Hospitals Unprepared for Hazardous Ebola Waste

U.S. hospitals could have trouble handling and disposing of Ebola-related waste if they begin to treat infected patients, potentially threatening public safety.

The hemorrhagic fever is transmitted through bodily fluids and produces significant vomiting and diarrhea in people it infects.

These fluids would be considered biohazards and require special handling and disposal that few hospitals are prepared to carry out.

As health officials entertain the possibility that more Ebola cases could arrive in the United States, it’s a logistical problem hospitals are starting to consider.

The challenge was highlighted Wednesday in a report by Reuters, which chronicled how doctors at Emory University in Atlanta handled Ebola waste in the course of treating two infected missionaries.

Patients were generating “up to 40 bags a day of medical waste,” according to Emory assistant professor of medicine Aneesh Mehta. And the hospital’s disposal company, Stericycle, reportedly refused to handle the material at first.

So clinicians found a temporary solution: 32-gallon rubber containers with lids from Home Depot. Later, they used a special sterilizer to neutralize the waste before passing it to the company for disposal.

Reuters noted that few hospitals have the ability to sterilize materials on site like Emory.

“For this reason, it would be very difficult for a hospital to agree to care for Ebola cases. This desperately needs a fix,” Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Public Health Committee, told the wire service.

Federal health and transportation agencies are reportedly meeting to discuss and resolve the issue.

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EPA Fines Sims Metal $189K for Polluting SF Bay

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice announced the $189,000 fine against Sims Metal Management on Thursday September 18th over allegations that it polluted the San Francisco Bay with toxic metal debris. The EPA charged the company with allowing toxic dust from metal to fall off a conveyor system and into a creek that feeds into the San Francisco Bay since at least the early 1990’s. As part of a settlement agreement, the recycling company will be required to pay the cost of cleanup in addition to the fine.

Sims Metal spokeswoman Jill Rodby said the company has implemented a number of best practices around the conveyor and agreed to the settlement without acknowledging any wrongdoing.

Source: NBC Bay Area

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Obama Said that Climate Change Is a Fact, Top Reasons to be Hopeful

 

 

Here we have it, the top reasons why we can be hopeful that we will overcome climate change from The Guardian:

1) Barack Obama has made it one of his defining issues
2) China has ordered coal power plants to close
3) The cost of solar has fallen by two thirds
4) People are taking their money out of fossil fuels
5) Bangladeshi women are being retrained as solar technicians
6) Renewable energy will soon take the lion’s share of new power
7) European homes are using 15% less energy than they were in 2000
8) Cutting emissions has become a business imperative
9) Oil is becoming much more expensive to find
10) Electric car sales are doubling each year

There are also helpful data, details and visuals to see here:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/30/reasons-hopeful-overcome-climate-change-solar

What to read about the Greenhouse gas news this year so far in summary format? Please see:

https://mygreenhalo.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/americas-greenhouse-gas-news-this-year-so-far/

 

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Don’t Recycle That Pizza Box Until You Read This

Oil/grease is one of the worst contaminates in the paper recycling process because paper recycling undergoes a heat process, gets mixed with water and pulverized to paper pulp to make recycled paper. If there is oil in the paper pulp mixture then the paper ends up having spots and holes.

About three years ago we wrote about the fact that many corrugated cardboard pizza boxes are recyclable if and only if they are clean. You can read about the pizza box recycling debate here.

We hope that by spreading the word about this and providing you with some visuals about the seriousness of ruining entire batches of recycling because you didn’t know that oil soaked cardboard shouldn’t be recycled in any amount, we can make people aware of this simple point: it might be better to throw that oily box away.

If you still want to recycle that pizza then there are great ways to go about this:

1. If the top half of the pizza box has no grease on it then feel free to rip that half away from the bottom and recycle the top half!
2. Share this article with others who could learn a thing or two about how recycled paper is made, trust us, they won’t forget the next time they have an oily pizza box!

Shocked that some cities still need to consider construction recycling

Just read in the news that Burlington, Vt. is currently considering recycling their construction waste…

The good news is that the city is starting the process of making recycling construction waste a requirement for building permits.

Although this was shocking news for us, it does make since that because construction is on the rise in the Berlington, Vt., this is just now being addressed.

Best wishes to the city and their diversion efforts!

 

Source: http://www.mychamplainvalley.com/story/d/story/burlington-considers-construction-recycling/13736/AJ_hUwH6BkmMlficA-2YRw

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For those in #robotics, #construction and #waste, prepare to be amazed by @zenrobtics

The ZenRobotics Recycler currently separates Metal, Wood and Stone from mixed construction and demolition debris. The separator received the Global Cleantech Cluster Association’s Later Stage Award for Best in Waste Management at the end of 2013 and ZenRobotics Ltd. is working on increasing the features of this product. Separating mixed construction and demolition debris is important because currently people perform their arduous task and their labor could be use very effectively elsewhere in waste facilities. Not only does this take a dangerous and tedious task off of the hands of waste facility employees, but this robot even improves recovery rates and sorting efficiency.

Jaakko Särelä, CEO of ZenRobotics, says that ““It is already clear that clean technology will develop to a globally significant business sector. What is now needed is a national strategy for the development of environmental technology”. The minimum amount of reclaimed debris that the sorter can reclaim annually is 12,000 tons with the potential to sort up to 60,000 tons. In addition, the sorter little energy, and only costs $1.36/hour to operate.

 

Source: https://mygreenhalo.wordpress.com/

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How do planners decide where to build a waste station?

In New York, there were lawsuits that sought to lock out the construction of a controversial waste-transfer station from the East River at E. 91^St St. in Manhattan.

The plaintiffs, argued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in issuing the city a construction permit saying that they failed to look hard at the environmental consequence of building the station at that aforementioned location.

On the contrary Manhattan Federal Judge Paul Crotty said that the decision to build a 10 story waste transfere station on East 91^st St. is “rational and well-supported”.

 

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/uptown/judge-dismisses-lawsuits-seeking-block-construction-upper-east-side-garbage-transfer-station-article-1.1863023

 

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#WW Website Wednesday http://bit.ly/1xFVqXD http://bit.ly/1r4IVkt http://www.world.org/weo/environment

For Website Wednesday we have…

Green Building News: http://bit.ly/1xFVqXD

Green Building 101: http://bit.ly/1r4IVkt

and

100 Top Environmental Sites: http://www.world.org/weo/environment 

 

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#Smart Table Has a Full Cycle #Design

This short (under 4 minute) film illustrates a full cycle, mixed use table that lets people cultivate, garden, cook, eat, wash dishes and repeat.

If you don’t have the time to watch the whole cycle unfold, then here’s the CliffsNotes, Wiki, or actually StudioGorm version of it:

 

Source: http://www.studiogorm.com/flow2.html

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Today at 9 AM PM or 12 PM ET a New #Weather #Nerdy Show Airs @WXGeeksTWC

A show produced by meteorologists for weather geeks is coming to our televisions on The Weather Channel Sunday morning which will actually make you want to watch the news on TV. WX Geeks has been called Big Bang Theory meets the weather by Mediabistro. It’s funny, quirky, nerdy, and educational. With so much talk about global warming and natural phenomena lately it seems like a great opportunity to learn more about the weather.  This Sunday the show will be about storm chasing and hopefully we can all catch it and talk about it on Monday!

Happy Sunday.

 

Source: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/07/18/wx_geeks_the_weather_channel_s_new_sunday_morning_talk_show_reviewed.html

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