The amount of litter around the community raised concerns for Stacey Jambura's Lowell Elementary School students.

But its potential impacts on the environment --- including the world's oceans --- is what spurred them to action.

by Daniel Goleman

On a visit to India a while back I came upon a fenced empty field that was practically buried in flimsy white throwaway plastic bags, the kind you carry your purchases home in from the store. The locals joked that this was “the garden where plastic bags grew.”

Earth Day isn't good for my health. I've got to stop observing it. Actually, I don't. Normally. Observe it. Or rather I prefer to think of every day as Earth Day. It probably has something to do with when I came of age—the late '60s, early '70s. It hit me over the head (my recollection is that the moment it did I was in a Vermont field surrounded by friends telling me everything was going to be OK) that we live on a lovely, fragile, in certain ways unimprovable planet, edging up on a miracle. More to the point, it's the only one we have.

So when I see people despoiling it I'm filled with righteous indignation. This indignation bubbles over into something resembling rage when the garbage happens to be deposited on my own property and I have to pick it up. Which I do once a year. This year the occasion, mostly coincidentally, occurred Friday afternoon, Earth Day.

Wisconsin, USA -- Europe burns heaps of garbage, getting lots of electricity and some heat. The United States does not. Proponents say incineration shrinks the waste and produces heat and electricity while reducing the need for landfills and the diesel-drinking trucks tasked with taking trash to often-distant burial grounds.

These folks acknowledge that incinerators were rather dirty 25 years ago, but note that current air emissions are below Environmental Protection Agency standards. In a modern garbage incinerator, a complex set of filters removes heavy metals and other pollutants; high-temperature operation reduces the output of ultra-toxic dioxins.

By INYOUNG KANG

STUDENTS’ new green cause: promoting that most quotidian of beverages — tap water. According to the Earth Policy Institute, 86 percent of plastic water bottles in the United States end up as garbage. Not to mention the $2 students shell out for a bottle.

DIVE! Living Off America's Waste 

“Where does most of the garbage in our streets actually end up?” This is a question most people ask but never really get an answer too. Today the answer will be revealed. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the center of our garbage, made up of nothing but floating garbage and debris (Moore, C. 2003).

Where is this garbage patch located, one might question? What are the main ingredients in the mix?  All these answers will be uncovered. What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and is there a way to curb or reverse this disaster’s effects? First, the discussion and figures of what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is.

Celebrate No Trash Week by not making any! Get some friends together, advertise to your email address book, announce it on your blog, post flyers (previously used paper, of course) at your work and school! Tell everyone it's happening, then participate!

How do you participate? Strive to make no trash for an entire week. Try your best, but don't worry too much about getting a perfect score, especially if this is your first attempt to go garbage-free.

Nations around world look at a ban
by Joan Lowy

Imagine a world without plastic shopping bags. It could be the future.

Italian officials are reducing the amount of plastic trash by encouraging people to drink the potable tap water instead of bottled water. This strategy has already made a difference in reducing the amount of overall plastic trash in Italy from 288 tons of plastic trash a month a year ago to 261 tons a month currently.

Nice!