With over 350 materials and 100,000+ listings, we maintain one of North America's most extensive recycling databases. Simply dial 1-800-CLEANUP, or simply enter in the material you are trying to recycle along with your zip code and click search.

Here are all the currently active wildfires in the U.S. Click on a marker for more info. We check federal websites for updates every 30 minutes.

A map of wildfires currently burning in California and elsewhere in the western and northwestern US.

Putting climate change in perspective. When people say "The climate has changed before," these are the kinds of changes they're talking about.

“Compostable” packaging and serviceware items have been on the rise for the past decade and they are increasingly ending up in our facilities. These materials compromise our composting programs and limit many of the environmental benefits of successful composting. Here are nine reasons why we don’t want “compostable” packaging or serviceware delivered to our facilities: 1. They don't always compost. 2. Contamination happens [and trash ends up in the compost]. 3. They hurt resale quality [of the compost]. 4. We can't sell to organic farmers [because regulations prevent compost from containing certain material]. 5. They may threaten human and environmental health [because chemicals in the packaging end up in the compost and thus in our water and food]. 6. It increases our costs and makes our job harder. 7. Just because something is compostable doesn't mean it's better for the environment. [...] What materials are made of, and how they’re made, may be more significant than whether they’re composted vs. landfilled. “Composting” and “compostable” are not the same idea. Composting is a beneficial treatment option for organic wastes, but “compostable” is not a guarantee of low impact. 8. In some cases, the benefits of recycling surpass those of composting. 9. Good intentions aren’t being realized. Not only do compostable products often cost more to purchase, they also drive up the costs to operate our facilities and impede our ability to sell finished compost. Compostable packaging is promoted as a means of achieving “zero waste” goals but it burdens composters (and recyclers) with materials that harm our ability to efficiently process recovered materials. Reusable dishware is almost always a better choice for the environment. If you must use single-use items, please don’t put them in your compost bin. We need to focus on recycling organic wastes, such as food and yard trimmings, into high-quality compost products that can be used with confidence to restore soils and conserve resources. Compostable packaging doesn’t help us to achieve these goals. We need clean feedstocks in order to produce quality compost. Please help us protect the environment and create high quality compost products by keeping “compostable” packaging and serviceware out of the compost bin.

Governments and schools are not communicating the most effective ways for individuals to reduce their carbon footprints, according to new research. […] Published today in the journal Environmental Research Letters, the study from Lund University, found that the incremental changes advocated by governments may represent a missed opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions beneath the levels needed to prevent 2°C of climate warming. […] "We found there are four actions that could result in substantial decreases in an individual's carbon footprint: eating a plant-based diet, avoiding air travel, living car free, and having smaller families. For example, living car-free saves about 2.4 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, while eating a plant-based diet saves 0.8 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year. "These actions, therefore, have much greater potential to reduce emissions than commonly promoted strategies like comprehensive recycling (which is 4 times less effective than a plant-based diet) or changing household lightbulbs (8 times less effective)." The researchers also found that neither Canadian school textbooks nor government resources from the EU, USA, Canada and Australia highlight these actions, instead focussing on incremental changes with much smaller potential to reduce emissions.

Who of us behaves as if we were in immediate trouble? We work, and at the end of the day, if we think at all, all we have time to think about is that we are cowards, or, before the thought comes, to escape it. Raise your hand if you have never hoped you will die before you have to thoroughly disrupt your own life for the lives of those who will live after you are dead. I do not mean to yell at anyone. Every day, I ask myself, what are you willing to do? And sometimes I feel righteous and strong, but mostly what I feel is fear, and a drive towards self preservation. I can laugh at the prettily arranged soap, or the privately-viewed sunsets, or the Jet Skis, because those are not my drugs, but Niu Kitchen, and all that goes with it, will be dragged from my fake wedding-ring-adorned cold dead hands.

Following Hurricane Sandy’s destructive tear through the Northeast this week, the nation’s 300 million citizens looked upon the trail of devastation and fully realized, for the first time, that this is just going to be something that happens from now on.

It can replace a lot.

Blest, a Japanese company, has created machine that melts plastic and cools the vapor to create gasoline. Yikes!

We won't spend the money necessary to prevent this from happening again.

I want to revisit this later; it is an interesting retort to Michael Pollan and others' condemnations of current farming techniques.

The extent to which large 'environmentalism' groups are actually destroying the environment with their corporate connections.

"An article with a ridiculous conspiracy theory propped up by selective and dishonest quoting. Presented to us by a publication that can’t be bothered to do elementary fact checking. This is the face of climate change denial."

Typically disinterested in the tourism of Maine's lobster festival, DFW gives a great history of the lobster. The bulk of the article, most interestingly, is dedicated to the ethics of boiling a living creature alive (or otherwise killing it) in order to eat it.

Is this it? "Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. Daniel G. Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT, has developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas, a discovery that paves the way for large-scale use of solar power." "The new catalyst works at room temperature, in neutral pH water, and it's easy to set up."

Excellent and quirky nature paintings.

The nooks and crannies of megacity Tokyo are filled with "flowerpot gardens." “'To be closer to nature – because otherwise you won’t get any,' says Mizuho, a resident of Asakusa."

"...although it generates no more or less carbon than magazine publishing, web publishing takes no carbon out of the atmosphere. So by this analysis dead-tree magazines have a smaller net carbon footprint than web media."

Mike Lee calls for developers to donate to the Madagascar Fauna Group in exchange for a free plushy lemur and membership in "Club Thievey." I've got mine! :-)

One guy's attempt to influence the policy decisions regarding global warming. An introductory video and dozens of supporting videos designed to anticipate every counterargument and criticism.

An international body that promotes responsible forestry and printing practices. I've started noticing their seal around. It's good to know this is going strong.

"This is a website about immersing oneself in stormwater sewers and utility tunnels and abandoned industry, about tapping into the worlds that are embedded in our environment yet are decidedly removed from the collective experience of civilized life."

Use a pulsating orb to "make electricity [usage] visible" and get people thinking about their energy use. Good idea!

About the Prius and alternatives.

"Wrist-slittingly depressing, yes, but there are glimmers of hope on the horizon."

Margulis says that Gaia is "the series of interacting ecosystems that compose a single huge ecosystem at the Earth's surface. Period."

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is a federal law signed by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005, at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems, changed US energy policy by providing tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types. The most consequential aspect of the law was to greatly increase ethanol production to be blended with gasoline. The law also repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, effective February 2006.

"An interactive sonic installation based on 5.3 Million years of global climate change from the geologic record."

Andrew Bird rules. "...he'll fuel his tour bus with vegetable oil-derived biodiesel, make all shows 'carbon neutral' with help from Native Energy, hawk eco-friendly merch, and even fill the green room with, well, green goods thanks to Stonyfield Farm."