It´s surprising how little U.S. officials know about our nation´s overseas mercury trade. Granted, mercury is a commodity that people in less-regulated nations are willing to pay a pretty penny for. But that doesn´t make the stuff any less poisonous, nor any less mobile once it gets into the environment.

There is no justifying letting this continue. Too many people are being endangered, both in other countries and right here. No doubt about it: In this case, there oughta be a law. And it looks like there´s a good chance that may actually happen, though the process is moving forward very slowly right now.

A Boingy Stroll Through The District
Here, from Governing.com, is an interesting use for recycled tires that I haven´t come across before: rubber sidewalks [scroll down to "A Bounce In Your Step"]. To reduce the cost of repairs and lawsuits, the city of Washington, D.C., is testing rubber sidewalks on 4,000 square feet of public walkways, the largest such test of the material in the country to date.

"Unlike concrete, rubber sidewalks let air and water through so tree roots grow downward," the Governing.com item says. "Concrete suffocates roots, causing them to grow upward, breaking the concrete."

It says rubber walkways last up to 14 years, about three times as long as concrete, but they also cost about three times as much.

Decompression Days
I will be on vacation next week and part of the following one. Inbox will return Thursday, Aug. 24. Until then, try to stay cool. And be glad that during the recent heat wave you didn´t get stuck hanging out in a beach house with a certain former U.S. vice president who´s been getting a lot of ink these days. Evidently, according to this item from the Borowitz Report, all the "Inconvenient Truth" hoopla is going straight to the global warming guru´s head.

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