Falling Behind: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a disquieting piece the other day about the strides China´s government and business community are making in areas such as clean technology innovation, creation of green jobs, pollution reduction, energy efficiency, energy conservation, and producer-responsibility legislation.

China is outstripping the United States in all of these these areas, Friedman writes, and he attributes this trend to what he terms "the totally bogus discrediting of climate science" that has taken place in U.S. in the last couple years.

"Because runaway pollution in China means wasted lives, air, water, ecosystems and money -- and wasted money means fewer jobs and more political instability -- China’s leaders would never go a year (like we will) without energy legislation mandating new ways to do more with less," he writes. "It’s a three-for-one shot for them. By becoming more energy efficient per unit of GDP, China saves money, takes the lead in the next great global industry and earns credit with the world for mitigating climate change."

Those Infernal Clamshells: The New York Times published an interesting report last week about Amazon.com´s efforts to persuade manufacturers to adopt "frustration-free" packaging that is also environmentally friendly.

The online retail giant is trying to convince product makers to refrain from using packaging that incorporates plastic clamshells, air-bubble wrap, plastic and wire ties, and similar materials that create consumer "wrap rage," and to instead use more benign packaging made of recycled and recyclable cardboard.

Amazon has made some inroads with manufacturers such as Philips, the electronics giant, as well as Polaroid and Procter & Gamble, but it has encountered a good deal of resistance from other product makers and still has a long way to go, the N.Y. Times reports.

Stem The Tide: The Los Angeles Times reports that 16 cities in L.A. County are installing screens beneath storm drains in an effort to curtail "river trash" -- the myriad debris that gets swept into sewers when it rains and winds up littering beaches or being pulled out to sea.

"Once the custom-built stainless steel devices are installed inside nearly 12,000 catch basins, authorities expect them to keep 840,000 pounds of debris -- the equivalent of about 450 Volkswagen Beetles -- from reaching the ocean each year," the L.A. Times reports. "Described as the largest debris-capturing project in the nation, the clean-up effort is being undertaken by the Gateway Authority, a coalition of cities and public water agencies in southeastern L.A. County, using $10 million in federal stimulus dollars."

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