Day: 17 May 2002

Business Briefs: wastewater and heavy metals in China, and protection against terrorism

In this week’s international Business Briefs, Canadian water disinfection systems, and US heavy metal remediation are to go to work in China; the launch of forest cover software; and advice to Colombia on reducing terrorist attacks on water systems.

130 million mobile telephones discarded annually in US by 2005

Mobile phone use in the USA reached 128 million sets last year, which will be used for an average of only 18 months before being discarded. A new report predicts that by 2005 there will 130 million discarded every year, creating a stockpile of 500 million unwanted phones hidden away in closets that will eventually reach the waste stream.

Scientists find alternative to GMOs

Scientists from the US believe that they have found an alternative method for producing desirable traits in plants and animals that does not involve potentially harmful and highly controversial artificial genetic modification.

Are you an online environmental news reporter?

Edie is seeking a NEWS REPORTER for its weekly news service, based in Croydon, Surrey. You will have sound knowledge of environmental business issues and experience of writing news to a deadline. Foreign languages would be an advantage.

Business Briefs: flood defence, landfill, wastewater treatment, construction

In this week’s Business Briefs, a new flood control system, the first landfill conditioning plan in England and Wales, £1.7 million of investment in wastewater treatment in Yorkshire, and sustainable construction advice.

Women and children should avoid eating certain fish

Pregnant women and those intending to become pregnant in the near future and children under the age of 16 should avoid eating shark, swordfish and marlin due to fears of mercury poisoning, a UK government agency has warned.

Business Briefs: biotech, wind, and water

In this week’s European Business Briefs, a Nordic biotech jobs boom, European wind moving into California, and promotion in the French water industry.

Scandinavia seeks environmental prize-winner

The Nordic Council is calling for entries to its Nature and Environment Prize 2002, to find the private or public-sector company, group or person that has contributed the most outstanding initiative in the field of nature and environmental protection. The winner will receive DK350,000 (€47,085).

Debate offers form and direction for long-term strategy to ensure sustainable water industry

Common ground on some basic elements of a long-term strategy to guide the UK’s water industry towards a sustainable future appears to be forming, reports Malcolm Hallsworth, Editor of the magazine Water and Waste Treatment (WWT).

Wild Baltic salmon back from brink of extinction but sustained action must continue

Efforts to protect and restore wild Baltic salmon populations, which faced extinction during the mid 1990s, have started to show promising results with 2001 stock levels reaching about 70% of the estimated potential capacity for 27 Baltic salmon rivers, according to the latest figures from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). However this is in stark contrast to the situation in the smallest rivers in the Bothnian Bay and Estonia, where levels remain at an alarming low level; and considerable work is required to rehabilitate spawning areas in many Baltic salmon rivers, according to the Helsinki Commission, HELCOM.

Scientists question the value of flood prevention in Venice

Scientists have questioned the use of a new flood prevention scheme in Venice, both on the grounds of its environmental impact, and whether it will actually work.

UK misses 2001 EC target for packaging recovery

Against expectations in government and the waste industry, the UK has failed to meet the 2001 EC target for packaging waste recovery of 50%, recovering 48% during the year.

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