Authorities estimate that 25 million pounds of trash is strewn along the Arizona-Mexico border. That´s a lotta scrap, Jack. A handful of local groups are stuggling to make a dent in the mass of trash, but they´re having about as much luck as the Dutch kid who tried to plug the leaky dike with his digits.

Maybe the authorities should just get some bulldozers and build a borderlong barricade out of the stuff.

This past Sunday´s New York Times Magazine has a fine, probing profile of the Chicago Climate Exchange and its founder, Richard Sandor. And let me just say, first of all, whew, what an intricate issue. Sandor, in setting up his Chicago-based commodities market for greenhouse gas allowances as a purely private venture, is sailing into seriously uncharted water. And second, whew again -- what a terrific job by the writer, Jeff Goodell, in cutting through that complexity and rendering the topic downright graspable.

If I haven´t conveyed it already, this is an important article. I´d go so far as to say that for anyone interested in global warming and its implications for U.S. industry, it´s essential reading.

Pepper, the cartoon retriever who adorns Abitibi-Consolidated´s green recycled-paper dropoff bins around the country, has made his (her?) way to Wichita, Kan. According to this story from the Wichita Eagle, the town that calls itself the Air Capital of the World has become the 24th U.S. city to implement Abitibi´s Paper Retrieiver program, which assists local organizations in raising funds by providing the groups with dropoff bins and then donating money to them based on the tonnage of paper they collect.

I cite the story here partly because today here in Ohio it´s hellishly hot outside (chances are you´re stuck in the same stewpot, I gather), and the article contains a reference to a town called Snowflake, Arizona, whose name always makes me smile when I come across it. I´ve always thought it would be interesting to meet the person who dreamt up the name for that town; seems like he or she might be a fun person to have a beer with. A very, very cold beer. Bartender, could you make mine slushy?

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.