Waste_Inbox

A Green World After All: The Walt Disney Co. has announced a set of goals aimed at cutting emissions, waste, electricity and fuel use, and reducing the company's impact on water and ecosystems.

Disney has taken occasional jibes through the years from green groups about its environmental policies, so it's good to see the company responding on what appears to be a fairly ambitious level.

The Waiting Game: Here's yet another story -- this one from CNN.com -- about the pinch the recession is putting on recycling. Cities like Atlanta and Berkeley, Calif., are scaling back services and hiking fees to make ends meet.

Also, CNN reports that many recycling centers are stockpiling material in hopes that the commodity markets will soon snap back to normal. That sounds like a smart strategy for those that have plenty of cheap space available.

Bracket Madness: While I do like to watch some college basketball, I've never been much of a brackethead. And according to a recent MSN survey, that still puts me among the majority, but just barely: MSN found that 45% of Americans plan to participate in at least one NCAA basketball tournament pool this year.

I hope you 45% are doing your brackets online, because if you're not, well, that sure sounds like a lot of wasted paper to me.

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

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