Johnson said he expects the trend to continue, thanks to a program the EPA announced last year to cut emissions in states in the East, Midwest and South that are the source of pollutants causing smog downwind.

The Plastic, My Friend, Is Blowin' In The Wind
The Chicago Tribune [free registration required] reports that the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County has announced it will pursue state legislation requiring Illinois' major retailers to accept used plastic bags for recycling. Among the agency's retail targets are Target (duh), as well as Sears, Walgreens, CVS and JCPenney.

The story notes that the plastic bag plague is hardly limited to these shores. In South Africa, for example, people mockingly refer to plastic bags as their national flower.

Humble Shoeshine Boy Snatches Trash Pact From Goliath
"Underdog Steals Waste Management Contract" -- Headline, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Sept. 13

Welcome Home, Big Fella
It took retired basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar less than a day to tick off his neighbors when he moved into his new brownstone in New York City's Harlem district the other day. Funny, isn't it, how dumping a load of trash in the front yard next door will tend to not exactly bring out the welcome wagon, even for a big-shot favorite son like Abdul-Jabbar, who grew up in Harlem.

The New York Daily news reports that the neighborhood kids have already started trash-talking Kareem, daring him to set foot on the courts nearby.

I'd bet a couple sky hooks would quiet them down, at least for a little while.

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