The thing I like best is when there's a hurricane and a hurricane expert comes on TV and says "It's releasing as much power as fifty Hiroshima atom bombs going off every minute." Or else this: "It's producing 200 times, as much energy as all of the electric generating plants in the world."
Nothing points out better the absurdities in discussion of America's energy future. Because last time I looked, a hurricane is solar energy.

Solar energy on the scale of...

January 2005 was a bleak month for Boston University’s Brown Arena basketball floor. After 30 years hosting men’s and women’s hoops, after feeling the step of coaches like BU’s own Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, and Jim Calhoun, after playing under Reggie Lewis, Christian Laettner, and Grant Hill, after underpinning a tennis court for Billie Jean King, Virginia Wade and Chris Evert – it was shoved into a warehouse, pushed...

There is nothing we throw away that is not a resource.

Paper – To make paper we kill trees, hurt the land, and damage ecosystems. Almost 100% of paper can be recycled. The small fraction that can’t be recycled can be composted or burned to create energy – renewable, carbon-neutral energy.

Plastic – Plastic is highly refined oil. On a planet where wars are fought over oil, it’s idiotic to throw plastics away, which we do by the millions of pounds every day. The best...

Some ancients will remember Evel Knievel and the Snake River Canyon. Evel tried to jump the canyon and ended up in the drink. There was no way across.

There's a Snake River Canyon in electronics recycling. On one side are deals to buy old computer and monitors or take them away for free. On the other side are recyclers who charge to recycle old electronic equipment. The gap between the two sides starts at about twenty-five cents a pound and gets wider from there. And there's...

When Is Trash Not Trash?


Q: When Is Trash Not Trash? A: When It’s Recyclable Mixed Debris.

I just returned from a few days of site visits on college and corporate campuses. I found a very common situation: open top roll-off containers that were being used for the mixed debris from on-site construction and cleanup projects. When I complimented their mixed debris recycling, I got the same response almost every time. “The roll-off is trash, not ...