging New York City’s EPR e-waste recycling law (which I testified in support of in 2006). While a recently passed New Read More
Maine Governor Signs Product Stewardship Bill!
On March 25th, Maine Governor John Baldacci signed a first-in-the-nation “framework product stewardship” law, introduced by Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes (D-Yarmouth). The law creates a systematic approach for identifying troublesome products in the waste stream for new “product stewardship” programs – which assign end-of-life recovery and recycling costs to product manufacturers. The approach will be Read More
Governor Signs Toxics Bills
Surrounded by legislators, advocates and children, Governor Baldacci held a ceremonial signing of two important bills dealing with toxic pollution. First up for his signature was a first-in-the-nation law to create a recycling program for compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) which contain small amounts of mercury. Bill sponsor Rep. Seth Berry (D-Bowdoinham) was accompanied by his Read More
