Recycling

ASMARA, Eritrea -- A rhythmic clamor of pounding hammers, buzzing grinders and clanging metal reverberates from the stone gateway of Eritrea's oldest open-air market. At first glance, the dusty bazaar behind downtown Asmara appears to be little more than a junkyard of rusted car parts, broken appliances and scraps of steel. But this isn't where old metal comes to die. It comes here to be reborn. Used artillery shells are recast as combs for beauty salons. Empty vegetable-oil tins morph into coffee pots.

Just when plastic bags seemed to have won the contest for customer preference against their chief competitor, paper, a movement has sprung up in Maryland and around the country to disqualify the petroleum-based plastics on environmental grounds. Indeed, those ubiquitous flimsy shopping sacks are a scourge on the landscape, particularly in waterfront communities such as Annapolis and Baltimore, where officials are considering banning plastic bags largely because of the impact on waterfowl and marine life.

The County Council postponed discussing an intricate countywide water and sewerage plan for the second time last night, voting to hire a consultant to study the issue.The 5-2 vote to table the hearing cleared out the council chambers, and dozens of people who had come to hear the discussion left disappointed. The sewerage proposal, headed for defeat until County Executive Janet S. Owens stepped in to lobby for it, has the potential to affect nearly every corner of the county because development usually follows wherever water and sewer lines are put.The bill, if approved, would become a master plan to extend pipes to the edges of the county for the next 10 to 20 years.

WANT A great way to spend an evening? Try "Getting Away With Murder."The Arundel High School drama club offers this mystery as its winter play at 7: 30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday in the school auditorium.The play is directed by Larry Mintline, the Thespian Club's faculty sponsor. Cast members are Richard Callahan, Laura Crispin, Nicole Freeland, Clint Garner, David Jackson, Shannon Masabni, Bradley Moore, Joshua Orte, Eric Tesch, Dean VerStraten, Joanna Woronkowicz, Amy Anderson, John Houchens, Heidi Krause, Adam Lehman and Daniel Parmentier.

The overseas financial crisis that has hammered worldwide markets for recycled goods has crippled area recycling revenues as well -- and experts say if the trend continues it might force local governments to raise taxes and collection fees to cover curbside recycling costs.Prices for steel have plunged, aluminum is at a five-year low and paper, while on the rebound, was down significantly for much of the past year. That means Baltimore County recycling revenue will decline by $858,000 for the fiscal year that ends June 30.Other area jurisdictions -- with smaller budgets and less recyclable material to sell -- also have been hit, though not as severely.

County offices to devote a day to recyclingAnne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens has declared Thursday "Clean Your Files Day" for county workers. Owens said it was a day to "dress down and clean up county offices."The Department of Public Works estimates that county employees will purge the equivalent of 150 file cabinets of papers on Thursday and on three other days when recycling will be pressed in county offices.Old memos, outdated reports and unnecessary documents are to be targeted for disposal.

The colors are beginning to show, heralding the beginning of fall -- falling leaves, that is.Millions and millions of leaves.What to do with them all?The Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works suggests bagging and labeling them for recycling.County residents won't be getting government help with the manual labor of raking and bagging, but their yard waste will be picked up at curbside. Anne Arundel officials want to make sure that it ends up recycled as compost -- rather than buried.

Recycling benefits Baltimore County budget, environmentContrary to the impression some may have after reading Dennis O'Brien's recent article "Recycling lull a blow to counties" (March 14), recycling remains a resounding success both economically and environmentally in Baltimore County.We are paid for nearly every type of recyclable we collect, and all types get recycled. Recycling revenues continue to help offset the costs of operating the county's solid waste management facilities. Since recyclables are commodities whose prices change, the amount of revenue we earn varies from year to year.

AS THE mayoral campaign winds down, many of us have all but memorized the top candidates' responses concerning such major issues as schools, crime and neighborhood renewal.But there are a number of other issues important to the life of the city that I'd like to see each candidate adopt as part of his or her platform. Here's that list:Return the City Hall operators to full-time duty. The use of voice mail and repeated messages for callers to wait for assistance are not appropriate for City Hall, many people's first contact with city government.

NEW DELHI, India -- Crouched on his haunches beneath a blue plastic tarp, Mohamad Harun swiftly sifts through the heaps around him. A mean pre-monsoon sun pours down, but Harun works quickly, without break.From the sacks piled behind him, he pulls newspapers and plastic bags, jars and cans, string and uneaten bread. With barely a glance, he twitches his wrist and the mishmash of junk behind him gets sorted in piles before him.Thousands of so-called ragpickers like Harun work the dumps and slums of Delhi.

Baltimore County residents can no longer put most household electronics out for trash collection starting Friday, when a new law takes effect. The county council enacted the legislation to keep potentially hazardous materials such as mercury, lead, cadmium, and arsenic out of landfills and waste-to-energy plants. Residents will be responsible for recycling computer equipment, such as monitors, keyboards, printers, laptops, and scanners, as well as televisions, VCRs, DVD players, telephones, including cell phones and answering machines, stereos, fax machines, and video display devices.

Annapolis' Department of Neighborhood and Environmental Programs is collecting wine corks for recycling through the end of October. Merchants such as Boatyard Bar & Grill, the Breeze Restaurant in Loews Hotel, Caf? Normandie, Galway Bay, Lewnes Steakhouse and The Rockfish are planning to participate. Residents can drop corks in the wooden wine barrel in the lobby of City Hall or at Bay Ridge Wine & Spirits, B.B. Bistro, Eastport Liquors, Leeward Market or Mills Fine Wine. The corks will be recycled by TerraCycle, which will turn natural and synthetic corks into bulletin boards.

Our view Mayor Sheila Dixon's plan to switch municipal trash collection to once a week while boosting recycling pickup is the right thing to do. It saves $7 million and frees up sanitation crews to clean the city's filthy alleys. And it will encourage people, by necessity, to recycle more, which is good both for the environment and for Baltimore's bottom line - stowing trash in a landfill isn't free, after all. The mayor does, however, need to follow through on providing residents with sturdy trashcans with attached tight-fitting lids.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's bill to reduce trash pickup to once a week must be cleaned up before it can become law, City Council members and community leaders said at a hearing Tuesday, warning that it could have unintended consequences and prove too restrictive. For example, the bill as written "effectively eliminates" all trash pickup for some renters because their buildings, which could include up to seven townhouses, would be eligible to use only a single 64-gallon trash can, testified Amy Macht, president of Regional Management Inc..

Twice-a-week trash pickup is a public service Baltimore can no longer afford - not environmentally or financially. There's only so much landfill space to handle the city's refuse, and the advent of single-stream recycling offers a cheaper way to keep the planet clean. Mayor Sheila Dixon has proposed reducing residential trash pick-up to once a week and devoting a second day of the week to collect recyclables as part of her budget plan for next year. With a strong public education campaign, the shift could make Baltimore cleaner and greener and save money - the city saves $33 for every ton of trash it doesn't send to the refuse facility.

More recycling allowed Howard County Executive Ken Ulman has announced that the county's new wheeled recycling carts and bins can be filled with additional plastic, aluminum and waxed cardboard products, including yogurt tubs, lawn furniture, flower pots, aluminum foil, pie plates, milk and juice cartons, and other items. Residents can also recycle bags filled with plastic bags as long as the bag is tied shut. A postcard describing the new recycling options will be mailed to every Howard County residence that receives recycling collection service.

At Woodstock, the rock moment that heralded today's mega music events, after days of peace, love and groovy guitar licks, fans and bands left behind a stunning mass of garbage, some pushed lovingly into the shape of a peace sign. The essence of rock rebellion then. Now? So uncool. When Virgin Festival opens today in Baltimore, young fans will carpool, buy carbon offsets and compost. They'll eat local, sip from cups made of corn and use recycled toilet paper. They'll take home sustainable cotton souvenir shirts and clutch programs printed with soy-based ink. At this, as at some other major outdoor concerts in the U.S. this summer, acts come and go but greenness is non-negotiable.

Keeping in mind Harford County's strong support of recycling and the benefits of "preserving the planet," it's good to remember the initial efforts of a lone ecology teacher at Bel Air High School back in 1972. He thought it was a good idea to recycle and therein began a classroom project that grew into a wave of right-mindedness when it came to "just tossing out the trash" and stepping up for a minute and separating glass, tin, paper, cardboard and aluminum into bags to be processed by his classroom volunteers.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman revealed a package of cost-saving moves worth a combined $6.8 million a year at his State of the County speech to nearly 400 Chamber of Commerce members yesterday. Against a background of a generally upbeat assessment of the county's economic posture, Ulman stressed his attempts to move forward on issues such as health care access and recycling, while also looking for ways to save money. The approach seemed well received by the large and influential business group, whose members laughed at the executive's humor.

A young Canadian who has spent a lot of time in Europe and who now lives in Baltimore asks: "How come your restaurants and bars don't recycle?" This Winnipeger had just been to a pizza shop for lunch and had emptied a bottle of soda down his pipe. He looked around for a blue recycling receptacle and found none. This happens everywhere he goes. He's a little shocked by it, having grown accustomed to seeing recycling barrels side-by-side with trash cans all over Canada and Europe, even in the smallest towns.