ECOLOGY & NATURE

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SEATTLE A LEADER IN RECYCLING

NY TIMES - Seattle now recycles 44 percent of its trash, compared with
the national average of around 30 percent. . . Its goal, city waste
management officials said, is to reach 60 percent by 2012 and 72 percent
by 2025. In many other parts of the country, recycling is in the
doldrums . . . As the law now stands in Seattle, residents of single
family houses are allowed to mix food scraps with yard waste, which is
then shipped off to be composted. Recycling of food scraps will become
mandatory in 2009.

The new law may add yet another container for curbside pickup, which
already includes receptacles for non-recyclable trash, yard waste, glass
and other recyclables. . .

Seattle also found itself in a recycling skid a few years back, losing
ground to apathy despite being a pacesetter in the boom years of the
late '80s. "We hit a cardboard ceiling," said Tim Croll of the Seattle
Public Utilities.

The city's response was to ban paper and cardboard from non-recyclable
garbage - with enforcement penalties - followed by allowing food scraps
to be mingled with yard waste.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/us/10recycle.html?adxnnl=
1&adxnnlx=1192024982-v2SrRM/pA91tMr3N2oXvIg


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NOTES FROM THE ECO FUTURE
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CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS - The Pine Bark Beetle, which feeds on and
kills pine trees, used to be held in control by cold winter
temperatures. Now the species is thriving and killing off entire forests
in British Columbia, unchecked.

http://www.americanprogress.org

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