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Help us improve E.P.A.’s measurements to compare the climate impacts of materials management practices. They are accepting public comments on the Waste Reduction Model (WARM), a tool that influences policy, regulation, funding, and more. See here for ILSR’s recommendations and guidance to submit your comment before March 15, 2024.… Read More
Bill Barker cites Institute for Local Self-Reliance research on the potential usefulness of water pipes as a replacement for dirty energy utilities among the creative solutions available to mitigate the harms modern comforts introduce to a heating planet.… Read More
ILSR has been assisting grass roots organizations in Baltimore to fend off new incinerators and shut down an existing aging and polluting garbage incinerator in Downtown Baltimore, planning for and implementing Zero Waste practices. These practices would also help the city and communities address other pressing problems in the city; including the need for more good jobs, reduced recidivism, elimination of the ‘digital divide’, and creation of new small businesses, community based food production and environmental education.
The following article makes suggestions for transforming the current recycling system, and an update on community based activity in the context of rapidly changing markets, technology and entrepreneurial opportunities.… Read More
Recent momentum has seen a reversion to dual stream recycling in assorted communities across the United States. This update provides detailed information on three towns in Long Island that have recently reverted to dual stream recycling. Additional updates on dual stream efforts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida are also included. … Read More
Anti Incineration Updates from Montgomery County, MD + Carroll County, MD + Hartford, CT + Springfield, MA + Cork Harbour, Ireland + Jeffrey Morris on the Cost of Incineration + Paul Connett on Video… Read More
Despite extensive lobbying by the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) industry, two new reports demonstrate that environmental and economic concerns have led to a welcome movement away from WTE throughout Europe and the United States over the last several years.… Read More
The Compost Collective is an entrepreneurship program where youth are trained in workforce skills, food access programming and community-scale composting. They are receiving guided, hands-on experience managing a small-scale composting operation and its expansion, and using the compost they create to grow fresh produce for the community at Filbert Street Garden.… Read More
Editor’s Note: Below is a review by David Morris of the book, Break Through by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. In the spirit of debate, following the review is a response from the authors and a rebuttal from Morris.
In 2004, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger tossed a stink bomb into the normally collegial annual meeting of the Environmental Grantmakers Association in the form of a jeremiad against the premises and strategies of the environmental movement, The Death of Environmentalism. The succeeding months witnessed a spirited and often heated back and forth between the authors and environmental leaders.
How much energy could be generated by states tapping into internal renewable resources? This November 2008 report by David Morris and John Farrell presents preliminary data that suggests that at least half of the fifty states could meet all their internal energy needs from renewable energy generated inside their borders, and the vast majority could meet a significant percentage.
