Waste

Furniture stores and architectural firms get a lot of samples – of fabric, tiles, and carpet. Those samples can pile up. Usually, they get thrown in the trash. But, in some cities, they are starting to make unused design samples available to artists and art teachers. The Environment Report's Julie Grant has more.

A University of Tennessee at Chattanooga study shows that the metals and organic chemicals found in used cigarettes can leak out, contaminating water and killing microorganisms.

The redevelopment of a New Bedford waste dump raises toxic threats to homes, schools, and churches.

After years of complaints, federal agents raided the CES Environmental Services waste-processing facility in southeast Houston.

"Iowa’s three largest public universities have determined that their coal ash disposal method does not pose a risk to the public health, a decision some say was made without sufficient evidence or regard for experiences with contamination in neighboring states."

"Three years ago, the Department of Homeland Security passed new regulations. If you're a regular flyer, you know them well: no more bringing your drinks on the airplane. It turns out that this ruling isn't just inconvenient for us -- it's also inconvenient for the environment."

"Hazardous 3M trash buried decades ago in Washington County is being dug up and will be reburied with a protective lining."

"Back in the 1980s and 90s, dozens of communities across the US built incinerators to get rid of their trash. Many of them financed the massive furnaces with bonds they're just now paying off. And now that those debts are off their books, some cities are re-thinking whether burning trash makes environmental and economic sense."

"For generations, people in Leadwood have lived near huge piles of dangerous, lead-contaminated mining waste. Now the EPA has decided the answer to the problem is to pile on more lead-tainted earth. To many folks, that makes no sense at all."