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Poor Junk Disposal in Oakland

Don’t institutions bear some responsibility for the waste management situation in Oakland, CA?

Absolutely.

Tenants regularly complain about a lack of maintenance or insufficient garbage collection. In some housing projects, residential development work has dragged on for several years, leaving rubble and waste in common areas.

Municipalities like Oakland and social landlords also sometimes pass the buck regarding the responsibility for cleaning a driveway, which leads to inaction. Finally, a recent study showed that the intensity of street cleaning is generally not proportional to the greater needs in working-class neighborhoods. It’s likely that residential neighborhoods, which are less densely populated, benefit from a better distribution of garbage collection per capita, leading to better sustainability.

What responses are institutions providing to this problem

Institutions, particularly municipalities and social landlords, consider waste to be a problem of incivility, and Oakland dumpster rentals are often missing. Their preferred response is therefore awareness-raising. Environmental accountability programs mobilize mediators who approach tenants right on their doorsteps to educate them on how to behave in a more eco-responsible manner.

These policies blame tenants for their supposed poor waste management, without taking into account the structural causes of its accumulation. By portraying them as uncivil, dirty, or ignorant, they contribute to rendering residents’ suffering invisible and portraying them as responsible, rather than victims.

What does the term greened social control mean

Social control is a classic concept in sociology used to analyze the relationships between institutions and the working classes. In this case, environmental policies rely on the legitimacy of ecology to attempt to impose norms and behaviors on tenants of public housing projects. This social control, exercised in the name of ecology, depoliticizes the issue of waste by making it an individual matter, when it is actually a collective and structural problem.

Do these policies have an impact on relationships between tenants

Yes, they exacerbate neighborhood tensions.

Some tenants, particularly white retirees, rely on institutional discourse to distinguish themselves from other segments of the neighborhood. They take up accusations of incivility to more specifically target young people and families of postcolonial immigrant backgrounds for not knowing how to manage their waste, sometimes with explicitly racist judgments. This fuels conflicts within the residences, reinforcing ethno-racial and generational divisions.

How can we better recognize this situation as an environmental injustice

We need to help tenants politicize this issue by realizing and demonstrating that they are not primarily responsible, but that this situation stems from institutional and social choices. They should be able to demand cleaning adapted to their population density and assert their collective right to live in a healthy environment with less landfills, with better dumpster rental services. This also requires deconstructing the discrediting perceptions that weigh on these neighborhoods.

Are there any local mobilizations or initiatives challenging these waste management policies

Research, conducted during the 2010s, did not observe any collective protests. Tenant associations often supported accountability policies because they were seen as a way to improve the neighborhood by people seeking to distinguish themselves from the rest of the neighborhood.

However, in the 2020s, movements emerged, led by figures like political scientists and activists or collectives focused on grassroots ecology. These initiatives offer an alternative to institutional ecology and are attracting increasing attention, particularly on these issues.

What broader lessons can we draw from this junk disposal study

It shows how social inequalities influence how we perceive and manage environmental degradation.

Not only do working-class and minority groups suffer more from this degradation, but their suffering is not recognized as injustices and even gives rise to policies that symbolically discredit them. This underscores the need to rethink environmental policies to ensure they are inclusive and fair.

Choosing the Right Sorting Solution for Biowaste

Biowaste represents 33% of residual household waste and most of it ends up in incineration or landfill. Financially, sorting at source is therefore crucial, given the explosion in the amount of the General Tax on Household Waste. 34% of South Carolina residents report composting, but this local waste management is not enough to drastically reduce the presence of biowaste in household waste. Curbside collection or voluntary drop-off is often essential to offer all users a source sorting solution, as required by law.

Biowaste: How to Sort It in Cities like Spartanburg

Distributing composters isn’t enough. This is a major challenge for local authorities, as provided for in the federal law: to provide every household with a solution for sorting biowaste at source by December 31, 2025.

This term includes food waste and green waste. This waste stream, which is still most often collected mixed with residual household waste in dumpsters, represents a third of it, or approximately 80 kg/inhabitant/year.

Separate collection curbside or at voluntary drop-off points, individual or collective composting—proven solutions exist, as demonstrated by the results of local authorities that have been implementing these measures for many years, such as the Spartanburg area. Food waste has been collected since 2003, explains the the Director of Waste Prevention and Management. We divert 38 kg/inhabitant/year, and the tonnage fell by 26% between 2010 and 2019.

Local authorities that carry out separate collection of biowaste are still a very small minority. The EPA lists around 100 of these, representing 0.2 million inhabitants, or 6.2% of the SC population in 2019.

On the other hand, nearly three-quarters of local authorities, 115 in 2022, have long encouraged individual and collective composting, explain waste recovery experts. This local management of biowaste remains favored by local authorities: the majority of the 90 projects funded by the EPA as part of the nation biowaste initiative in 2021 and 2022 are based on this strategy.

Least expensive waste management

In fact, it is the least expensive way to locally recover biowaste while avoiding the need for a collection and treatment system. Collection costs around $23 per resident served per year, while local management costs $4, on average. But this method allows for much less waste to be diverted from household household waste, between 10 and 15 kg/resident/year, compared to 50 kg/resident/year for collection. Participation for a shared composting site does not exceed 25 to 30%.

If we want to equip every building, volunteers will not be enough; we will need to allocate human resources to ensure the operation and maintenance of the sites and convince people who are not already interested. Spartanburg has installed 65 collective composting sites available to schools and certain buildings, used by 600 people. These sites must be managed by the community, because volunteer composting coordinators eventually give up, observes the Director of the Waste and Cleanliness Division.

They are therefore managed by an agent, and we occasionally call on an establishment and service providing assistance through work to clean them, add dead leaves, and stir them.

Local waste management regulations

To comply with regulations, more and more communities are choosing to deploy separate biowaste collection across part or all of their territory in addition to local management, as is the case in the Spartanburg metropolitan area. The service offered is broad, explains the head of the awareness-raising unit of the mobilization and support for change management department of the waste management division.

They have been distributing composters for single-family homes for several years, have created more than 138 shared composting sites at the foot of buildings, and have been rolling out voluntary drop-off points since 2021, through which they aim to recycle 20 kg of food waste per inhabitant per year by 2030. Their first observation: the sorting quality is very good, much better than for packaging.

The practice of individual composting has been promoted there since 2002 in South Carolina, instead of using dumpster rentals. 75% of people who live in houses with a garden, i.e. the vast majority of the population, say they compost, reveals our latest opinion barometer carried out in 2021. The community also has around forty collective composting sites, particularly in schools and senior residences.

Despite this well-developed composting practice, biowaste represented 48% of household waste, or 87 kg/person/year, in 2019. They therefore decided to offer an additional service to residents, leveraging the complementarity of solutions. They set up a collection at voluntary drop-off points to avoid cannibalizing existing individual composting practices. And the results are there: they have reduced the amount of biowaste in household waste by 27 kg/person/year in five years.

The General Tax on Polluting Activities is soaring

The soaring cost of treating household waste – incineration and landfill – is one of the main financial challenges of sorting biowaste at source.

It is mainly due to the increase in the general tax on polluting activities set out in the 2019 Finance Act. The objective is to encourage sorting, recycling, and the recovery of organic or material waste. It will increase to $65 per ton for landfill and $15 per ton for incineration in 2025. The scarcity of waste outlets also contributes to this surge with an increase in waste transport distances.

The Situation of Landfills in Louisiana

Landfills are an integral part of Louisiana’s waste management system, receiving waste from the state’s people, businesses and disasters.

Balancing Effective Landfills in a Culturally and Economically Diverse State

As a state rich in culture, natural resources, and industry, Louisiana faces a unique set of challenges when managing landfills in a way that addresses environmental and public health needs. The landfills of Louisiana — which have improved in terms of technology and oversight in recent years — are central to any plan for addressing the state’s waste problems.

Landfill Summary for the State of Louisiana

Dozens of active landfills in Louisiana include municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, construction and demolition (C&D) debris landfills, and industrial landfills. Those facilities service urban centers such as New Orleans and Baton Rouge, as well as the state’s rural areas, which have lower population density but less extensive waste management infrastructure.

LDEQ manages landfill operations in Louisiana for compliance with federal and state regulation. In an effort to reduce harm to the surrounding environment, today’s landfills in Louisiana utilize liners, leachate collection systems, and gas recovery systems. But the state also faces a large volume of older, unlined landfills, many in need of monitoring or treatment.

Waste Generation and Trends

Louisiana produces tens of millions of tons of waste every year from residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural activities.

The state’s economy depends on sectors like oil and gas, chemical manufacturing and agriculture, all significant producers of industrial and hazardous waste. Finally, construction and demolition is a major contributor to landfill space used, particularly in the wake of hurricanes and flooding.

Louisiana’s waste management woes are exacerbated by natural disasters. Hurricanes such as Katrina in 2005 and Ida in 2021 produced massive amounts of debris, exceeding existing landfill capacity and prompting emergency measures to deal with the sudden onslaught of waste.

There are some low recycling rates in places like Louisiana, when taking into consideration how much public access there is as well as differing corporate laws, recycling programs, etc. This puts more pressure on landfills, which must handle most of the waste produced in the state.

Environmental Challenges in Louisiana

Landfills in Louisiana are at heightened environmental risk because of the state’s unique geography and climate:

  • Location Near Wetlands and Waterways: A number of landfills are situated alongside wetlands, rivers and other waterbodies, increasing the chances of contaminating leachate should any breach occur. If not adequately contained, leachate — the liquid runoff from decomposing waste — is an enormous threat to Louisiana’s water resources
  • Hurricane & Flood Risk: The second major risk for landfills operating in Louisiana is hurricanes and flooding. Flooding can also cause leaching or waste dispersal, and hurricane debris poses logistical challenges (where to put the waste) and environmental concerns (whether or not to put the waste in landfills)
  • Methane Emissions: When organic waste decomposes in landfills, it generates methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. While many landfills in Louisiana have gas capture systems to mitigate emissions, not all facilities have that technology, which adds to the state’s carbon footprint.

Closed and Legacy Landfills

Louisiana has many closed and inactive landfills, many of which existed before today’s environmental regulations. And those legacy landfills have left behind chronic and lasting dangers such as soil instability, groundwater contamination, and hazards to structures. Remediation can be expensive, and usually requires long-term monitoring to ensure the safety of the public.

Many closed landfills have been redeveloped for other uses, including green space, industrial sites or even renewable energy projects — like a solar farm. But these projects are contingent on the level of remediation that’s required and how suitable the location is for redevelopment.

Regulatory Supervision and Policies

Because the state of Louisiana has been granted primary enforcement authority under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for the state’s landfills, it is the LDEQ that enforces landfill regulations within the state, which include over 2,000 RCRA rules. Regulations concerning landfill design, operations, closure, and post-closure care exist with an aim toward the protection of human health and the environment.

As active landfills, Louisiana likewise has policies that are designed to reduce landfill use such as promoting recycling, composting, and various waste diversion programs. However, small development budgets and meager infrastructure have led to limited adoption of these initiatives.

Community and Environmental Justice Concerns

Landfills are located largely in low-income, minority areas of Louisiana, raising concerns about environmental justice. People who live near landfills often complain of bad smells, noise, heavy truck traffic and possible harm to health from air and water pollution. Advocacy groups persist in their belief that landfill siting decisions should involve more neighborhood residents and stronger enforcement of environmental standards.

Challenges and Future Opportunities

Moving forward, Louisiana will need to take a number of steps to ensure it is managing its landfills sustainably:

  • Expanding Waste Quantities: Whether driven by population growth, industrial expansion, or climate-related disasters, the world will need more landfill space and waste diversion strategies
  • Recycling and Diversion: Updating recycling infrastructure and launching awareness campaigns could minimize landfill reliance and prolong the life of current facilities
  • With climate change prospects: How do we adapt landfill operations to be resilient to extreme weather events (e.g., flooding, hurricanes)

But the good news for Louisiana is that it can do better. For example, facilities that capture methane emitted from landfills and turn this gas into energy could capture emissions, while also producing renewable energy. It also could fund improvements in recycling and composting infrastructure through public-private partnerships.

Landfilling is an essential yet complicated part of Louisiana’s waste landscape.

Despite surprisingly high levels of landfill use, there remains some way to go towards 21st-century infrastructures and regulation, and recycling rates, environmental risks, and climate vulnerabilities all remain an issue for action.

Through focusing on the importance of sustainable waste management, dumpster rental services, legacy landfill management, and community-driven decision making, Louisiana can better address its waste management issues in a more reasonable and environmentally friendly manner.

How Virginia Is Tackling Beach Cleanliness

The coastal region of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay is not only an important natural resource to people who visit it for fun or live there permanently; but also demands careful management in an age when humans can increasingly affect earth’s climate.

However, much like many coastal regions, Virginia’s beaches face a large obstacle in terms of pollution from marine debris and plastic waste as well other environmental threats. Efforts to address these issues are widespread in Virginia, and include programs aimed at reducing the overall volume of beach debris entering local waters – while also protecting coastal ecosystems and promoting greater public awareness/public engagement.

Statewide Cleanup Programs

One of the key contributors to tidying up Virginia’s coasts yearly is through participation in annual state and international cleanups organized by the Ocean Conservancy, with Virginia Clean Waterways forming an effort under that umbrella. Volunteers from across the state come together to gather trash and debris out of beaches, rivers, and other waterways by Virginia Clean Waterways. These cleanups not only are able to remove a large volume of trash, but also collect data on what types and where these plastics come from.

The results of this effort help guide policy and inform the public about what kinds of litter are most likely to be found, including plastic bottles or cigarette butts. By understanding what is polluting Virginia, we can focus in on solutions that truly target the problem, including advocating for bans of certain single-use plastics or promoting recycling and waste reduction programs.

Municipal and Community-Level Actions

The state’s coastal cities and counties operate beach cleanup sites as well. Some cities such as Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Hampton have long-running programs that help keep public beaches clean. These are often programs that clean every day or week during the summer months when tourism is highest, and also put out trash and recycling bins to encourage good waste management.

Some community organizations and nonprofits also host beach cleanups, in addition to the countless efforts put forth by various levels of government. Organizations such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Clean Virginia Waterways (a program of Longwood University) conduct clean-up volunteer events, often paired with educational campaigns to promote beach stewardship. They often work with local schools, businesses and civic groups to help get the community involved in building a better future for Virginia’s coast.

For example, Virginia Beach has its own checkpoint program where businesses and schools can adopt-for the-beach even communities of beaches. These groups commit to doing some form of regular cleanups and when they collect data on the types of litter, it tells a particular program whether or not less items are being left behind which contributes to an overall cleaner environment and gives those participating in these type programs a sense of stewardship!

Policy and Legislative Actions

Virginia has gone the same route, attempting to attack beach pollution at its source through legislation on waste management. Over the years, California has put several measures in place to tackle plastic pollution – a key source of marine debris. While single-use plastics have been of growing concern for a while, certain states such as Virginia has already banned the use of polystyrene foam food containers on beaches and in parks because they are particularly prone to littering and difficult to recycle.

The state has also rolled out incentives for plastic bag reductions. A five-cent tax on single-use plastic bags has been implemented in cities like the City of Alexandria and Fairfax County, Virginia. Money collected from this tax goes to fund environmental cleanup programs, including beach clean-ups and educational efforts on how we can reduce waste.

Virginia has also imposed new stormwater management regulations in an effort to keep debris from entering waterways and making its way down a river to the ocean. Major points of contamination sites for the Bay – itself a degraded waterway trapped between concrete walls reducing flow by up to 95% and which every river in Virginia lacks per USGS records including ODUs portion within Hampton Roads – stormwater runoff carries litter, nitrogen phosphates amongst other pollution from cities like Norfolk or Chesapeake into rivers then through occasions directly into Atlantic Ocean.

Virginia is actively taking steps to increase the effectiveness of its management practices for stormwater, and in doing so decreasing trash from reaching Virginia’s beaches.

Programs making Education and Outreach Sense

Virginia’s beach cleanups efforts have been by education and public awareness; two separate post-activity reporting systems due to the former. The state and different organizations are trying to educate residents and visitors about the trash’s influence on marine ecosystems along with waste disposal processes.

Educational Programs such as Clean Virginia Waterways provides lesson plans and activities to help students grasp concepts of marine debris, the ramifications caused by plastic pollution and an appreciation for preservation. The results are now being shared with scientists in Hawaii, who will explore new ways to tackle littering through public service campaigns and encourage beachgoers to bring their trash.

Increased public engagement is also strengthened by measures such as the Leave No Trace campaign, which seeks to promote mindful experience of outdoor recreation and leave natural sites clean. Virginia is hoping by creating a more environmental conscious culture this will stop the litter from ending up on her beaches.

Future Directions for Sustainability

Virginia pushes sustainable long-term beach pollution management solutions. This includes education, recycling programs, utilizing biodegradable materials and expanding research into the impacts of marine debris on local ecosystems.

The state is also looking at other states in its Chesapeake Bay watershed to find opportunities improve regional-level cooperation pollution reduction. By working together, states can share best practices; coordinated cleanup efforts and address the sources of marine debris more effectively.

Virginia is tackling its beach cleanup in a multifaceted form where statewide programs are currently running alongside local government and community initiatives but as well, there has been legislative action to address the issue of discarded plastic littering our waterways.

Virginia has significantly improved its capacities to protect beaches and coastal environments a result of boosted clean up efforts, public education schemes as well as revised state policies. As these efforts evolve, the state is committed to keeping its beaches clean, healthy and fun for generations of Illinoisans.

Trash to Treasure: Why Incinerating Waste Is a Burn You Can’t Afford

burning waste in Harrisburg

This is why you should not burn your waste

Climate change is already being observed almost everywhere and the cause is based on environmental pollution. The consequences are legion and disastrous. Given the pace of changes observed, certain new waste management rules are necessary. This will help slow down the changes observed and guarantee sustainable development. Here are the reasons why you should not burn your waste.

The danger of burning waste

Setting waste on fire is simply a danger to yourself and the environment and we need better waste management practices. In fact, for each gram of wood burned, we detect an emission 30 times higher than combustion in a wood stove or fireplace. This is the result presented by a study carried out by scientists.

A recent report published in the journal Science Direct reveals the ecological issues of such a practice. Indeed, a sample of smoke residues present inside the chimney was analyzed and the presence of carcinogenic compounds was noted.

Along the same lines, the study demonstrated that the emission rate of a simple outdoor fire is always higher (3 to 10 times more) than the burning of wood logs in the open air. All these different facts have highlighted the danger posed by burning waste in the open air.

Resolutions taken to end waste burning

Particularly in Pennsylvania, several counties have taken the necessary resolutions to put an end to this scourge. Some municipalities have banned incineration altogether, while others have recommended the adoption of a waste treatment technique such as composting. However, you can use plant residues as straw.

This will not only allow you to reduce soil moisture, but also the appearance of weeds. When the prohibition rules are not respected, the individual in violation is required to pay a substantial fine. Several other junk disposal practices are adopted today to limit the impact of waste on the environment.

We distinguish between the reduction of waste production as well as recycling and recovery. Note that there is a practice that emerges from the lot relating to the recycling and recovery of waste. This is a very important practice for sustainable development.

Composting: what is it

A technique for obtaining organic fertilizer, composting is carried out in the absence of O2. It’s a simple thing to do, just mix your biodegradable waste, particularly your kitchen waste, with your green waste. To do this, place a tarpaulin on the ground, then put the waste there and mix well.

Once the mixture is finished, water it and cover it with the remaining excess tarpaulin. Leave for at least 3 months, occasionally stirring and watering. After 3 months or even 4 or 5 months, you will obtain a product similar to sand, but black in color called compost.

It is a pure organic fertilizer. It is indeed a material rich in humus. You will therefore no longer have any worries regarding your vegetable garden, you will just need to add a few layers on the ground or in the pot before hoeing. Your flowers and vegetable gardens will do well, as will you and nature. The burning of waste is a real danger for humans and their environment. There are even composting facilities in Pennsylvania.

It is recommended to turn to recycling, composting and recovery as soon as possible. This ensures a good sustainable environment for all of us. When you do not respect the waste management prohibitions regarding this, you will be forced to pay a substantial fine. However, we must remember that we have nothing to gain by perpetuating this bad practice.

Glendale Waste Management Solutions

Glendale waste management options

The United States, the world’s leading economic power, is also the world’s leading producer of waste, whether household, industrial or toxic waste. This is an old situation corresponding to a high level of consumption which has continued to increase.

Between 1970 and 1990 the daily production of solid waste increased from 3.3 to 4.3 pounds per inhabitant. In international comparisons, the country is far ahead. All European countries except Germany and the Netherlands are at an annual ratio of between 550 and 650 pounds per capita, compared to 1,600 pounds for the United States.

Glendale Dumpster Rental and Recycling

This waste resource has given birth to a private industry, the most powerful in the world, including dumpster rental and recycling companies. If you are in Glendale or elsewhere in California, using a dumpster rental servicewill save you the cost of buying a large dumpster, which you would only bring to the landfill once.

It is organized around a very large Waste Management firm ($13bn in activity), followed by five others which all make more than a billion dollars turnover and supplemented by a very large number of regional companies which realize between 50 and 500 million dollars. And another important is how to manage local landfills in the USA.

Under these conditions, which however in no way derogate from the exclusion criteria to be respected when choosing the landfil site in Fresno or elsewhere, it is not necessary to have a very elaborate landfill fund. A homogeneous base layer of compacted clay materials respecting a slope of 2 to 5% and surmounted by a draining layer favoring possible flows towards an accessible low point are amply sufficient.

Particular attention should be paid to the desiccation of landfillte layer of clay under the direct action of the sun. If this phenomenon occurs, cracks will appear and the role of landfill layer will disappear (a temporary cover of the unused area of ​​the cell may be required).

According to Glendale Dumpster Rental Bros specialists, it is necessary to promote the desiccation of the waste by intense sunshine before the formation of the waste mass.

To do this, the creation of an intermediate drying zone can be considered depending on the volume of waste treated. Similarly, this role can be played by the waste transfer stations in the collection circuit. It will then be a question of isolating the full compartments in a reliable and definitive way by a cover favoring superficial flows (runoff and rapid hypodermic flows) and preventing the infiltration of atmospheric or surface water.

Dumpster Rental Solutions

Renting a dumpster to bring junk and garbage to the landfills is a commonly used solution in the USA, improving recycling opportunities. Local companies can provide such a waste management service, it saves time and money to the users.

The rapid hypodermic flow penetrates between a few centimeters in depth (generally 20 to 30 cm) and a maximum of 1 meter, if the soil density is low, and is not necessarily visible to an untrained observer. In order to avoid the mobilization of organic and/or toxic elements in the landfill, it is therefore essential that these flows do not come into contact with the mass of waste.

The cover will be made of compacted clay materials more than 30 cm thick with a minimum slope of 6%. Seeding with plants with ample vegetation and not very aggressive roots may be necessary in order to avoid drying out and cracks, or even scree during storms, in the cover layer.

It is also necessary to carry out drainage at the base of the slopes of the cover (to capture hypodermic flows) and ditches to collect runoff water. The collected water must then be managed correctly, either by returning it to nature (rivers, sea) if it is pure, or by sending it to a treatment plant. However, it is important to avoid mixing them or rejecting them directly without first analyzing them.

Glendale landfill daily and long-term waste management

The day-to-day management of a landfill involves a whole series of activities that require adequate personnel and equipment. Waste disposal research explains these activities by approaching them according to a relative chronology, from the entry of the waste on the site to the treatment of leachate and biogas.

From Space to Sea: Tracking Ocean Microplastics with Satellite Precision

plastic pollution

How satellites can help track microplastics polluting the oceans

NASA has unveiled an animation to track plastic pollution on the surface of the world’s oceans. It was designed using a new method developed by scientists to map the concentration of microplastics in water using satellite data.

About eight million tons is the amount of waste that ends up in the oceans around the world each year. They then move with the winds and currents, breaking down and forming ever smaller and difficult to detect fragments. However, scientists have found a new way to track them.

This made it possible to create an animation recently published by NASA showing the masses of plastic moving on the surface of the world’s oceans over a period of 18 months, from April 2017 to September 2018. An animated cartography which allows visualize the famous garbage patches – formed in certain places by the accumulation of debris.

The best known is that of the North Pacific, located between North America and Japan and already explored by several expeditions. To estimate the amount of plastic in these areas, scientists typically use nets pulled by boats. The mass of microplastics collected then makes it possible to calculate the extent of the pollution.

However, this method does not provide reliable data in all regions. Above all, it provides a relatively fixed picture of this pollution and does not provide insight into how plastic concentrations change and move over time. It is to fill this gap that scientists have decided to use eight microsatellites.

The roughness of the ocean surface scrutinized from space

These devices are part of the CYGNSS (Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System) mission. They are able to measure the roughness of the ocean surface by analyzing the radio signals it reflects. This data then provides a basis for assessing weather conditions, including wind speed, and studying phenomena such as hurricanes.

It is this same technique that scientists from the University of Michigan have started to use to detect the presence of plastic in the oceans. In the presence of plastic or other debris, the surface of the water is indeed less rough than it should be and the waves are attenuated.

In clean waters, there is a strong degree of agreement between ocean roughness and wind speed, confirmed to NASA’s Earth Observatory site, Chris Ruf, principal investigator of the CYGNSS mission and co- author of a study published in June 2021 in the journal IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing and describing the method.

But when you’re heading into the North Pacific garbage patch, you see a bigger lag between wind speed measurements and surface roughness. With his colleagues, this specialist thus compared roughness and wind speed measurements from different sources to highlight these discrepancies.

They then combined these observations with previous modeling of this pollution to map the concentrations of microplastics on the surface of the ocean over more than a year, focusing on the area between latitudes 38° north and 38° south. The results can be seen in the animation released by NASA.

Seasonal variations in concentrations

The animated map shows seasonal variations in microplastic concentrations, including in the North Pacific Garbage Patch where amounts spike in summer and drop in winter. Similar variation at the level of the North Atlantic plate. Very high concentrations also appear on the coasts of Central America and Indonesia.

Chris Ruf’s team has also created time-lapse sequences of all the major rivers in the world and assessed their microplastic concentrations. Estimates were particularly high for the Yangtze and Ganges. These observations confirm a study published in 2017 and placing rivers as major contributors to pollution.

According to this work, these rivers pour between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic each year into the oceans. The Yangtze alone would dump no less than 330,000 tons of debris into the East China Sea while the Ganges would release some 120,000 tons.

This new tool developed by scientists at the University of Michigan could provide valuable information to tackle the problem and especially its source. In a report published last October, the United Nations Environment Program estimates that plastic pollution of oceans and rivers could more than double by 2030.

The cost of renting a dumpster in Wilmington, NC

If you live in North Carolina, a good idea to decrease plastic pollution is to rent a dumpster, so that you can send all your plastic to the nearest recycling facility. This is good waste management practice.

The cost of renting a dumpster in Wilmington, NC, can vary depending on several factors, including the size of the dumpster, the rental duration, the type of waste, and the specific dumpster rental company you choose. Wilmington, being a coastal city in North Carolina, may have some regional variations in pricing compared to other areas.

Dumpsters typically come in various sizes, ranging from 10 to 40 cubic yards. Smaller dumpsters are more budget-friendly, with an average cost of around $300 to $500 for a one-week rental of a 10-yard container, suitable for small home cleanouts or minor renovations. Larger dumpsters, which are better for significant construction projects or extensive cleanouts, can range from $500 to $1,000 or more for a week-long rental.

The type of waste you need to dispose of can also affect the cost. Standard household junk or construction debris is generally less expensive to dispose of than hazardous materials, electronics, or heavy materials like concrete and dirt.

Additional costs may include permit fees, overage charges for exceeding weight or capacity limits, or specific disposal requirements for certain types of waste.

To get an accurate cost estimate, it’s best to contact local dumpster rental providers in Wilmington, request quotes tailored to your project’s needs, and inquire about any potential additional expenses (see this website for more details). Comparing quotes from multiple companies can help you find the most cost-effective option for your specific project. Prices can fluctuate, so booking your rental well in advance can help you secure the best rates.

Recycling Paper for Better Waste Management


Many individuals are aware that preserving paper is preferable to throwing it away. However, paper is ubiquitous, and avoiding its usage may be a genuine challenge.

There are various ways where you can cut down on your paper use. As a result, you’ll be doing your part to assist the environment. Don’t do it only for the sake of our world; do this for our pocketbook, too.

Benefits Of Using Recycled Paper And Ink And Toner Cartridges

For the sake of the environment and waste management, we need to take measures to become aware of what we waste away in this day and age.

It may not seem important on its own, but it has the potential to have a major impact on the lives of those around you. Recycling ink cartridges should be a top priority for everyone. You can get a lot of usage out of printers, photocopiers, and fax machines if you take good care of them.

If you don’t, at least, replace that ink cartridge, since it may do major harm to such equipment if left in place. Because they were not disposed of properly, when your equipment breaks down, not only does it cost your company more money, but it also releases more CO2 as well as other pollutants into the atmosphere.

How To Reduce Your Paper Usage

In our experience, many people tend to forget about these tiny things, but if you have white printing paper sitting around, do try to implement scraps until the complete portion has been written on. There’s a good chance that the scrap will have to be recycled again!

Keeping a notepad or notes and utilizing it to the very last page is an excellent strategy to reduce paper waste at home. Use paper that has been left unused at the top of the mail pile if you use paper at home. Avoiding the need to carry about a laptop or tablet is the best option in this case.

Benefits Of Using Recycled Paper

Paper is made from several trees that have been cut. Because there aren’t enough forests to meet the world’s growing need for paper, trees must be cut.

Some industries use recycled waste items or tree pieces to create paper to reduce waste. Natural resources may be conserved rather than destroyed by this method. Fewer trees are being chopped down and less area is required to produce a given volume of paper when the recycled paper is used.

Why You Should Encourage Your Employees To Recycle

Recycling might be time-consuming, but it’s crucial to the preservation of our planet’s ecosystem. Instead of renting a dumpster to remove a lot of junk in bulk, it could be more eco-friendly to consider alternative recycling options.

While doing your bit to help save the planet, you’re simultaneously allowing yourself to get more use and enjoyment out of the things you currently own! It doesn’t matter whether it’s for your younger sister or your apartment’s decor!

After all, information is power, and now that we know the advantages of recycling, we can be certain that refrigerators throughout the world will be considerably cleaner.

Tips To Conserve Printing

Reduce the quantity of paper you consume by following these three simple steps.

  1. There is no visible difference in quality when printing on both sides of a page, hence it is best to print on both sides.
  2. Keep your diary and any critical papers you need to print as PDFs to conserve paper·
  3. Use a digital journal – Instead of writing down your ideas and reminders on paper, use an online service.

Printing may be a pricey endeavor since both ink and paper are in short supply.

According to junk disposal experts at a SC dumpster rental company, printers in the workplace are often shared by the whole crew, allowing for the distribution of expenses. But when we take into consideration the number of pages that are produced per individual, the expenditures might be rather high.

Print at the quality of a first draught. Draft quality printing is an excellent method to save ink and paper. While the text won’t be as crisp as it might be, it’ll be fine for the majority of applications.

Houston waste management

Organic health in Houston could be taken care of along with retained if we comply with some elementary ideas involving natural health care.
These kind of basics regarding normal healthcare and waste management are not difficult or perhaps difficult to adhere to but they have to have a robust willelectrical power.

These kinds of straightforward principles of natural healthcare has to be followed prior to our own bodies looses their healthy status.If we are unable to stick to these kind of typical rules involving organic health care now, then it defintely won’t be feasible in futureparticularly if a few severe illness hits all of us.

Our modern way of life in Texas is today the greatest foe of our overall wellness. Today we now have created a interpersonal construction which is poor not merely to the society but also for normal health of our mind and body.

People waste a lot of food and objects without thinking of recycling them. They accumulate a lot of junk in their homes and would not think of using a dumpster rental near me to get rid of some of it. These bad habits lead to wastage, pollution and a lack of sustainablity in our society.

A few frequent well-known principles regarding normal health care are shown beneath that happen to be rarely implemented in today’s modern-day living. These kinds of 3 simple searching normal medical ideas have been extremely effective and could be in charge ofseveral health conditions which in turn we might not be alert to.

1. Setting up a All-natural Slumbering Routine regarding Health Care as well as Health and fitness: Sleeping according to what the law states associated with nature will have aamount of positive results upon our health and wellness. Clock of our body (or micro-processor) is of courseset up in order to mother nature’s clock we.e. in the evening our own bodies has a tendency to relaxation or sleep and during the next day dawn ourbody’s routinely constructed to operate. These days each of our bad life-style will artificially reconfigure this particular natural clock within your body. Today’s behavior of un-natural asleep patterns are responsible for disturbed rests or even insomnia to some large degree.

Only two. Prevent Un-natural along with Poor Consuming Designs regarding Overall wellness: The eating routine also have changedas time passes. I am going to stop talking about bad diet along with very poor and also poor high quality associated with foodstuff that people try to eat these days, in this informative article. Nowadays many of us consume food and waste a lot of it without having a natural craving as well as hunger regarding having, we all eat simply because we would like to eat orit’s once again time you can eat or even due to the fact we should instead present some nutrition/fuel to your system.

Even if the quality associated with food stuff that we all consume and waste is most beneficial along with without chemicals made, requirement of your body these days throughout contemporary life style are certainly not comparable to these people was once. Nowadays consuming doesn’t mean receiving much healthier but just complete opposite holds true regarding health and fitness.

Nowadays all of us fill our own bodies powerplant (human body) using energy(food/meal) at the time when it just isn’t seeking along with the energy we provide our body method along with isn’t the right fuel because of its overall health. The such as feeding agas powerplant along with coal. Thanks God, that the system in Houston just isn’t a typical man made appliance but a wonder appliance by mother nature.

Three or more. Unnatural Over-protection and also Over-comfort Keeps Normal Medical Program at Bay : Nowadays we all guard our-selfnot merely through organic but in addition coming from society and also interpersonal activities un-naturally. We all go beyond our own convenience ranges coming fromnormal to be able to un-natural, the level of convenience that people appreciate these days is in fact un-comfortable for our body for you tobe employed in.

This kind of healthy searching as well as great sensation over-protection features generated under-protection of our normal physique program. We are forcing the body to function within twin method occasionally naturally whenever we proceed outdoors in the Houston area our own over-protection protect and un-naturally once we remain in the over-protected safe place. This may search lighter in weight but it features acritical consequence on organic medical method in your system.

These days your body asks to depart attachment to the natural level of resistance energy and also find contemporary healthcare support that gives appropriate treatment not just to your body but additionally towards the soul in fact in charge of this under-protected over-protection.

How to interpret a dream of bear


Dreaming of bears: Since the bear is such an imposing animal, when you dream of it, it cannot go unnoticed.

There are many different ways to interpret dreams about this this mountain mammal. The bear is a sign of unconsciousness, it is also considered as the dreamlike manifestation of your primitive urges. Seeing one in his dream does not bode well. Your living conditions are at stake. You risk putting him in danger.

If, on the other hand, several bears are present in your dream, you will be fed by too many illusions which will not yet be realized. Succeeding in defeating a bear is a mark of success. This happy omen can be tainted by excessive love which if overflown which can be harmful to you.

Regarding the dream of a polar bear, you will experience a marked improvement in your standard of living. The brown bear, for its part, is a sign that your pessimism will make you fear a change. Seeing a circus bear in your dream can be considered a large sum of money.

The bear in dreams represents above all a strong female presence in your life, like your mother or a particularly protective person. Dreaming of bears also symbolizes renewal, resurrection after a period of break or rest. Depending on whether the bear interacts with you in the dream, as well as other details important to you, the interpretation will vary. Here are some common bear dream scenarios and their meanings.

What does it mean to dream of bears?

Dreaming of bears has the following potential meanings:

  • A maternal presence
  • Renewal
  • Independence
  • Peace
  • Kindness
  • Strength
  • Courage
  • Maternity
  • Power
  • Sovereignty

Dreaming of a bear can be symbolic of the mother.

The bear in dreams is closely associated with the image of the mother. Pay attention to the behavior of the animal and your emotions. Is the bear independent or dominant, protective or threatening? This symbol can indicate a female presence with similar qualities in your daily life. For example, the bear symbolizes your mother, a relationship with your partner, or a woman who exerts a strong influence.

This animal can also mean that you are looking for more independence. The strength of the bear is an encouraging sign that reflects your own courage and the use of personal resources to meet your emancipation needs.

Dream scenarios including bears

Dreaming of a sleeping or hibernating bear. This dream symbolizes your need to think carefully before making your idea known to the world. You are in a renewal period and need time before you start again. The bear can also represent an important project which is gestation.

If you are chased by a bear, this means that you are avoiding a major problem in your life. It is time to deal with the situation. If you are attacked and prosecuted, it is because you feel trapped or threatened. This can symbolize a situation where you feel overwhelmed or a bad relationship of domination and possessiveness. A bear chasing or attacking you represents uncontrolled anger.

If the bear is standing, you must defend your ideas.

Dreaming of a bear trap. In such a dream, a bear trap represents the obstacles that bother you and that can be difficult to overcome. These obstacles impinge on your independence, your autonomy and your well-being.

Other common dreams with bears

An eating bear indicates that you need to prepare for the future.

A bear that eats honey suggests you savor the fruits of your labor and efforts.

If you are fighting with a bear, it means that you are defending yourself during a problem.

If you kill a bear, this suggests that you will win your confrontation.

Seeing a mother and her cubs symbolizes maternal protection, food and attention.

Different types of bears and their meaning

The polar bear represents rebirth. It can also symbolize a source of spiritual wisdom or aspirations for inner peace.

A teddy bear symbolizes a regression at a younger age. Maybe you think a lot about your childhood memories. This suggests a feeling of insecurity, a desire to be comforted and supported. You need to be reassured and you would like someone to take care of you. It can also represent an immature relationship.

Use these questions to decipher the possible meaning behind your bear dreams.

  • Was the bear tame, wild or aggressive?
  • Was he in good health?
  • What environment was he in?
  • How did you act with the animal?
  • What was your first reaction to the bear?
  • Where did the bear come from?
  • Was it coming towards you or was it going away from you?
  • How did you feel in the dream?
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