Waste_Inbox

Surge Protectors Needed: The United Nations Environment Programme issued a report Tuesday forecasting that developing nations will experience a big influx of electronic waste over the next decade, driven both by waste imports from the U.S. and Europe and by new purchases and castoffs from electronics buyers within their own countries.

"Skyrocketing sales of gadgets, cell phones and other electronics in China, India, Latin America and Africa will make handling e-waste a growing problem in the coming years," notes Greenbiz.com in a story about the U.N. study. "Without comprehensive e-waste collection and recycling programs, the report says that developing countries will face ´hazardous e-waste mountains, with serious consequences for the environment and public health.´ "

Burned or Buried: The New York Daily News published a nice piece yesterday marking NYC Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty´s 50th anniversary working for the city´s waste corps.

Doherty says one of the most important changes he´s seen in his half century on the job is a marked improvement in sanitation workers´ image and self-image:

" ´When I was first assigned to lower Broadway, I had to sweep outside the bank where I used to work,´ Doherty said. ´I pulled my hat down over my head. I didn´t want them to see me.´

"But years later, he walked down that same street as a four-star chief to oversee cleanup after a parade. ´I was very proud of what I did,´ he said. ´Sanitation workers are really proud of their jobs now. No one is ashamed anymore. It´s a great job.´ "

I also got a kick out of this assessment from the straight-talking Doherty about how the work hasn´t changed:

" ´You still have to pick something up and put it in the back of a truck, and it´s either going to be burned or buried.´ "

The Big Boing: The 8.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked Chile Saturday was so powerful that it shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted the planet´s axis, according to a NASA scientist.

Richard Gross, a research scientist with NASA´s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, estimates that the quake shortened the Earth day by 1.26 microseconds and moved Earth´s axis by 3 inches.

Funny, my wristwatch has been losing time lately ... and I´ve had this strange inability to walk in a straight line ...

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

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