ABC News
As of tomorrow, supermarket consumers from Fountain Gate, Wangarratta and Warrnambool will incur an additional fee for each plastic bag used during checkout for a 4 week waste management trial. Gavin Jennings, Environment Minister believes the trial will elicit a positive response from consumers and promote the use of reusable and recyclable shopping bags.
posted by cecie on August 17, 2008 at 7:33 pm · filed under 
| August 25, 2008 | to | August 31, 2008 |
Running from Monday 25 – Sunday 31 August 2008, Keep Australia Beautiful Week encourages Australians to reduce all kinds of waste. Keep Australia Beautiful also recognises efforts to clean up and maintain the natural environment with various awards.
posted by seamas on August 11, 2008 at 4:17 pm · filed under 
ABC News
The Australian Workers Union are calling on the Federal Government to provide assurance that there will be no job losses as a result of the implementation of the emissions trading scheme. There are concerns that industries producing aluminium, concrete and LNG will seek to move their operations off-shore where they are not subjected to the higher operational costs that an emissions trading scheme will entail, and that such a move would result in local job losses. The Australian Workers Union is working with the Government to seek ways in which job losses can be avoided whilst working towards a better environment.
posted by steve on August 11, 2008 at 11:16 am · filed under 
ABC News
Research in the University of the Philippines has resulted in the development of a composite building board made from chicken feathers, which has been assessed as being economically and environmentally sound. The boards would solve the problem of termite damage faced by conventional wood chip boards as they are inedible, and would also help alleviate the disposal problem of the 2.4 million tonnes of feathers produced by the Philippines poultry industry each year. Whilst not being usable at present for load-bearing applications, the boards can be used for panelling, ceilings and insulation and have the additional benefit of low flammability compared with existing boards used in construction.
posted by steve on August 4, 2008 at 6:43 am · filed under 
ACF
National and Territory environment groups are pleased the Labor Party contesting the Northern Territory election will oppose a national nuclear waste dump in the Territory, but are concerned Federal Labor have thus far failed to rule out the previous government’s dump plan.
posted by seamas on July 30, 2008 at 10:33 pm · filed under 
The Age
In recent times biofuels have become popular, in the EU and US especially, as a way of dealing with climate change, however, they have caused many problems to ecosystems, increased deforestation, contributed to global food shortages and many investigations have found biofuels release more carbon dioxide than they save. This has caused the UK to commission a report to slow the introduction of biofuels and concentrate more on ’second-generation biofuels’ such as waste from agriculture and forestry which don’t have the same problems associated.
posted by kirsty on July 15, 2008 at 6:10 pm · filed under
The Sydney Morning Herald
An environmentally friendly waste management plant is due to open in Sydney next year. It will capture 100% of the methane produced during the breakdown of rubbish by microbes and use this to light 1700 Sydney homes. The plant will also separate rubbish into methane producing, recycling and compost leaving only 15% for landfill while producing more water than it uses. MacArthur, the business creating the Macarthur Resource Recovery Park in Sydney, are hoping to develop more of these plants around Australia.
posted by kirsty on July 6, 2008 at 6:46 pm · filed under 
ABC
The Victorian government is trialling a plastic bag levy of between 10 and 25 cents, aiming to phase out plastic bags over the next two years. Six retail stores are currently involved, however, there are hopes that virtually all supermarkets will willingly participate to reduce the number of plastic bags. The trial will hopefully eliminate retailers’ fears that consumers will move their business to shops with free plastic bags.
posted by kirsty on June 29, 2008 at 8:08 pm · filed under
ABC News
New laws have been introduced in South Australia banning the use of light-weight plastic shopping bags. Supermarkets and other retailers will start phasing out plastic bags from January next year before the ban comes into effect next May. Although the forthcoming ban will be a positive step for the environment, the State Opposition says that there are other, bigger issues with litter that need to be addressed.
posted by anna on June 19, 2008 at 12:24 am · filed under
ABC News
Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has refused to be drawn on questions of proposed sites for a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory. He has stated that the government will wait for the results of independent scientific reports before reaching a conclusive decision. There are currently four sites under consideration for use as a nuclear waste dump in the Northern Territory.
posted by steve on June 16, 2008 at 11:44 am · filed under
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