Waste Management

Is Burning Trash a Good Way to Handle It? Waste Incineration in Five Charts

COMMENTARY | Emissions from burning waste worsen environmental inequalities, create financial risks for host communities and reduce incentives to adopt more sustainable waste practices.

  • By Ana Baptista, The Conversation

Is Burning Trash a Good Way to Handle It? Waste Incineration in Five Charts

COMMENTARY | Emissions from burning waste worsen environmental inequalities, create financial risks for host communities and reduce incentives to adopt more sustainable waste practices.

  • By Ana Baptista, The Conversation
Waste Management

Is Burning Trash a Good Way to Handle It? Waste Incineration in Five Charts

COMMENTARY | Emissions from burning waste worsen environmental inequalities, create financial risks for host communities and reduce incentives to adopt more sustainable waste practices.

  • By Ana Baptista, The Conversation

To Curb Trashcan Clutter, a City Will Try Stowing Waste Underground

Raleigh, North Carolina is looking to improve on “the old school model” it uses to handle waste from downtown businesses.

  • By Bill Lucia

New York Bans Single-Use Plastic Bags

STATE AND LOCAL ROUNDUP | Investigating earthquakes in Alabama ... A fight about Chik-Fil-A in San Antonio ... Considering a seasonal gas tax hike.

  • By Laura Maggi

A Startup Wants to Turn Your City’s Trash Into a Heap of Big Data

One company hopes to create an “Internet of Garbage,” with the promise to bring better logistics to municipal waste.

  • By Mitch Herckis

Toward A Circular Economy: Tackling the Plastics Recycling Problem

China's decision to not accept as many plastic recyclables has created new problems for an already flawed recycling infrastructure.

  • By Margaret Sobkowicz, The Conversation

Rural Recycling Hit Hard by Shifting Scrap Market

The fallout of China's decision to tighten its recycling standards has changed the industry in this country. It's particularly tough for rural governments.

  • By Rebecca Beitsch

Another Locality Cuts Back on Recycling Amid Industry-Wide Disruption

STATE AND LOCAL ROUNDUP | Powerful Chicago alderman indicted … Maine governor signs Medicaid executive order … and Texas county’s new district attorney fires 15 people.

  • By Michael Grass

Cats Are No Match for New York City’s Rats

Despite popular wisdom, rats are too big and too fierce for cats.

  • By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic

Combating China's Recycling Reversal

City leaders have multiple options to cope with new waste regulations in China, which previously processed a lot of this country's recycling, according to a National League of Cities report.

  • By Kate Elizabeth Queram

More Alaska Cities Are Pursuing Local Plastic Bag Bans

Anchorage could be next to implement restrictions.

  • By Michael Grass

N.Y. State Wants to Help Its Municipalities With Recycling Strategy

Amid China’s new restrictions on recycling imports, Gov. Cuomo wants a better game plan for waste management in the Empire State.

  • By Michael Grass

Dangerous Gases in Dayton’s Sewers

STATE AND LOCAL ROUNDUP | Arizona’s wrong-way driver detection system … what lurks in Delaware’s warming coastal waters … and fare enforcement reform in Seattle.

  • By Michael Grass

U.S. Cities in 'Waiting Game' as Recycling Industry Faces Major Correction

China has effectively stopped accepting raw material from U.S. recycling businesses, leaving stunned cities and towns with outdated contracts and red-ink projections.

  • By John Tomasic, Special to Route Fifty

Can Cities Master Their Garbage With Better Design?

A band of architects and city planners insist that trash shouldn’t be a permanent feature of urban topography.

  • By Jessica Leigh Hester, CityLab

Radioactive Sludge Disposal Heats Up Oil and Gas Politics in Colorado

A “glitch” in state law has caused major heartburn for regulators.

  • By John Tomasic, Special to Route Fifty

The Tech That Helps San Francisco Process Its Wastewater

PHOTOS: Treating raw sewage and stormwater involves a maze of pipes and plenty of data analytics, too.

  • By Michael Grass

Possible Source of ‘Gooey Nightmare’ That Overwhelmed Montana Wastewater System ID’d

It’s an enemy that many water infrastructure managers are familiar with.

  • By Route Fifty Staff

How Some Alaska Cities Try to Outsmart Bears

In Juneau, garbage management has to take hungry animals into account.

  • By Michael Grass

Navigator Award Finalists: Stephanie Scafa and Team, City of Eugene, Ore.

The Love Food Not Waste program is gaining traction and serves as a good model for how to build community partnerships to help divert unnecessary food waste from landfills.

  • By Michael Grass

How San José Reduced Illegal Dumping With Behavioral Insights

A pilot project aimed to find ways to make a free, large-item pickup program more effective.

  • By Dave Nyczepir

Kansas City’s Garbage Apology; Miami Beach Reminded of Its Precarious Position

Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: LAPD outreach to families of those killed by officers; gas utility under scrutiny in Vermont; and Great Lakes mayors question water agreement.

  • By Route Fifty Staff