Easy print, easy read, easy recycle

With the amount of free papers going around london it was good to see these newspaper recycle bins located by the bus stops and tube stations. A questions which does arise is what percentage of newspapers printed get recycled.

Solar Powered Parking Meter - Berlin

This solar powered parking meter was spotted whilst walking around Berlin. It is very simile to the one which was spotted a few data go in the UK.

Thanet Windfarm

The Thanet windfarm off the coast of Ramsgate in Kent became the world's largest site of its type when it opened in 2010.

Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

Source; Guardian

Horses, Mongolian Steppe

Photograph by Mark Leong, National Geographic

An ocean of green, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated country in the world, with just under three million people in a landmass larger than Alaska. Mongolian culture—physical, mobile, self-reliant, and free—developed out here on the steppe. "When people move to Ulaanbaatar, they bring that mentality with them," says Baabar, a well-known publisher and historian.

Australia's mining boom placing Great Barrier Reef at risk, UN warns

Divers unveil a Greenpeace banner at Sydney Aquarium urging Unesco to protect Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images.

Source; The Guardian

Hilton Green Hotel Agenda

These signs are often found in hotels asking use to keep towels for another day, but how many people take notice of them. I am all for Hilton's green agenda , but what else do they do. For example what cleaning detergents Downey use and are they environmentally friendly. It would be great if they use Ecover.

Remote Bin

This bin was spotted at a very remote location. Nice thought, but who empties it.

Lonesome PET plastic airport recycling bin

This lonesome PET plastic recycle bin was spotted in a far corner of Schipol Airport, Amsterdam. Credit has to be give. To the management of Schipol because they have placed recycled bins all over the place and at good locations.

New Eco-Routemaster Hybrid Bus Debuts in London!

Londoners taking the number 38 bus between Victoria and Hackney a few days ago had the honor of being the first to ride the brand new Eco-Routemaster hybrid bus. The beautiful hybrid double-decker is sure to be a new icon for the city, and it gets more than twice the mileage of its standard diesel counterparts. It is the first of 8 Eco-Routemasters that will be rolled out between now and May.

The Eco-Routemaster is amazing not just in its design and efficiency, but in the speed with which it has been delivered. Mayor Boris Johnson announced his intention of creating a fleet of green, hybrid buses in his mayoral campaign in 2008 and followed up with a design competition in July of that year. Wrightbus, a family owned company based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland became the manufacturer with Heatherwick Studio advising on the design and development.

London is reportedly paying £1.4 million per bus, which is not cheap, especially in tough times. That said, these behemoths are a lovely nod to a London icon. They even brought back the open rear platform. Other features include three entrances and two staircases to enable fast boarding and unboarding, LED lighting, a new seating layout and wireless bell pushes. Mayor Johnson is betting that these buses will invigorate London pride, tourism and help the local economy through their manufacture.

Source; inhabitat

Solar Powered Parking Meters

These solar powered parking meters have cropped up and around Cheltenham. Although I like the idea of saving energy and reducing carbon footprints I don't like parking meters. Maybe they should combine some of them with electric car charging stations.

What happens if all the solar panels are covered!

Occupy Wall Street Sustainability

Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood, where 75 percent of children are born in poverty, has few venues for healthy local produce. Occupy Wall Street Sustainability and EcoStation:NY hope to change that by building a 12,000 square foot “Farm in the Sky” this spring. The ambitious project will harness grassroots fundraising and Permaculture Design smarts to provide food for local schools, restaurants, and farmers markets.

The groups launched a fundraising campaign on WePay to raise money for the venture, which includes a mobile education lab, monthly skillshare and workshop events, and an Eco-Summit, in addition to the rooftop farm.

Oscar’s Green Carpet with Colin and Livia Firth

© Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Vanity Fair -- Livia Firth and Emily Blunt stand between Colin Firth and John Krasinski dressed in Ermenegildo Zegna’s sustainable suits.

Source; TreeHugger

The Wind Harvester - new windmill design

From huge kites to sea-bound flywheels and roof-top installations to tree-like art creations, we've seen many different approaches to capturing energy from the wind. One design, though, reigns supreme - the tri-blade turbine tower.

It's not exactly a trouble-free life at the top and there are those who do not look upon these monsters favorably, most often complaining about the noise and the not so picturesque view. With support from Nottingham Trent University's Future Factory project, Heath Evdemon is currently building a new type of wind turbine called the Wind Harvester that's claimed to be virtually silent, doesn't need to loom high over the landscape and can operate in a variety of wind conditions.

Two-Headed Trout

Two weeks ago, Rachel Cernansky reported that the Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) determined that a mining operation in Idaho was contaminating creeks with toxic selenium, causing deformities in fish populations. And the horrifyingly unsafe levels of selenium in the water—in some places more than 14 times the legal limit—had led to the birth of at least two sickly double-headed trouts.

Source; Treehugger

Artificial reefs for Norwegian Fjords

The practice of dumping millions of tonnes of waste rock in deep Norwegian fjords is coming under close scrutiny from the country's scientists.

The debris, or tailings, from mining operations has been deposited on the seafloor for decades with little recognition of its likely impacts.

Very few studies to date have actually assessed the environmental impacts of tailings deposits, says Prof Sweetman, who is also affiliated to the University of Bergen.

The three-year project being run by Niva will try to describe those impacts more fully, but also look at strategies for containment and recovery of the deposits.

The Niva-led study group is also putting structures on top of the deposits to see if they will act as artificial reefs.

Source: BBC News