Tag Archives: japan

8 Weird Items You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle

by AnneSASMfvyq Posted on June 14, 2019

Recycling is an important part of reducing how much garbage we send to landfills. According to the EPA, Americans generate more than 262 million tons of waste every single year.

Seventy-five percent of this is recyclable material, but only 25 percent of this actually makes it to recycling facilities, a horrifying figure given that 73 percent of Americans have access to curbside recycling services.

Amusingly,?a sizable portion of?these forgotten recyclables are off-the-wall items?like shoes, furniture and – no joke – dentures. Never in a million years would I have known dentures are recyclable! Here are ten of these such items not to send to the landfill!

1. Dentures

The average set of dentures contains approximately $25?of recyclable metals, including silver, gold and palladium. The Japan Denture Recycling Association (yes, that exists) collects false teeth, removing valuable materials and discarding the rest. Once the process is complete, the program donates 100 percent of its earnings to UNICEF. Cool idea, right?

2. Mattresses

Equipped with special saws that aren’t found?in traditional recycling facilities, mattress recycling?factories can separate foam, metal, wood and cloth and?recycle these materials independently. Wood is chipped, foam and cloth are shredded, springs are melted down. Who knows, maybe that wallpaper in your dining room was made from an old mattress!

3. Expired prescriptions

Expired prescriptions should never get into the wrong hands. To help prevent this, some states allow you to donate unused drugs back to pharmacies, while a few charities accept leftover medicines from people who have changed prescriptions, stopped using the mediations or passed away.

4.?Trophies

Got a collection of plastic trophies from your school days sitting in the back of your mom’s attic? It’s time to move on. Lamb Awards, a specialty recycling center, can break down retired awards, melting them down to reuse in new trophies or other post-consumer recycled items.

5. Crayons

Even the stubbiest little crayons can find renewed purpose through the National Crayon Recycle Program. This organization collects broken, worn down crayons and melts them down into new wax so they can be remade and resold. The program says they’ve saved more than 120,000 pounds of crayons from the landfill so far!

6.?Dirty diapers

In the time leading up to potty training, the average baby soils 6,000 diapers. 6,000!?Fortunately, the company Knowaste collects and recycles dirty diapers from hospitals, public restrooms and nursing facilities. Knowaste sanitizes the diapers before separating plastic from organic matter. Plastics are then compressed into pellets and recycled into roof shingles, while paper pulp becomes wallpaper or shoe soles. Genius!

7.?Pantyhose

Got torn pantyhose still taking up space in your drawers? Textile recycler No Nonsense is here to save the day! The organization recycles old stockings by grinding them down (didn’t think it was that hardcore…) and transforming them into things like playground toys and carpet.

8.?Aluminum foil

Aluminum products are among the easiest metals to recycle thanks to their ability to be melted down and turned into new products essentially forever. Luckily, most recycling facilities can handle foil, no problem, as long as it is donated in ball form, instead of loose sheets.

See the article here – 

8 Weird Items You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle

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From clean energy to racial justice, the Carolinas are tackling environmental challenges.

by OliviaShackell Posted on May 4, 2018

The prevailing wisdom is that U.S. air pollution has been on a steady decline since the 1970s. That’s not exactly the case, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals.

Starting in 2011, progress on cleaning up air pollution stalled — and in some places, smog levels actually increased. The U.S. saw a 7 percent drop in nitrogen oxides between 2005 to 2009, followed by just a 1.7 percent fall from 2011 to 2015.

The EPA had projected a 30 percent decrease in nitrogen oxides between 2010 and 2016. That’s a big difference. Researchers from the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands compared surface and satellite measurements of air pollutants to the EPA’s emissions estimates, and they were surprised by the discrepancies, which indicate that the EPA data paints an unrealistically rosy picture of our air quality.

The research is less clear about why smog hasn’t improved much in recent years. It could be that we’re past the point of seeing dramatic change after landmark policy changes like the Clean Air Act took effect. Diesel trucks and industry pollution are likely culprits, too.

What’s cause for more alarm are two factors making it even harder to tackle air pollution: the Trump administration and climate change.

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From clean energy to racial justice, the Carolinas are tackling environmental challenges.

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FEMA has the worst excuse for leaving climate change out of its strategy.

by HelaineM45 Posted on May 4, 2018

The prevailing wisdom is that U.S. air pollution has been on a steady decline since the 1970s. That’s not exactly the case, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals.

Starting in 2011, progress on cleaning up air pollution stalled — and in some places, smog levels actually increased. The U.S. saw a 7 percent drop in nitrogen oxides between 2005 to 2009, followed by just a 1.7 percent fall from 2011 to 2015.

The EPA had projected a 30 percent decrease in nitrogen oxides between 2010 and 2016. That’s a big difference. Researchers from the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands compared surface and satellite measurements of air pollutants to the EPA’s emissions estimates, and they were surprised by the discrepancies, which indicate that the EPA data paints an unrealistically rosy picture of our air quality.

The research is less clear about why smog hasn’t improved much in recent years. It could be that we’re past the point of seeing dramatic change after landmark policy changes like the Clean Air Act took effect. Diesel trucks and industry pollution are likely culprits, too.

What’s cause for more alarm are two factors making it even harder to tackle air pollution: the Trump administration and climate change.

Source:  

FEMA has the worst excuse for leaving climate change out of its strategy.

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President Trump Likes Graphics and Maps

by Mariam89Z29516 Posted on February 13, 2017

Mother Jones

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Here is more on President Trump’s reading habits:

While Mr. Obama liked policy option papers that were three to six single-spaced pages, council staff members are now being told to keep papers to a single page, with lots of graphics and maps. “The president likes maps,” one official said.

One page with lots of graphics and maps? Is there room for any words at all? Hell, even comic books have words. We also learn this:

Two people with direct access to the White House leadership said Mr. Flynn was surprised to learn that the State Department and Congress play a pivotal role in foreign arms sales and technology transfers. So it was a rude discovery that Mr. Trump could not simply order the Pentagon to send more weapons to Saudi Arabia — which is clamoring to have an Obama administration ban on the sale of cluster bombs and precision-guided weapons lifted — or to deliver bigger weapons packages to the United Arab Emirates.

Congress keeps getting in his way! But I guess that’s not going to last long. Here is Stephen Miller on Face the Nation, where John Dickerson asked him about yet another branch of government that’s been getting in Trump’s way:

We have a judiciary that has taken far too much power and become in many case a supreme branch of government….The idea that you have a judge in Seattle say that a foreign national living in Libya has an effective right to enter the United States is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.

The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media and the whole world will soon see as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned.

Tough talk! Dickerson also asked Miller what Trump is planning to do about North Korea’s “intolerable” ballistic missile test yesterday:

MILLER: So you saw the president following through on exactly what he said he would. He went out last might in front of the TV cameras and stood shoulder to shoulder with the prime minister of Japan and sent a message to the whole world that we stand with our allies….

DICKERSON: So no other show of strength in terms of military —

MILLER: That show last night was a show of strength, saying that we stand with our ally. Having the two men appear on camera worldwide to all of planet earth was a statement that will be understood very well by North Korea.

That’s…not so tough. In political movies, the final act often has the president going in front of the cameras and saying something strong and resolute—which somehow makes the opposition melt away. I guess Miller and Trump believe this is how the real world works too. Merely appearing on camera is a show of strength that will surely stop these North Korean tests in their tracks.

Then again, Trump has warned us many times that he doesn’t like to signal military action before it happens. Maybe he’s planning to lob a nuke at Pyongyang on Monday. Can anyone say for sure that he won’t?

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President Trump Likes Graphics and Maps

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Raw Data: Working-Age Population Growth

by BOYSamanth Posted on December 23, 2016

Mother Jones

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The Washington Post reports that 2016 “had the lowest rate of population growth of any year since the Great Depression.” The US population, it turns out, grew by slightly less than 0.7 percent compared to 2015. There’s some good news and bad news about this. First the bad news: the working-age population is growing even more slowly than that. Here it is for the 21st century:

Our working-age population continues to grow, but only at a rate of about 0.5 percent per year. But here’s the good news: at least we’re not Russia. Their working-age population started declining half a decade ago and is now “growing” at the rate of -0.8 percent per year:

And then there’s Japan. Their working-age population is also declining, but it didn’t even start the 21st century in positive territory. Currently their working-age population is growing at the rate of -1.2 percent per year:

The working-age population in the US isn’t growing very fast, but it’s growing faster than almost any other developed country.

Originally posted here: 

Raw Data: Working-Age Population Growth

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Pipeline spills 176,000 gallons 150 miles from Standing Rock.

by AltonMast09011 Posted on December 13, 2016

Nearly 684 institutions and 60,000 people representing $5 trillion globally have committed to divestment from fossil fuels in the last 15 months, according to a report out today from Arabella Advisors, a B-corporation that focuses on “effective philanthropy.”

Trump’s election could, if anything, have an unintended effect on environmental activists’ divestment campaign. What began largely as a grassroots effort on college campuses has grown into a global movement that’s reached South Africa, Japan, and Australia in the year since the Paris climate conference.

The difference today is that Arabella finds divestment is gaining ground for more than just moral reasons: “Now, diverse legal scholars, businesses, and investors are warning that fiduciaries who fail to consider climate change risks in their investment analyses and decisions may be at risk of breaching their legal duty as fiduciaries.”

Trump’s recent selection of a climate-denying cabinet further demonstrates most environmental progress in the next few years will be locally driven.

Lindsay Meiman of the activist group 350.org told Grist that divestment has provided “a really powerful on-ramp” to climate activism. “In the face of intensifying climate impacts, and regressive and anti-climate governments like the Trump administration, it’s more critical than ever that our institutions — especially at the local level — step up to break free from fossil fuel companies,” added 350’s May Boeve.

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Pipeline spills 176,000 gallons 150 miles from Standing Rock.

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Infant Mortality Rose 1.3% Last Year

by VeroniqCollier Posted on December 8, 2016

Mother Jones

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Today the Centers for Disease Control announced that life expectancy at birth declined slightly between 2014 and 2015. I wonder how they calculate that? They’re basically predicting death rates around the year 2100, and it hardly seems likely they can do this. My understanding is that it’s based on age-specific death rates prevailing for the current year, but what makes anyone think those death rates will remain the same for the next 80 years?

That’s a question for another blog post, I suppose. One thing is for sure, however: we can certainly take a look at death rates right now. And this, in particular, is disturbing:

Infant mortality in the US is already far higher than it is in the rest of the developed world. It’s under 450 in France, Germany, and Britain, for example, and under 350 in Italy, Japan, and Norway. The only OECD countries with higher infant mortality rates have per-capita incomes less than half ours.

To make things worse, the rate of infant mortality among blacks is double what it is among whites and Hispanics. It’s a horror story—and apparently it’s getting worse. How is this possible?

Taken from: 

Infant Mortality Rose 1.3% Last Year

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Japan’s $320 Million Gamble at Fukushima: An Underground Ice Wall

by Myrna Posted on August 29, 2016

The project is designed to keep water out of the damaged reactor buildings at the nuclear power plant, and radioactive water from reaching the Pacific. Critics say it may not work. Read more –  Japan’s $320 Million Gamble at Fukushima: An Underground Ice Wall ; ; ;

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Japan’s $320 Million Gamble at Fukushima: An Underground Ice Wall

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The Biggest Threat to Women’s Health That No One Talks About

by SiobhanWheeler Posted on August 16, 2016

Mother Jones

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The lady doctors are disappearing, right when women need them the most.

According to the American College of Nurse-Midwives, nearly half of all counties in the United States don’t have a single OB-GYN. That’s a problem because, as Pew Charitable Trusts reports, the overall population is expected to boom by 18 percent between 2010 and 2030, and that means more women and babies who need health care. Maternal deaths are already high in the United States compared with other developed countries—there are 18.5 deaths for every 100,000 live births, compared with 8.2 in Canada and 6.1 in Japan and the United Kingdom.

And while the number of births increases, the number of practicing OB-GYNs is projected to decrease even more. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) estimates that the United States will face a shortage of OB-GYNs—6,000 to 8,800 fewer of them than necessary—by 2020. By 2050, that shortage will grow to 22,000.

Why? A few reasons. First, the number of medical students choosing to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology has remained relatively steady since 1980, but in the past couple of years, more than four out of five first-year OB-GYNs were women. That’s a change—like most medical specialties, the field used to be dominated by men. Thomas Gellhaus, president of ACOG, said female OB-GYNs tend to retire about a decade earlier than male OB-GYNs and tend to prefer part-time schedules.

Another factor: While OB-GYNs were once expected to be available around the clock, few doctors today will put up with such a demanding schedule. This change has given way to “laborists,” providers who work only in hospitals and focus strictly on labor and deliveries.

Finally, students going into obstetrics and gynecology today are choosing more lucrative subspecialties like gynecologic oncology and reproductive endocrinology and fertility, leaving a gap in routine gynecological care providers. Opting for a subspecialty over a general OB-GYN practice could mean up to a $100,000 annual difference in salary.

One potential solution: Let certified nurse-midwives pick up the slack. A California bill introduced by state Assemblywoman Autumn Burke would remove the requirement that nurse-midwives—registered nurses who have also completed an accredited nurse-widwifery program and passed an exam given by the American Midwifery Certification Board—practice under the supervision of doctors. Pew reports that the number of nurse-midwives in the United States has risen as states have relaxed restrictions—the profession has grown by 30 percent since 2012.

Original article – 

The Biggest Threat to Women’s Health That No One Talks About

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Raw Data: How Does Social Security Compare to Retirement Programs in Other Countries?

by MariamTIMV Posted on July 12, 2016

Mother Jones

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Earlier today I wrote about retirement income in the United States, and that got me curious about how we compare to other countries. The obvious source for this is an international organization that does its best to make apples-to-apples comparisons, so I headed to the website of the OECD, the “rich countries club.” (I don’t really care how we compare to Chad. I want to know how we compare to peer countries like France and Japan.)

This in turn led me to “Pensions at a Glance,” which turned out to be an enormous misnomer: the 2015 edition is 374 pages long. I haven’t read the whole thing, of course, but I did find plenty of interesting stuff. I’m going to highlight one chart today, and maybe I’ll do others throughout the week.

So how do we compare? The answer, unsurprisingly, is: It’s complicated. There are lots of ways of comparing retirement income, and they produce different results. But there’s a single broad measure that gives a rough idea of how generous each country is: the percentage of GDP spent on pension programs. In the United States, that’s Social Security (public) plus 401(k)s, IRAs, etc. (private). Other countries give their programs different names, but they all employ a combination of public and private spending.

By itself, though, that’s not enough. Countries with more elderly people are obviously going to spend more. So you want to adjust the GDP number by how many people are retired. The OECD report doesn’t do this directly, but it does provide the old-age dependency ratio for each country, which is a good proxy. The higher the number, the more retired people a country has.

So all we have to do is divide the GDP number by the OADR number for each country. This provides a “retirement index” that indicates how generous each country’s retirement is. Here it is for public pensions only:

And here it is for all pension income, both public and private:

As with many other things, the United States relies more heavily on private spending than most rich countries. If you compare Social Security to public pensions in other countries, we’re about average. If you compare all pension income, our retirees are better off than nearly everywhere else.

Now, these are only average numbers. They don’t tell us anything about how rich retirees compare to poor ones. Social Security, for example, tends to favor poorer retirees, while private pensions favor richer ones, and it’s not easy to combine them to get a comprehensive distribution of retirement benefits. However, the OECD report has some other charts that come close to doing this, and I’ll see if I can extract one for tomorrow. In the meantime, make what you will of this raw data.

Excerpt from:

Raw Data: How Does Social Security Compare to Retirement Programs in Other Countries?

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