The Expert answers:

Reduce reuse recycle

less waste

better earth

making composite products from recyclables as to make them better.

Do we want a dirty world? AIR .WATER .LAND

I think waste management is VERY VITAL to maintaining and directing the state of affairs of the environment in which we live. Currently and futuristically. We need to keep our eyes open for improvements as to how we are handling our wastes.

The Expert answers:

‘Waste Management’ is the removal of all solid refuse from a building for disposal. If you can reduce the amount of refuse, it’s considered Minimal Waste Management. If 100% of the refuse is reduced, (from reduced demand, recycling and re-use) it would be Zero Waste Management.

The Expert answers:

Integrated wast emanagement is recycling and treatment of several different wastes in combination with each other. For example some recyclable materials are composted instead with different organic matter including sludge from waste water treatment plants. This compost is cured (aged) and then sold as a commercial product. So you’ve combined several types of waste to decrease the amount going into a regular landfill.

The Expert answers:

Paper Waste Management may be what we call recycling paper. It is making use of waste paper. People should make use of waste paper and try to recycle it into something useful.

The Expert answers:

What a fun game! I’ve been looking for a good 1st person RPG with organic waste. After sorting, do you get to kill aliens?

The Expert answers:

……….Disposing in a landfill involves burying the waste, and this remains a common practice in most countries. Landfills were often established in abandoned or unused quarries, mining voids or borrow pits. A properly-designed and well-managed landfill can be a hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials

Incineration is a disposal method that involves combustion of waste material. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are sometimes described as “thermal treatment”.

Most items are usually composed of a single type of material, making them relatively easy to recycle into new products. The recycling of complex products (such as computers and electronic equipment) is more difficult, due to the additional dismantling and separation required.

Plant material, food scraps, and paper products, can be recycled using biological composting and digestion processes to decompose the organic matter. The resulting organic material is then recycled as mulch or compost for agricultural or landscaping purposes. In addition, waste gas from the process (such as methane) can be captured and used for generating electricity. The intention of biological processing in waste management is to control and accelerate the natural process of decomposition of organic matter.

An important method of waste management is the prevention of waste material being created, also known as waste reduction. Methods of avoidance include reuse of second-hand products, repairing broken items instead of buying new, designing products to be refillable or reusable (such as cotton instead of plastic shopping bags), encouraging consumers to avoid using disposable products

Education and awareness in the area of waste and waste management is increasingly important from a global perspective of resource management. The Talloires Declaration is a declaration for sustainability concerned about the unprecedented scale and speed of environmental pollution and degradation, and the depletion of natural resources. Local, regional, and global air pollution; accumulation and distribution of toxic wastes; destruction and depletion of forests, soil, and water; depletion of the ozone layer and emission of “green house” gases threaten the survival of humans and thousands of other living species, the integrity of the earth and its biodiversity, the security of nations, and the heritage of future generations. Several universities have implemented the Talloires Declaration by establishing environmental management and waste management programs, e.g. The waste management university project. University and vocational education are promoted by various organizations, e.g. WAMITAB and Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. Many supermarkets encourage customers to use their reverse vending machines to deposit used purchased containers and receive a refund from the recycling fees. Brands that manufacture such machines include Tomra and Envipco.

The Expert answers:

The first step is to call your waste management service to see if you have a curbside recycling program. If you do, you can probably get one. Wheter or no it is free depends on where you live, you can ask that to.

You could find the waste management center in your phone book.

If you are looking for a place to recycle a specific material try
http://earth911.org/

The Expert answers:

Because of science, wastes are recycled and reused. ^_^

The Expert answers:

Well if HEMP were legal instead of plastic manmade now setting in them forever products from hemp would biodegrade to soil or fertilizer again. From car bodies like the first model T (10% stronger body than steel) to cellophane hemp could be a non polluting way to manufacture every day products that would reduce the landfills by both actually degrading and by the amount of waste that can’t go right into recycling and reuse

The Expert answers:

There are two types of plastics; Thermoplastic plastics, and thermoset plastics.

Thermoplastics are recyclable to a limited extent. The long chains that give the plastic it’s desirable properties tend to bind or break every time the plastic is recycled, so it can only be recycled for the same use to a limited extent.

Thermosets, and recycled thermoplastics can be somewhat reduced by solvents, but the solvents themselves are usually harmful to the environment. The resulting gels from these solvents are not always useful either.

In the facility where I work, we manufacture Polyurethane, a thermoset plastic, as part of a total production process. The scrap polyurethane is disposed of at cement factories where it is burned to turn limestone components into cement. I believe there is some work in ultrasonics to try to better recycle these materials, but it currently takes much more energy to reduce these plastics to their base components than it takes to simply make new plastics. I am sure that eventually it will be cheaper to recycle.

The Expert answers:

They recycle by the grade of the plastic. All your water and soda bottles are a #1 plastic (look on the bottom of container and there is a # 1-7 inside a triangle. Most places will not pay you for your milk jugs. Bring all materials to recycler and he/she will help you. Once or twice and you’ll be a pro!! Oh, you dont have to remove labels or caps.

The Expert answers:

Reduce>Reuse>Recycle

Reduce: Some store managers will allow you to bring in your own beverage container of the appropriate size. In fact, they have in the past given out refillable commemorative cups.

Reuse: I use the large cups to start tomato and other plants. Poke out a few holes along the bottom of the cup and you have a planter. Set the cup in a tuna can or yogurt container to catch the water that drains from the cup. The clear domed lids on fraps make cups into excellent little green houses.

Recycle: After you plan, rinse the plastic off in a bucket of water destine to be used for the garden. Sort the clean plastic and metal cans to the appropriate recycle bin.

The Expert answers:

Plastic bags will last for hundreds of years if they are buried in landfills in fairly anaerobic conditions. If left out in full sun, they’ll actually break down in a matter of weeks.

However, what they break down into isn’t necessarily an improvement. At least in anaerobic conditions, we know exactly where the bags are. Sigh.

The best solution is not to use plastic bags at all, of course. Next best solution is to find a way to re-use them, either as-is (for example, shredded finely and used as fluffy insulation in clothing & bedding), or re-worked into something else (ex: heated & blended, and made into flexible roadside reflector-posts on fast roads — they do that in Australia).

I saw a short documentary on this a while ago. The cleverest idea, I thought, was developed by a guy who saw that different types of plastics can be re-worked to make materials with specific characteristics, but that most haven’t got enough desirable characteristics to be re-made into anything that’s actually useful.

So he worked with two second-use plastics: one had flexibility, but stretched out too much — that is, it would bend or twist, but it would get thinner and weaker all the while. The other plastic had virtually no flexibility, in fact it was as stiff and immovable as stone — it was also very strong overall, but broke easily under localized stress (stress on one or two points). Unfortunately, there was no way to blend these two plastics to come up with a product that had the best features of both materials.

Eventually, though, this guy worked out a system of *physically* blending the plastics, instead of chemically. He came up with a way of making interlocking units of the two plastics that, once they were all locked in place, couldn’t be pulled apart — and the resulting composite had the best of both worlds. The system works so well that he’s demonstrated structural components for buildings made with it, and even bridge girders that will handle tank traffic.

It’s just too bad that we’ve recognized the need to keep waste plastics from cluttering up the world *before* we developed useful things to actually use these plastics *for.* Better late than never, I suppose.

I suppose the “good” news (?!) is that we still have *hundreds of years* in which to continue exercising our ingenuity. 😀

The Expert answers:

Many supermarkets have recycle bins where you can put the used plastic grocery bags. A little known fact: you can also put the plastic rings from six-packs in these recycle bins! Most places that recycle the plastic bags will reuse the six-pack rings as well!

The Expert answers:

Call your local recycling program or municipality and ask about these bags. Most plastic bags are recyclable although they may not have the recycling symbol.
Also, don’t forget that rather than recycling, you can reduce and reuse. This is the most important thing in the concept of recycling. I know you said that they are not in the condition to be reused (as bags?) but maybe try this link. It has 61 uses for plastic bags. 🙂
http://www.truckerphoto.com/wallyworldbag.htm

Think green ? Purple!!!

The Expert answers:

The common process that is used in recycling plastic is the inverse polymerization process where the polymers in the plastic are converted into initial monomers that were used in the manufacture. These chemicals are then purified and synthesized to form new plastic materials. Assorted polymers are converted into petroleum in another recycling process. The advantage of this process is that any mix of polymers can be used. A new recycling process generates heat from the friction of plastic materials which melts the plastics. This is then pumped into casting moulds. The great advantage of this technique is that all types of plastics can be recycled.

The Expert answers:

London Borough of Bromley gives us a bin with two sections, one side for plastic drinks and detergent bottles and the other side for tins and glass jars. When the dustmen empty these recycling bins, they tip the whole lot back in together.

Bromley was given a very large government award last year for good waste recycling percentage results (30%) which they ploughed back into the site and they’re testing sorting machines with a view to buying one for £100K.

They send us news letters telling us where all the recycled waste is sent for processing. Our plastics are sent to a local plant and used for household products.

If we fail to recycle in this way, they will charge us for our collections. They collect once a fortnight on the same day as the general waste which is taken weekly but there’s now less of that of course.

I get the impression they’re working towards a fortnightly collection in the future.

The Expert answers:

When you take paper, plastics, metals, glass, and other recyclables, you place them into recycle bins. These bins are then emptied into collection bins, like those that you or your building places into a street or alley. A recycling truck, almost identical to a garbage truck will collect these recyclables and ship them to a recycling facility.

There, depending on how your area recycles, the recyclables are dumped out and sorted, sometimes by hand, usually by machine. A huge magnet picks up any metals, where they are sorted again. They are melted and remolded to make new cans, or other metal products. Paper is sifted out after going through a wall of many vertical ‘discs’, and is blended into pulp, and remolded once again into paper or cardboard. Newspaper, cardboard, and plastics are also recycled the same. Glass bottles are smashed and ground into sand, and reheated and remolded again into new bottles.

Depending on the facility near you, the recycling plant may do this here, or in a foreign nation like China. The recycled materials, may be sold to a company, like Coca-Cola.

The Expert answers:

A similar situation is already happening in many cases. Around where I live, there’s a problem with people digging into recycling bins and taking the cans. Sometimes they are neat about it, more often they leave a mess. The recycling companies count on the income from the recycling in order to offer curbside pickup. There is also a problem with people stealing aluminum and copper, especially from construction sites.

There won’t be total chaos, and we do already have laws in place against stealing. We also have laws in place that require scrapyards to get ID from people who are selling large lots of metal, in case that metal was stolen.

The Expert answers:

Spot metal prices (current price on the open market) and the price you can get at your local recycling center are HUGELY different. Check your local scrap yard and/or recycling center for the price they are offering. If you have large amounts of metal (tons) you might be able to get a contract with a primary metal producer who consumes scrap–assumes you have a business/business license. Spot metal prices can be gotten at the web addresses below (among others).

The Expert answers:

Not in WA unless they are already crushed. In Oregon I usually go to Safeway. They can’t be crushed there. There are 18 clean 12 oz. Cans per pound of aluminum. If aluminum prices are above 90c/pound you would do better recycling them for scrap than for 5c.

The Expert answers:

The price of used aluminum is high enough that certain individuals have recycling machines set out for environmentally conscience but naive people to place this valuable resource so that they can turn around and make $$$ from the recycles. Take your cans to a local center as a donation so that your bottles and plastic and papers (recycling them are either borderline profitable or recycled at a loss) can also be recycled.

The Expert answers:

Glass is collected and sold by the ton. Price depends on the color, the type of glass and sizing. Clear container glass which has been sized (crushed) into small chunks can bring about 60 CND per ton. Mixed color scrap glass can bring as little as 2 CND per ton.

If you’re not planning to recycle these large quantities of glass and just want to send your glass on to a better place, check your local phone directory under recycling.

The Expert answers:

As we do not know what size you consider “regular”, this is a hard question to answer. Nor do we know what size cans you mean, could be the Coke mini-s, or the 24 oz cans, but for the sake of a discussion, lets use the medium size lawn bag. It holds about 300 cans, which are about 8-9 pounds of scrap aluminium, and you have 10 bags, so lets say 85 pounds total.

In my area, aluminium is 40 cents a pound, so your looking at $34.00.

Let me brighten your day a little though.

Pull the tabs off the cans, those 3,000 tabs are worth another $12 on E-Bay to people who use them for arts and crafts (considerably more if you drink energy drinks, or Monster), while only lowering your recycle value by $1

The Expert answers:

I don’t know how they are bought, but prices vary depending on state. It says on the can how much you will get for it. There was an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer an Newman collected thousands of cans and tried to bring them to the next state to get more money, but wasted the extra profits in gas just to get there. If it says “non-redeemable” on the can, then you’re probably in a state that doesn’t let you sell them.

The Expert answers:

For current and historical scrap metal prices go to Demolition, Scrap Metal and Salvage News

The website provides Free Current US Scrap Metal Prices as well as discusses the current U.S. Scrap metal prices, copper prices, scrap metal recycling, demolition business and projects, current scrap metal prices, scrap metal market, wrecking and building demolition projects, benefits of concrete crushing, equipment salvage tips, and demolition safety.

The Expert answers:

We take them to the scrap yard (or metal recycling center) beer and soda cans in our area (PA) go for 65 cents a pound currently. Scrap prices change all the time.

PS – its better to crush your cans, it takes a lot of cans to get the money.

The Expert answers:

Holiday craft ideas, infomation on making crafts with recycled materials, photo craft instructions, and craft gift ideas.http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft

Features a variety of fun, printable children’s crafts, coloring pages, and more including projects for holidays and educational themes.http://www.dltk-kids.com

Crafts for kids. Kindergarten, preschool, and elementary school crafts. Make … Crafts for Kids, the home of fun & creative craft projects for kids 7-12 …http://www.craftsforkids.com

Easy craft projects for kids and everyone in the family, and crafts for every reason and season. … Crafts Gifts to Make Glossary of Craft Terms Product …http://www.familycrafts.about.com/index.htm?once=true

The Expert answers:

Recycled clothing crafts – http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf693151.tip.html
Recycle your clothes into new fashions http://diyfashion.about.com/od/recycledprojects/tp/Recycle-Your-Clothes.htm

The Expert answers:

How aboooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuut. Dumpster Divers I kinda like it! I’d shop at a store with that name, just outa pure curiosity! Good luck in choosing and happy ‘crafting’!!

The Expert answers:

Recycling craft materials is the easiest way to be Eco-friendly while crafting.

For example, a milk carton birdhouse. It’s a craft, that recycles materials, and furthermore helps the earth by helping the birds. These can be decorated in many ways, not just how the one here is shown:
http://www.howcast.com/videos/307-How-To-Make-a-Milk-Carton-Birdhouse

Here’s another one. Make a Solar Lamp. It’s pretty and useful, take a look:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4yH4A1/dornob.com/diy-solar-lamp-make-your-own-eco-friendly-sun-jars/

Here are some great things you can make from recycled paper, like newspapers, magazines, and even toilet paper rolls:
http://cheepideas.com/2010/04/recycled-paper-crafts/

Have any tin cans from soups, coffee, tuna, cat food, etc? Have a restaurant nearby (they often throw out these cans every day, you could ask for them.) Check out what you can make!
Http://cheepideas.com/2010/02/12-tin-can-crafts/

Drink soda? Keep the bottles. Check out what you can make with the bottoms:
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/03/how-to_turn_soda_bottles_into.html
And a slice from the middle can make this fun bracelet:
http://www.craftypod.com/2007/05/08/i-used-to-drink-out-of-my-bracelet/
Or these gorgeous beads that look like glass:
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/recyle_and_make_your_own_beads
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/plastic_bottle_beads_3

Paper mache bowls:
http://thelulubird.blogspot.com/2009/05/paper-mache-bowls.html

A paper star bracelet

YA won’t let me add more links, but there are so many more ideas out there. If you don’t like anything I suggested, here’s my favorite craft website for further inspiration:
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/

Enjoy your crafts, and Happy New Year!:
~Clarkie

The Expert answers:

Ask the children to bring in empty packaging from home as a small homework task. Sort through th items brought in with the children talking about what can be recycled and why we should recycle. More importantly what recycling means.
Allow the children to make collages using the varoius types of materials which can be recycled.
You could make this into a display. You could also do junk modelling with the packaging.

The Expert answers:

There are a few things that you can do to a recycled glass bottle. You can put green and blue paint inside the bottle and wave the bottle around and let the colors spread and connect with one another. You could also paint the outside of the bottle blue or green and decorate it with stickers; or you could drill a hole in the bottle at the end and add blue, green, or white Christmas lights! I collect glass bottles and I love doing crafts with them.

The Expert answers:

How about taking old magazines or newspaper rolling up and cutting down from the top about half way to create strips. Then pull the paper up from the centre. Fix, you have a tree or a pompom (like cheerleaders type) to dance with. Magazine are better because they are more colourful.

Also bottles with patterns on can be used as an instrument if you run a stick along the sides so not just shakers.

You can make a simple puppet from an egg box. Cut off the top and paint as the body. Use some egg cup pieces as feet and another for the head. (the children can just paint them and stick on eyes). You can string them together and fix to lolly sticks. This provides so much for the children’s development. Not only is it an art and craft activity, but also can encourage imagination, language and be used in role play afterwards. It can also fit in with a theme IE for say farm animals the children can make cows, sheep(stick on cotton wool) and pigs etc

Use card board tubes from cling wrap, foil etc as telescope for pretend play.

Roll up magazine pages tightly and glue. When dry cut into small lengths. Then thread on lengths of wool to make bracelets and necklaces. Great for hand eye co-ordination.

Help the children to make colourful envelopes from old magazines to send cards for Christmas.

Hope these help, always love finding new thing to make with the kids 🙂

The Expert answers:

Re–Creative
Re-Crafted
The Art of the Phoenix
Artistry-Cycled
Jewelry-Born

🙂

The Expert answers:

I can’t think of any place that will buy your old jeans. You can donate to may organizations and it can be tax deductible.

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO WITH THOSE BLUE JEANS….

Why not make some crafts from them and
Sell the crafts you have made .

For example………….

You could cut off the legs and make a pillow out of the the top part. Sew up the leg parts and the waist band and stuff it through the zipper.

Made purses out of old jeans. Cut off just under the crotch of the jeans, and cut in half so that when you sew it together, you have the zipper and button, as well as the back and side pockets. (You can use the side pockets that have the smaller “watch” pocket inside the larger one…Women need space you know) The top was narrower than the bottom but you could always undo the zipper. You can decorate with odd buttons and bells sewn on, and the strap can be an old pair of beads, cut in one spot and the two ends sewn on inside the top lip of the purse. Use any mismatched buttons your grandma collected and the pink beads you got in ’86 that you know you’ll never wear again. Have fun with it.

Take a pair of old jeans that are still not too faded and use them to make Christmas stockings. Just use the legs to cut out the main stocking. Cut an inside lining out of printed fabric of your choice. Sew it together and fold the inside lining down. Put on a jeans pocket and any other decoration you want on the front.

Jean Backpack
Take your jeans and cut them off two inches below the crotch. Turn them inside out and sew. Sew over the first stitches once more for strength. Take a cool bandanna or scarf and thread through belt loops to make a drawstring closure. Cut strips off the unused portion of jean and make straps. Enjoy!
Save old blue jeans. Cut out the bad parts.
Cut the rest into 8 inch squares.
Sew together. Use an old blanket for filling.
Tie together with red yarn.

I bet if you do some research you can find a lot more craft items to make from old bluejeans!

The Expert answers:

Pathology, microbiology, blood bank and other diagnostic laboratories generate sizable amount of biomedical waste (BMW). The audit of the BMW is required for planning proper strategies. The audit in our laboratory revealed 8 kgs anatomical waste, 600 kgs microbiology waste, 220 kgs waste sharps, 15 kgs soiled waste, 111 kgs solid waste, 480 litres liquid waste along with 33000 litres per month liquid waste generated from labware washing and laboratory cleaning and 162 litres of chemical waste per month. Section wise details are described in the text. Needle sharps are collected in puncture proof containers and the needles autoclaved before sending to needle pit. The glass forms the major sharp category and is disinfected with hypochlorite before washing/recycling. All microbiology waste along with containers/plates/tubes are autoclaved before recycling/disposal. The problem of formalin fixed anatomical waste as histology specimens is pointed out. The formalin containing tissues cannot be sent for incineration for the fear of toxic gas release and the guidelines by the Biomedical waste rule makers need to be amended for the issue. The discarded/infected blood units in blood bank need to be autoclaved before disposal since chemical treatments are difficult or inefficient. The liquid waste management needs more attention and effluent treatment facility needs to be viewed seriously for hospital in general. The segregation of waste at source is the key step and reduction, reuse and recycling should be considered in proper perspectives.
All pathology, microbiology laboratories and blood banks are governed by the regulations of biomedical waste (BMW) management rules, 1998.[1] However, authorization for handling and management is required for the laboratories with a patient attendance of more than 1000 per month.[2]

Microbiologists often are expected to take a lead in programs such as hospital infection control and biomedical waste management. Biomedical waste programs have been largely discussed in India with reference to overall hospital waste management but pathology and microbiology laboratories generate a significant proportion of biomedical waste and have not received much attention. The present article is focused on biomedical waste generated in the laboratories and the practices required in their management.

Ten categories of biomedical waste have been described in schedule I of BMW rules 1998 [Table – 1].

Human anatomical waste is usually generated in operation theatres but a number of specimens are sent to the pathology department for diagnosis. Hence it is a liability of the laboratory to dispose the tissues as biomedical waste. Category 2 (animal waste), category 5 (discarded medicines and cytotoxic drugs) and category 9 (incineration ash) are not generated in a pathology laboratory. Microbiology waste generated in the form of specimen, cultures, tubes and plates used in identification and drug sensitivity test and stock cultures have perhaps the highest infectious potential. However, autoclaving has been a time-tested method of disinfection of microbiology waste. Among waste sharps (category 4) the quantity of glass in pathology is more than needle sharps and category 6 (soiled waste) is a small quantity in form of cotton balls used while blood collection or used as absorbent material for accidental blood and body fluid spillage. Category 7 is the solid waste mainly from disposable items other than sharps for example tubings, tubes and containers used for blood and other pathological samples, blood collection sets in blood bank and blood bags. Category 8 includes liquid waste generated while washing of laboratory waste and processing of samples on the analysers. Category 10 is the chemical waste generated while testing and analysis.

Audit of biomedical waste is required to understand the type and quantity of waste generated. It helps in formulation of the plan for segregation, waste handling and management.

Choithram hospital and research centre, Indore is a tertiary care centre in central India. The daily outpatient department (OPD) attendance of patients is 475 while average bed occupancy is around 250 beds. The audit presented here is based on a study carried out during June to November 2002 in the pathology department. The pathology department is further divided into sections like sample collection, blood bank, biochemistry, haematology, bacteriology, endocrinology, immunology, clinical pathology and histopathology. The solid biomedical waste was weighed on weighing machines (kilograms) and liquid was measured in volumes (litres).

~ Non infectious waste

Non infectious waste from the pathology department in form of stationary and printed material was 120 kgs/month while packing material cartons, paper, thermocol and plastic was 60 kgs/month. It has been a practice to collect and send the waste paper once a week to central stores for shredding and it is sold for recycling. The non infectious waste needs to be segregated at source to prevent mix up with the infectious waste. Improper segregation will unnecessary increase the load of infectious waste.

~ Waste stream from pathology department

The inventory of biomedical waste from each section of pathology department is as in [Table – 2]. The quantum of waste in different sections is detailed in [Table – 3].

~ Pathology BMW versus total hospital biomedical waste

Pathology department forms an important support service section for a tertiary care centre. A comparison of biomedical waste generated vis à vis the total hospital biomedical waste is shown in [Table – 4].

~ Sample collection section

On an average 100-125 patients from OPD visit our sample collection area for giving blood samples and other specimens like urine, stool, sputum etc. Samples from admitted patients are collected by pathology or nursing staff and sent to pathology laboratory. The blood samples are collected in vacutainers. The vacutainer system is expensive than the blood collection by syringe and needle and adding blood samples to in-house anticoagulant /plain containers. However, accidental blood spillages have practically been eliminated after the collection of blood samples by vacutainers. Further, the sample remains sterile and proportion of anticoagulants are constant. However, the vacutainer needles cannot be mutilated conveniently and need to be capped carefully by keeping the cap on the table surface and pushing the needle in it without touching the cap and then fitting the cap. The training needs to be thorough and in our department not a single incidence of needle prick occurred in the last 5 years as against several incidences in the wards while using conventional syringes and needles.

The conventional needles are partly mutilated by burning over the electric needle destroyer. All the partly burnt needles and vacutainer needles are collected in blue puncture proof containers. The needles from different sections of the hospital are collected centrally by a deputed person. Needles and sharps from the blue containers from wards and labs are transferred to metal box carried on a trolley. The supervisory staff in all the wards and laboratory have to sign a register circulated by the deputed person as part of documentation system. The needles from all over the hospital are collected in the metal box and passed on to the microbiology laboratory for autoclaving in disposal autoclave and the autoclaved needles are transported to burial pit for needle disposal. Autoclaving was started instead of chemical disinfection with 1 % hypochlorite as research conducted at our end has shown the limitations of hypochlorite.[3] The needle burial pit is a cemented tank with a lock and key system. The blood contaminated cotton swabs form a small amount of solid soiled waste of pathology laboratory. It is discarded in red bags which are incinerated. A documentation register has been made for the blood contaminated cotton swabs as category 6 and blood collection sets as category 7.

~ Bacteriology

All the culture plates, drug sensitivity plates, culture material with bacterial growth in liquid or solid media in tubes, bottles and plates and specimens from patients are collected in stainless steel trays which are directly loaded in to autoclave. The autoclave holding time is 1.5 hours at 121°C (15 lbs psi). The melted media and liquids in the containers (after autoclaving) are emptied in stainless steel buckets and the plastic/glass containers are washed and reused. Microscopic slides used in microbiology are also autoclaved in disposal autoclave before discarding as glass sharps and sent for recycling of glass. The material not required for further reuse in the laboratory is transported to central stores for recycling. The plastic glass material is segregated and the contractor transports the same for recycling.

It is important to note that all the organic matter collected from autoclaved containers (600 kg/month) is added to a microbiology manure pit for manure making. This also includes the discarded blood units (HIV, HBV and HCV reactive units or contaminated and expired units). Our earlier work had pointed out the limitations of the use of hypochlorite and difficulties with formaldehyde for the disinfection of blood units.[4] Autoclaving was found to be the best way of decontamination of blood units before disposal. Further, documentation of quality assurance tests for autoclaving are essential. The chemical sterilization indicator tape is used for every cycle and biological indicator is used once in 15 days at our end. The autoclave is fitted with thermograph. The documentation register which is daily submitted to director medical services has the following columns :date, weight of load, pressure and temperature attained.

~ Biochemistry

The section receives approximately 250 blood samples in vacutainers. Samples for sugar testing are spun and plasma at the top pipetted out directly for tests over autolab analyser. The plasma/serum from the samples for other tests are separated and stored in 4 mL polypropylene storage vials. Bulk of the biochemistry tests are run over Hitachi 04, Detona autoanalyser and Elite electrolyte analyser. Biochemistry analysers require approximately 300 microcups. Post analysis plasma/ serum/blood from various containers is decanted carefully into stainless steel kettle and the containers with residual blood/plasma are discarded in buckets containing 10 litres of 1% hypochlorite. This practice is adopted because our earlier work has shown that hypochlorite gets masked with blood and huge volumes of hypochlorite will be required.[5] After 1 hour immersion of the containers in hypochlorite, the disposable containers are sent to central stores for disposal. The containers which are to be reused are taken up for washing. The residual hypochlorite used for disinfection is drained into sink. The blood/plasma/serum decanted in stainless steel kettles is autoclaved in disposal autoclave in microbiology before disposing it to manure pit. Biochemistry laboratory uses about 500 microtips which are also disinfected with hypochlorite before reuse or disposal as plastic waste. Glass tubes used for biochemical analysis are also disinfected with hypochlorite before washing. Blood samples for blood gas analysers are received in syringes capped with needles. The needle portions are discarded as sharps and the plastic syringes as plastic waste (detailed in sample collection section).

~ Haematology

About 125 samples in vacutainers are received daily in haematology. The vacutainers containing blood are treated for disinfection with hypochlorite as detailed in biochemistry section. Almost 150 blood smear slides covered with immersion oil accumulate in haematology every day. These slides are boiled with detergent and washed and reused in clinical pathology and blood bank. ESR is performed in disposable polystyrene westergreen tubes and discarded in red polythene bags which are sent for incineration. Prickers and capillaries for bleeding time and clotting time are discarded in blue colored puncture proof containers and disposed off as sharps as mentioned in collection section.

~ Clinical pathology

About 100 urine samples and 40 stool samples are received daily. Urine and stool is flushed in toilet and the containers are sent to central hypochlorite tank of the hospital. After hypochlorite treatment the plastic containers are sent as plastic waste. The polypropylene tubes used for centrifuging urine samples are decontaminated with hypochlorite before washing and reusing.

~ Endocrinology and immunology

These sections receive about 150 samples daily and the general handling and disposal is as detailed in biochemistry section. The department has voluntary testing and counselling centre for AIDS and infectious disease. Screening for blood bank is also carried out in the immunology section. Radio immuno assay laboratory follows the guidelines of radiation protection committee of BARC. Briefly the liquid radioactive waste Iodine125 is kept for 3 months before draining into the sinks. The plastic waste contaminated with radioactivity is stored for 3 months before decontaminating with hypochlorite and disposed as plastic waste. It needs to be mentioned that RIA laboratory has to primarily follow the guidelines from radiation protection committee.

~ Histopathology

Total quantity of anatomical waste in the form of histopathological specimens is around 8 kgs/month. The BMW rule has no option other than incineration for the anatomical waste. However, the rule also states that no chemical treatment needs to be given for the material which is incinerated. The tissues in histopathology are fixed in formalin and as a result are free of live organisms of any type but formalin treatment makes it unfit for incineration and toxic gases are likely to be released on incineration. The BMW rule makers must look into this anomaly and an alternative needs to be suggested. The reasons for incineration of anatomical waste appear to be aesthetic and sentimental. It is feared that cremation will not be accepted by communities. At our end, we wash the tissues with water to remove formalin and then send in yellow bags for incineration. Even if alternatives like burial is suggested in the BMW rules, thorough washing of tissues to remove free formalin is necessary to allow biodegradation during burial. Histopathology section also generates hazardous chemical waste like formalin and xylene. BMW rule has not clarified the disposal of such chemicals.

~ Blood bank

On an average 800 – 900 units of blood is collected every month and 60% of the units are given as blood components. Approximately 80 units are discarded as reactive for HIV/HBsAg/HCV or contamination/reactions to recipients and expired units. These discarded units are sent to disposal autoclave in microbiology. The reasons for selection of autoclaving as against chemical disinfection with hypochlorite or formalin have been explained earlier. After autoclaving, the blood is sent for manure making and plastic material as category 7 waste for shredding.

Disposal of sharps is an important BMW issue in blood banks. Lancets or prickers used for rapid blood group screens and the needles of donor sets form the major sharps. The lancets are discarded in blue capped puncture proof containers. After blood collection, sample remaining in the tubing is aliquoted in plain and citrate tubes for infectious disease screening and cross match and the needles containing portion cut and added to sharp disposal containers. As pointed out earlier, all sharps are collected centrally, autoclaved and disposed in secured needle pit. The glass tubes and plastic tooth picks for mixing blood and reagents for blood grouping are discarded in trough containing hypochlorite. The tooth picks are subsequently discarded as plastic waste while glass slides are washed and reused.

The glass tubes and blood containing materials are disinfected and washed as mentioned in biochemistry section. The blood donor sets, after cutting out the needle parts, are discarded in metal boxes which are sent for autoclaving in microbiology disposal autoclave before sending the plastic for disposal. This practice of autoclaving is used because the blood containing tubings, being made of polyvinyl chloride, cannot be incinerated as incineration of PVC material leads to release of toxic dioxins.

~ Liquid waste

Liquid waste generated from laboratory washing, cleaning and disinfecting activities has to be disinfected by chemical treatment before discharging in drain. However, it is not practical to disinfect huge volumes of liquid waste as seen in [Table – 4]. Instead, the practice of disinfection for blood containers is a better approach. Blood samples received for analysis are carefully decanted in metal kettles and are autoclaved in disposal autoclave. The small amount of residual blood in the containers is disinfected by hypochlorite. The routine washing procedures (after disinfection of the labware contaminated with blood or body fluids) could be discharged in the drain. However, hospital liquid waste is likely to contain pathogens and noteworthy have been the multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens.[6] In view of this, the hospitals in cities, where central municipal effluent treatment plants are not available, can have their own effluent treatment facility. We have installed effluent treatment plant which can treat over 3 lakh litres of effluent and makes available 3 lakh litres of treated water that can be used for sanitary cleaning and green belt irrigation.

~ Chemical waste

It includes chemicals used in testing and processing during analysis and also chemicals used in disinfection. Chemical treatment with hypochlorite has been suggested for chemical waste treatment in BMW rule but we consider this inappropriate since treatment with agent like hypochlorite cannot neutralize the chemical waste. More practical and appropriate approach needs to be decided in the BMW rules. Presently, the final dilution of drain needs to be considered. The audit of the chemicals used in our laboratory is displayed in [Table – 5]. The total volume of hospital effluent per day is around 3 lakh litres and hence the final dilution appears to be very high.

~ Emphasis on recycling

Recycling of disinfected waste needs to be emphasized and the new amendments in BMW in this regard are expected shortly. The autoclavable plastics, glass tubes and petri plates after disinfection can be washed and reused. The disinfected plastic waste could be shredded and then passed on for plastic recycling. For the fear of the use of duplicated supplies or unauthorized usage, the mutilation or shredding of glass is also suggested in the BMW rules. However, shredding of glass bottles results in to sharps that are likely to be hazardous while collection and handling. Hence, we feel that the glass bottles, if contaminated, could be disinfected but mechanical crushing could be avoided before sending for recycling.

The main problem arises for the disposal of sharps such as needles. Presently burial in secured pits has been suggested in BMW rules. However, smelting for metal extraction needs to be persued as an alternative.

~ Practice for smaller laboratory setups

The detailed practice for larger hospital laboratories is mentioned above. The smaller laboratory setups, including those which cater to patient population of less than 1000 per month, need no authorization for biomedical waste but they are also supposed to follow the guidelines of biomedical waste rules.

All the needle sharps could be mutilated and discarded in puncture proof containers which could be handed over to common central biomedical waste management facility. In absence of common facility, the sharps could be discarded in metal container which can be disinfected in oven/autoclave and sent to secured landfill.

The blood/body fluid soaked cotton/gauze could be discarded in coloured polythene bag which could be sent to common facility or autoclaved and then the material sent as general non infectious waste.

The practice of careful decanting of infectious waste like blood and body fluid samples into a metal kettle and then disinfecting the containers containing small amount of liquid waste by immersion in 1% hypochlorite before washing the containers should be practiced. The kettles containing blood/body fluids could be autoclaved before discarding the waste as non infectious material. The gloves used in the laboratory could also be disinfected with hypochlorite before mutilating and disposal.

Histopathology specimens could be washed with water to remove formalin and then sent in yellow polythene bags to central common facility for incineration. The most important infectious material is bacteriology waste in the form of cultures/samples and needs to be autoclaved before washing/disposal.

Finally, we all must remember that the proper BMW management is the responsibility of the generators of waste and it is our moral duty to take care of the waste so that ourselves, our staff members and the community at large is protected from the risks of hazards of biomedical waste.

The Expert answers:

Mechanical recycling of plastics refers to processes which involve the melting, shredding or granulation of waste plastics.
Http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Plastics.htm#_Hows

www.cleanup.com.au/PDF/au/cua-plastic-recycling-fact-sheet.pdf
www.ccc.govt.nz/waste/recycling/plastic.asp – 17k
earth911.org/recycling/plastic-bottle-recycling – 30k
www.perc.ca/waste-line/rrr/plastic/ – 8k
www.container-recycling.org/plastic_rates.htm – 34k

The Expert answers:

What do you want to recycle? Metals, paper, beverage containers, contruction materials, yard waste, wood, e-waste? Need to be more specific. So many things can be recycled but first think of reuse before recycle. Better for the environment and the economy. Reply and I can help.

The Expert answers:

The most overlooked by far is the need to reuse over recycle.

Recycling is a good thing to do, don’t get me wrong, but when you are able to reuse an item instead of put it out to the curb you are saving lots of fossil fuels.

Recycling uses resources by way of transporting the goods to the plant, the electricity and materials needed to break down the product, and energy/fuel/resources to then turn it back into a usable item.

Try turning old milk containers into planters. Old cans into containers for coins, nuts & bolts, nails, screws, etc. Some things like InkJet cartridges simply can’t be reused, and recycling them is an awesome thing to do. Most other things just need a little creativity to implement into your household.

Recycling is definitely a good thing to do when you can, but reusing an item cuts out TONS of fossil fuels, pollution/pollutants, contaminants, and hazardous waste.

The Expert answers:

The answer to this will depend on how much surplus / waste materials you have as you can get specialist waste collections whcih will not only give you special containers but also pay you to take the precious metal and other valuable forms of waste away or perhaps at no cost.

There are also many other ways of reducing waste for example:-
1) recycling bins in all offices for waste paper
2) swapping all bulbs . Lamps for low energy versions
3) turning excessive copier print outs into notepads on the reverse
4) swapping industrial pumps and fans to low energy variants
5) reviewing all your internal processes to see where you create waste
6) reviewing you packaging policy as this is a huge way to reduce cost and waste

If you need anymore help drop me a mail.

The Expert answers:

Find out what items your local recycling center recycles and takes! Most only take certain plastics so find out and don’t just throw any kind of plastic in the bin.

Most glass jars and items are okay to recycle

aluminum cans, most cans and bottles say recycle on them so always read labels…

You can also learn to reuse and conserve on top of recycling… Plastic utensils that you get from fast food places can be reused, take them home and reuse them, containers, etc.

Unplug things at home when you don’t use them often and turn off lights when you’re not using them. Turn off water and don’t waste when showering and brushing your teeth and washing the dishes…

A little goes a long way, not only is it better for the environment, but it saves money…

The Expert answers:

When I first got into recycling, my first steps were recognizing what I use a lot of that produces waste (ie, packaged foods, buying small packages of groceries, etc). I started buying fewer prepackaged foods and buying in bulk and reusing smaller containers. This reduced my trips to the dump by quite a bit.

If you’re already past this point, or if it doesn’t apply to your lifestyle, try looking in the yellow pages for recycling centers near you. See what products they recycle (ie, food or soda cans, white paper, glossy paper, plastics, etc) and start recycling your junk mail and save your cans when you’re done.

Another good place to start is to buy used stuff when possible. This can save you money and save someone else’s old stuff from ending up in the landfill. Start by registering on www.freecycle.org, and look around on www.craigslist.org before you head to the store.

Hope this helps. Happy recycling.

The Expert answers:

Recycling aerosol cans depends upon whether the container is empty or still has liquid inside of it. If the product is empty, you have the option of dropping it off in a bin designated for steel or aluminum at your local recycling facility or in your curbside bin if it is accepted. Thousands of communities across the U.S. Have household drop off locations and/or curbside buy-backs (they will give you a few cents for each returned can). First, here are some key points to remember:

Be sure that the can is empty. This means that all of the product has to be used up.
Dispose of the empty cans using your curbside pick up service or by visiting your local drop off centers. It is best to touch base with your local centers to be sure they accept this type of product for recycling.
NEVER throw aerosol cans in roadside dumps or trash fires. These cans are still pressurized and can explode.
But what happens if your container is not empty? If your product is defective, many times the manufacturer will allow you to return the product to them, free of charge so that they can supply you with a replacement product. As long as there is liquid in the container, the aerosol can is not considered waste, but product.

If your container is not defective, there are very few options. Do not puncture cans, drain, rinse and then recycle. This is dangerous since the contents in the can are under pressure. Once the container is punctured, you could be injured. Another option would be to contact your local recycling facility to see if they will accept partially filled cans. Many times, they may have a way of draining these containers. You may also contact a hazardous waste facility for proper disposal.

It is extremely important that aerosol cans are recycled for a number of reasons. However, one of the most important is safety. When aerosol cans are thrown into landfills, they become a hazard. If a fire were to break out, these contains could explode and cause physical harm to landfill workers and fire fighters. Therefore, please take the extra step to recycle

The Expert answers:

As for low level radioactive waste, such as medical equipment, etc. There is currently a project in New Mexico called the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) where containers of low level radioactive waste are stored in a mined out salt dome. Salt has the property of being pretty plastic. So once mined, it will immediately start to “flow” to fill in the mine. So once the containers are placed in the mine it isn’t too long before the salt moves in around and entombs/isolates the containers.

As for high level radiation, that presents a bit more of a challenge. A lot of high level radiation is currently being stored at the facilities which generated it, such as nuclear power plants. This is a problems that governments around the world have been debating for some time.

The Expert answers:

Recycle them!
There are so many things that can be recycled and it does not matter the size.
Have you ever noticed that even small plastic lids have the marking for recycle??
I started recycling like 3 years ago and my family got so into it to. Before we used to filled two large trashcans full of trash, now we hardly fill one half way.
So recycle them
and thanks for thinking about doing something nice for the environment.

Like I explained to my nephews: I do it for you and for your kids when you have some.

The Expert answers:

Save the Rainforest! Recycle Aluminum!

Did you know that aluminum comes from the ore Bauxite? And that bauxite is mined in the rainforest?

Every time you throw away an aluminum can, that’s one less that is being recycled, and one more can’s worth of bauxite that needs to be mined from the rainforest. The bad thing about mining bauxite, just like any other ore, is that it is in the ground. Since bauxite is mined in the rainforest, there are tons of trees growing on top. In order to get to the bauxite, the trees have to be clear-cut and are usually burned since there main opperation is to mine the ore, not harvest lumber. This puts a lot of pollution into the air from the trees burning and the fossil fuels spent for the machinery to take them down. Once the land is clear, mining begins, burning even more fossil fuels. Then the ore is shipped to a facility that turns the ore into aluminum (another energy-expensive process) and then the aluminum is finally shiped to us (again, more energy, i.e. Fossil fuels spent) so that we can then, finally, make cans out of them.

So why don’t we just make new cans out of the old ones when we are done with them? They are already here, no need for shipping. They are free, just need to be trasported to the recycling facility. And we don’t have to cut rainforests to get more aluminum if we use what we’ve already got.

Some day we will be mining our landfills because we’ve irresponsibly and selfishly used up our resources elsewhere.

Hope this answers your question and gives you the motivation to start recycling!

The Expert answers:

Items that you can recycle are as follows

Aluminum,plastic,tires,steel,glass(all but blue-some places will take blue seperately but nothing else most will take everything else but blue),plastic(numbers 1-7)clothes,mercury,lead,copper,paper(all types except egg carton and pizza boxes–food contaminated paper can not be recycled due to the impurities it creates in the fiber–,oil(all kinds),electronic componets,zinc,tungsten(as found in light bulbs)vegetable left overs, grass clippings,water,air,furniture,batteries and so much more. *Note: Many places will accept some of these Items for a fee. The best example of this is tires, you can drop them off at a tire shop for a fee of usually 5-15 dollars per tire. Other fees imposed are usualy those items that require special handling such as mercury,lead and batteries in some places. Contact your local solid waste management company for specific details.

The Expert answers:

You can recycle cans or glass bottle. On the can and Bottles it will usually have 15¢ or 20¢ maybe more and that tell you how much you will get per item. Other things you can recycle for money would be electrical wiring anything with copper or brass . You can even recycle books, dvds, ink cartridges to online sites.

The Expert answers:

Yes, recycled paper is just mixed with a percantage of “new paper” in order to make it stronger. They do tests on the batches before they turn the pulp into paper again to see how much starch and such to add.

So, yes you can recycle recycled paper.

Heres a fun link. There are more links on the site that talks about how paper is made/recycled.
Http://www.wastenotproject.org/wheretorecycle_paper.html

The Expert answers:

1) Aluminum: http://earth911.com/metal/aluminum-can/how-are-aluminum-cans-made/
2) Can.
3) http://www.wisegeek.com/how-are-aluminum-cans-recycled.htm
4) http://earth911.com/metal/aluminum-can/how-is-an-aluminum-can-recycled/

The Expert answers:

You can find recycled water everywhere around you! Every single water molecule has been recycled millions and millions of times. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, it only changes form. Maybe your science project instructions are tricking you and it is just asking for regular water. 😉 But if it is not, you might need to clarify on what exactly you mean by recycled water, like water that came from urine and was extracted?

The Expert answers:

Yes, they do. My Recycling Center accepts whole, torn-up, or compacted/crushed aluminum cans. We even accept aluminum pet-food cans. Since they are shredded to prepare them for recycling, it doesn’t matter.

The only time you should not compact or crush your aluminum cans is if you are using one of those automatic “can-munchers” that you can find in some parking lots that pays you immediately. Compacted aluminum cans will jam those machines.

Aluminum can be recycled over and over, unlike other recyclables such as plastic, which can typically only be recycled once.

The Expert answers:

The batteries can go to a battery recycling place, they might even pay you for the lead.
The electronics can be recycled at one of those free recycling drop off’s.

The Expert answers:

Well….., RECYCLER is a system folder which is required by windows to run properly, while recycler.exe is a virus which spreads very quickly via. Removable storage devices.

The Expert answers:

C:RECYCLER is in fact the Recycle Bin. It is okay to delete it. Windows protects the folder so that it can not be deleted, but you must have a setting that shows it then.

Try to empty your recycle bin. That should empty and remove all old links to non-existing files. Windows should also recognize the folder is missing and create a new one.

Best Wishes!

The Expert answers:

I’m an avid recycler, I do a 3 pronged approach, I avoid the need to recycle by avoiding excess packaging and consider what the packaging is. I recycle as much as I can and I complete the cycle by purchasing as much recycled content as I can.

The Expert answers:

The Recycler virus is a trojan that is transferred to a computer system through an infected removable storage device such as a flash drive. This particular virus will change the drive access method on an infected machine. A user will get an error message about a missing recycler.exe file when double clicking on their local hard disk or flash drive. A variant of this virus will also corrupt some system files which can cause a computer to automatically restart shortly after startup. Removing the Recycler virus is a slow and time consuming process.

1. A computer that is affected with the Recycler virus needs to be restarted in Safe Mode. To do this press the F8 key on the keyboard during the computer’s boot up sequence. When the menu option appears on the screen select Safe Mode and press Enter on the keyboard.

2. Run an anti-spyware check on the system. This can be done by using programs such as Spy-Bot Search and Destroy, Ad-Aware and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware.

3. Run a complete virus scan on the system. There are many ant-virus programs available to choose from including Norton and McAffee as well as a free program called AVG Anti-Virus.

4. Delete the autorun.inf file from the removable storage device and the local hard drive. It may be necessary to do a right click on the drive within My Computer and then selecting Explore.

5. Do a clean-up of the system registry. A free program called RegSeeker is available that can scan and remove bad, old as well as obsolete registry entries.

6. Restart the system. All traces of the virus should be gone and the system should be running normally.

The Expert answers:

System Information / Recycler are probably folders housing your system restore files. That folder is protected and shouldn’t be deleted because you can cause corruption.

However, you can clear old restore points within that folder if you want. Sometimes malware may still be lurking in your system restore volumes so it would be in your best interests to disable system restore, reboot then re-enable system restore when you log back on. What this does is protects you from reloading the malware should you ever need to do a system restore.

Many anti-virus products cannot remove viruses from system restore thus the reason for clearing out possible infected points. For reference to this, see the link below:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial56.html#problems

There are several ways to disable system restore but the easiest is to go to Control Panel, System, System Restore tab and tick the box to “Turn off system restore on all drives”, click Apply, click OK and reboot. Follow the same steps when you log back on to re-enable system restore by removing the tickmark.

For reasons System Restore should disabled and re-enabled after and not before malware removal, see the webpage below:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks/archive/2005/09/17/66724.aspx

The Expert answers:

This is a file that has been deleted and put into the recycler bin or has been deleted for the recycler bin .

The Expert answers:

You have malware.

If when you open My COmputer, go to the tools, then folder options, there will be a View tab… There you make all invisible files, visible. You will see the three radio buttons there. Once you make all invisible files visible, look atain at each of your drives. You will see that each now has a hidden autorun.inf file. You are infected with one of the Flash Drive infections out there. Each of your drives should not have an autorun.inf file. When you double-click or open a drive, it runs whatever program is listed in that autorun.inf file. In your case, it is trying to run a file that has already been gotten rid of, but was hiding in a folder it had called “recycler”.

The short fix is to delete those autorun.inf files.

Chances are you had formatted due to an infection, but you didn’t scan and clean all your media you made backups to, and you didn’t scan and clean your thumb-drives.

As long as you get that error, you are actually ok. It means that the infection can’t find the file it needs to spread and do it’s damage.

The Expert answers:

Reboot your computer into Safe Mode, this is important as this is a memory resident virus. Do this by pressing F8 as the machine boots up and select safe mode from the DOS menu.

Once in Safe Mode, press enter to stay in safe mode, you don’t want to go to Recovery.

1. Open up windows explorer, Start>Programs>Accessories>Explorer

2. Go to (In Vista press ALT to display menus) Tools>Folder Options>View>uncheck the items below:

1>display the contents of system folders
2>hide extensions for known file types
3>hide protected operating system files(Recommended)

Leave the other items as they are.

3. Press Apply>OK.
4. Leaving windows explorer open, navigate to the root of the C: drive and remove AUTORUN.INF and any files that end in *.CMD and *.BAT excepting for AUTORUN.BAT and COMMAND.COM which are legacy files you may or may not have. Now go to C:Recycler and remove anything located in the folders that look like recycle bins, if you are on a network there will be more than one.
5. Delete all instances of the virus on your disk.

There are two or three variants of this virus, some put a file in the windows directory named SVHOSTE which is a hidden file – search for this and delete it.

6. Remove from Registry.

Open Registry Editor. Click Start>Run, type REGEDIT, then press Enter.
In the left panel, double-click the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>Microsoft>Active Setup>Installed Components

In the left panel, locate and delete the key:
{08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAX5-90401C608512}

Close REGEDIT and click on Start>Run or on Vista just type in the search box MSCONFIG and press enter.

Click the startup tab and uncheck any misspelt entries such as Microssoft and Norrton, also take into account the command of this startup entry, navigate to where these files are located and delete them from your disk.

Format any memory sticks you have used with this machine by going into explorer, right click on the disk and clicking format. Once Formatted reboot your virus free machine.

The Expert answers:

Recycler.exe is W32.Lecna.H a worm that spreads by copying itself to mapped drives. It also opens a back door and may download potentially malicious code on to the compromised computer.
Related files:
%System%AUTORUN.INF
%System%confi.exe
%System%Config.ini
%System%Recycler.exe
%System%uninstx.exe
%System%keyvect.dll
%System%netscv.exe
Kill the process Recycler.exe and remove Recycler.exe from Windows startup using msconfig and startup tab remove the recycler entry

Go to regedit and do a search on recycler and remove all entries.

The Expert answers:

Check
http://www.mygreenelectronics.org/
It will list the recycling centers closer to your home.

The Expert answers:

Chemical Model? How do you plan to recycle them chemically?

In an bulk system, a hopper conveys material for shredding into an unsophisticated mechanical separator, with screening and granulating machines to separate constituent metal and plastic fractions, which are sold to smelters or plastics recyclers. Such recycling machinery is enclosed and employs a dust collection system. Some of the emissions are caught by scrubbers and screens. Magnets, eddy currents, and trommel screens are employed to separate glass, plastic, and ferrous and nonferrous metals, which can then be further separated at a smelter. Leaded glass from CRTs is reused in car batteries, ammunition, and lead wheel weights, or sold to foundries as a fluxing agent in processing raw lead ore. Copper, gold, palladium, silver, and tin are valuable metals sold to smelters for recycling. Hazardous smoke and gases are captured, contained, and treated to mitigate environmental threat. These methods allow for safe reclamation of all valuable computer construction materials.

Do you envision spraying the ewaste with some chemical which absorbs all of some particular element and then allows you to recover it at the end of the process?

The Expert answers:

I can’t see any drawbacks of recycling apart from the human effort that goes into it.

Benefit would be you’re making use of waste to reduce the waste, less trash in landfills and as you’re recycling old stuff, you’re producing less of new stuff hence reducing your consumption of earth’s limited resources.

Out of all the household waste, paper, empty cereal boxes, milk cartons, empty bottles, glass, plastics are recycled.
I think car tyres are recycled too.

You can make recycled books, newspapers etc. Out of waste paper.
Recycle old plastics to make new plastics. Recycle old tyres to make new tyres and such.

The Expert answers:

Geologic Repository
Most scientists agree that the best solution for disposing of nuclear waste is burying it deep in the earth. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 asserts that society is responsible for the safe disposal of hazard nuclear material. To this end, the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency have commissioned Yucca Mountain, Nevada, as their prime candidate for long-term disposal. At this site, nuclear waste from industry and military use will be received, packaged and stored deep under ground. In June 2008, the Department of Energy submitted an application to begin building the Yucca Mountain facility. However, in 2009, a new administration has halted this plan and instead called for more research into alternatives strategies for disposing of nuclear waste.
Storage
Low-level nuclear waste consists of materials used to handle high level radioactive parts and medical waste from radioactive and X-ray procedures. These materials are generally stored while their radioactive isotopes decay. After a period of about 50 years, this nuclear waste is believed to be safe for conventional disposal. Storage is a short-term solution for nuclear waste problems. Most nuclear plants store used nuclear fuel in large steel-lined concrete pools filled with water. This system keeps the radioactive material shielded, cooled and closely monitored. However, space is becoming more limited. The spent nuclear fuel must eventually make its way to a long-term repository. In 1998, federal law mandated that the Department of Energy begin transporting this nuclear waste to more permanent facilities.
Recycling
Used nuclear fuel rods can be disposed of by recycling the unused fuel inside. However, the federal government does not recycle nuclear waste for security and economic reasons. Government agencies are exploring new recycling technologies that will redistribute used nuclear fuel but still have no definite plan in effect. The nuclear industry supports this method of nuclear waste disposal as cost effective and environmentally beneficial. The separated uranium can be reused as new fuel for commercial power plants and the more long-lived radioactive elements can be used for nuclear research. This is referred to as a closed fuel system. There are some drawbacks to this method of disposal. In fact, even after recycling, some nuclear waste would have to be permanently disposed of in a repository. Recycling would result in reduced toxicity, volume, and heat of used nuclear waste but is still not the final answer on nuclear waste disposal.

Read more: Best Way – Ways to Dispose of Nuclear Waste | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5332363_ways-dispose-nuclear-waste.html#ixzz0sy24SI6b

The Expert answers:

Recycle.
Use renewable energy sources.
Make less stuff.
There’s too much unnecessary stuff.

The Expert answers:

Dont waste your time, dont give in to the greed of the councils.
They have closed most of the refuse tips in my area and now we have to travel a long way to find one,
They have now dictated that we separate our waste into different wheelie bins and put them out on alternate weeks.
Now they want to half the number of times they collect the bins.

If you ask anyone in this country what the councils do for their exhorbitant poll tax, the first and probably only answer would be “They empty the bins”.

Well now they are even trying to knock that on the head alltogether.

So the one answer is “Fly tip”.

Oh yes I can hear the complaiints from hundreds of you saying how terrible this is and I must be crazy for even suggesting it and how bad it is for the wildlife and how bad it is for the ecology andf how bad it is for blah blah blah.

Well the one thing that is bad is the never ending increases in poll tax and the never ending cuts to public services.

When they start seeing piles of rubbish collecting on all of the country lanes then perhaps they will change their tune.

Am I ashamed? No not at all, leave your bags of rubbish all over the place and lets force them into a reversal of policy.
The worst it will do is create jobs for some more council cleaners to get rid of the mess, and before someone says “Yes but that will increase our council tax”
Your council tax is going to increase anyway, give them a reason to do it

FLY TIP TODAY

The Expert answers:

The projects identified at the web page (below) are at the college level but hopefully will give you some ideas: Recycling and Waste Reduction Projects

The Expert answers:

40% of the world’s copper now resides in dumps, 20% is in use, another 40% is still in the ground but much of that can never be extracted; other metals have similar profiles. With demand increasing exponentially, it won’t be long before we’ll have to start mining our dumps for raw materials – a practice sure to increase prices, problems and pollution. As energy prices and populations increase, raw materials of all kinds will become scarcer and more expensive. The less we recycle now, the more things will cost in the near future and the tougher things will be for industry. Any true, fiscal conservative supports recycling as long-term, sustainable wisdom. It’s not only the smart thing to do, it’s the patriotic thing to do. There are some who think we can mine limited resources forever; these folks may be conservative, liberal, or independent, but they’re all brainless idiots.

The Expert answers:

Yeah

In Brent ( west London ) we’ve been doing it for about a year or so now .We started off with newspapers,cans and bottles about five years ago and now from 2005 we get our garden waste ( grass,shrubs,cuttings) and food waste collected.
Once u get used to recycling it’s quite easy because as you probably know it’s gonna be the norm in the near future.

The Expert answers:

Ummmmmm well i tryed help and helped you look so i looked for it for like 30 min and this is all i found (sorry no recycle symbol) I think this is what you ment
http://www.myspace-compilation.com/symbols
or face made made keyboards

http://chris.com/ascii/

sorry all i could find

:jack:

The Expert answers:

The short answer is no..However ive come across this and without any names being mentioned ive asked them and all they will say is they are doing their best to ensure they change the packaging to comply with these needs so no, but if you don’t see a symbol then if there is a customer care satisfactory number call it tell them your concerns and most ensure they are working on it…. If we all point out these things to people then it means we care and maybe just maybe 9 times out of 10 some will do all they can to sort this ,as companies always say let us know so that we must do until one day everything is . Keep on at them don’t just ignore it by doing nothing hope this helps.

The Expert answers:

Do you mean these symbols…

Http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/1942-plastic-coding-system.asp

Because if 7 is on a bottle, then it’s definitely wrong. Bottles are generally 1(PET).

P.S. Those aren’t actually recycling symbols if they have a number in the middle, they’re just there to tell the type of plastic. An actual recycling symbol has no number in the middle.

🙂

The Expert answers:

The recycling symbol has three chasing arrows. Each arrow represents one step in the three step process that completes the recycling loop.

1. The first step is collection. This is when you put your recyclables into your curbside recycling bin or take them to a local drop-off center. The collected materials are then prepared to be marketed and are sold to a manufacturing facility.

2. The manufacturing process is the second arrow in the recycling symbol. The recyclable materials are converted into new products and shipped to stores across the country to be placed on shelves as new consumer goods.

3. The third arrow is where you, the consumer, purchase products made with recycled content. When you “Buy Recycled,” you complete the recycling loop.

The Expert answers:

Usually. Paper or cardboard can always be recycled. Glass and plastic bottles too. Does your city publish a guide? Check their website.

The Expert answers:

The recycling symbol means that the item has been made with recycled items. So since it doesn’t have one, that just means it wasn’t made of recycled paper. Since it is paper, however, you can still recycle it!

The Expert answers:

That is the resin identification code. Different types of materials require more difficult processes to break down and become recyclable, and so they are categorized into different recycling groups.

The Expert answers:

The symbol with a number in the middle it means that is recyclable(in plastic containers). If it’s just the symbol it could mean both, that the article is either recyclable or that they used recyclable material to produce this article.

Http://www.earthodyssey.com/symbols.html

The Expert answers:

Recycling Symbols
iStock
Many plastics can be readily recycled, but how are you supposed to make sense of all the different types?

Decoded Recycling Symbols
Go Green With AOL Home
NUMBER ONE
Most soft drinks, including Poland Spring, Dasani and even Snapple bottles carry this number to reflect that they are bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for consumer use. The narrow-necked bottles are not made for repeated use. The design of the bottle means they’re difficult to clean. And, that means bacteria, from your hands and mouth, can grow in the bottle over time, says Royte.
MainStreet’s Take: Always wash out with soap and water before reusing.

NUMBER TWO
At the grocery store, when you come across one gallon plastic containers and 2.5 gallon jugs of water, you’ll see this number on the plastic.
MainStreet’s Take: Wash with soap and water, do not reuse too many times.

NUMBER THREE
Polyvinyl Chloride (or PVC) and are environmentally hazardous and not recyclable. Not many bottles carry this label.
MainStreet’s Take: NOT safe to use in the first place.

NUMBER FOUR
Bottles with the number are considered safe, and are made using low density polyethylene. In addition to being used for some water bottles, it’s a common oil-based plastic that’s used for containers that are squeezable.
MainStreet’s Take: OK to reuse when properly cleaned.

NUMBER FIVE
When you pop plastic in the microwave, it’s usually has this number because it’s made with polypropylene.
MainStreet’s Take: OK to reuse when properly cleaned.

NUMBER SIX
This is usually used for egg cartons, and styrofoam cups.
MainStreet’s Take: Not a great container, if you are environmentally friendly.

NUMBER SEVEN
Polycarbonate bottles with this number can have many “other” materials. In other words, the bottle may have been used with phthalates, or bisphenol A, or not. It’s a catchall. And, since bisphenol A is restricted in Canada, and has been linked to disruption in lab animals, it may be a number you want to avoid if you don’t know the content. You’ll see this number commonly at the water cooler. And, even Nalgene bottles carry this identification, while being bisphenol free.
MainStreet’s Take: May not be safe to reuse.

All these products are approved by the FDA for food, which is what bottled water is considered. “The agency says all the bottles are safe under normal conditions (don’t ever microwave food in them), but there have been enough questions raised about migration of chemicals for me to steer clear of certain types,” says Royte.

However, Royte says not everyone need panic: “I wouldn’t go crazy over it — I’m done reproducing and I’m not a fetus, infant, or young child, who are more susceptible to hormone mimics.” Still, if you’re using any of these bottles more than once, make sure to clean the bottle thoroughly with soap and hot water.

The Expert answers:

Good question, if you are talking about a household waste recycling centre or community recycling centre where people arrive in vehicles to deposit their waste there are many drawbacks. Firstly consider not everybody has a vehicle to access these sorts of centres so an alternative arrangement i.e collection service has to be in place to prevent illegal dumping ‘fly-tipping’ of bulky household waste.

When thinking about the amount of fuel used in transporting waste from homes to the site and then the amount of fuel consumed by machines and trucks to process and transport the waste away. Is this sort of recycling centre actually saving money or the environment or is it having a negative effect? This would have to be compared to the cost (environmental / economic) of a regular kerbside collection for all homes / businesses in the area.

Over half of the material received at my local centre is garden waste which will be composted but it would be more efficient if it was done at home in peoples gardens than brought down to the centre so you could say that by providing this facility it is encouraging people to produce more waste in order to meet local government targets. Of course meeting targets means getting more funding but the problem with hitting targets is that you may miss the point of the overall objectives.

There are alternatives to this type of recycling centre such as incineration which could produce cheap energy for the local community and business by burning their waste. Depending on the technology used this may also prevent more waste going to landfill and mean less polluting vehicles accessing the site. Energy from waste plants would work best in highly densely populated areas where there is loads of waste / demand for energy. However, I admit to having no experience of energy from waste plants and further research is needed but beyond the scope of the question.

The Expert answers:

I am pretty sure you could have done this search, but you are welcome

Name: Independent Recycling
Street: 1211 F St
City:Los Banos, ca 93635-3809
Phone: (209) 827-4800
Rating: 3 Ratings:

Detail-Page: Independent Recycling Los Banos

Western Recycling
– maps.google.com
Ste F, 1220 E Street, Los Banos – (209) 827-1784
Directions and more »

A & S Metals
– www.asmetals.com
2510 Technology Drive, Los Banos – (209) 829-1943
Directions and more »

Tomra Recycling
– maps.google.com
1218 G Street, Los Banos – (209) 826-9700
Directions and more »
More results near Los Banos, CA »

The Expert answers:

You might have a hard time getting paid for recyclable paper unless you can bring it in by the truckload. It’s really the only way to make decent money at it. Corrugated cardboard tends to make a little more, but to make a decent buck you really need to bring it in bulk.

To find a recycler in your area, check with your local waste management or look in yellow pages under ‘Recycling Centers’ or ‘Paper.’

The Expert answers:

The answer is yes, but not as much as you’d think.

Most recycled materials are sold and priced by the ton. In 2007, mixed paper prices were between $20 and $50 per ton. If you separate out the white paper, and remove the cardboard covers, you might get $100 per ton (or five cents per lb).

And even if you wanted to try to sell your note books at that price, the recycling center wouldn’t be likely to want to deal with such a tiny amount. Just like the grocery doesn’t want to sell you one grape.

So unless you have a LOT of notebooks, it’s probably best to simply make sure that they get recycled, rather than looking for money for them.

Good luck.

The Expert answers:

Call your recycling center/waste management service NOW to inquire if they can please possibly allow you to retrieve the item and, if they do, how to go about doing it.

Depending on the item you accidently threw away, it may be possible.

Local to my area, a golf course was robbed of a number of items. The owner playing detective by visiting the local scrap yards and recycling center, found several golf cart batteries from his stock already shrink-wrapped with others on a pallet.

He told the recycling center owner the batteries were stolen from his golf carts and were his. He was told there was nothing they could do. He told them regardless what they thought, to call the sheriff.

When the sheriff showed up, he pointed out the batteries to him, provided the proof they were his, and retrieved them!

Might just be possible to retrieve your ‘lost item’ if you act quickly enough and your recycling center allows it. But as one other answer notes, you may have to let go of the item … Because it is gone!

The Expert answers:

You can recycle paper with writing or anything else on it (other than the obvious like food, toxic stuff, and so forth).http://www.lacity.org/san/solid_resources/strategic_programs/larecycles/index.htm
http://www.thecityoflosangeles.org/recycling/index.html
are recycling places in LA

The Expert answers:

Because you are both helping save the environment, and you’re getting paid for it. 😀 What could be better!? Not only that, you can pass on your knowledge of recycling to other kids, and other schools in the future!

The Expert answers:

Recycled glass is in low demand these days – the city isn’t even always able to find a buyer. And it’s usually just a few pennies per pound.
You can take aluminum cans to a scrap yard to sell, but I imagine you’d have to save up for a while to have enough to make the trip worthwhile. Or you can be like the homeless guy in my neighborhood and collect the cans from all the curbside recycling bins in the morning.
If you just want to recycle some stuff whenever, there is Ecology Action downtown, but they don’t pay you anything (they are a non-profit).

The Expert answers:

I lived in St. Petersburg Florida for five long years. For a town that aspires so to be metropolitan you’d think they’d have curbside recycling! Not only don’t they have that – they’ve got zilch. They burn it instead. So when we moved out to this teeny weeny little town in the middle of nowhere, NC I figured we’d be without recycling here, too. Not so, but we do have to drive for it. It’s about a twenty – thrity minute drive, located just outside the county seat, so we clean and store up our recycling in Rubbermaid bins and make the trip a family affair once a month. The Rubbermaid containers stack up for compact storage and they only cost about $4 a piece for huge 30 gallon tubs with lids. I put them out on the back porch and have made a privacy wall of them. We cut holes in the sides of ours so we can just pop items right in without having to unstack and open them. Then we just load them in the back of the station wagon at the end of the month and go, stopping for lunch and garage sales on the way back.

Plus, taking things to the recycling center isn’t the only way to recycle. If you’re worried about the stuff stacking up before you can make the trip, find new ways to use old stuff. I have made a great little garden border out of used beer bottles. After I loosen the soil I just pound the little suckers in with a rubber mallet. The beer we drink typically comes in brown or clear bottles, so I made a pattern by alternating the colors. I wish I were more of a Heinekin drinker so I could have had green, but oh well! And of course I have to keep encouraging my husband to drink beer so I can keep working on my garden. But somehow he perseveres! ^_^

Also, I save the caps and make shopping baskets by poking holes in the sides and wiring them together. Make it a project with your kids, too. They’ll love it. Send it to school as a project for their whole class (after asking the teacher of course). There is no end to what you can do with things if you get creative!

The great part is teaching my daughter who is seven about recycling. She’s already a wizard at separating, and even reminds her wayward dad when he absentmindedly tosses something in the trash!

Remember, spend the time you normally use feeling bad about what you can’t do, or haven’t done, and use that time and effort to think about what you could be doing instead. It’s all about being creative. May I suggest picking up a book called “It’s Easy Being Green” by Crissy Trask? It’s full of fantastic ideas without being smug and superior. A great help!