Major League Baseball has team up with the Natural Resources Defense Council to green up their game, writes Jorge Ortiz of USA Today. Among the options MLB is considering: composting food stadium food waste instead of landfilling it and switching to compostable plastic cups.

Read the Article>>

CAW and Zero Waste:

• Learn About Zero Waste

China's largest plastic bag manufacturing facility has shut down following the government's announcement in December that it was banning the production of thin plastic bags and requiring fees on thick plastic bags. The closure is the first tangible evidence that Beijing means to enforce the law, which was implemented as part of that government's war on "white pollution", or plastic litter.

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Officials said last month's ban was mean to decrease litter, as well as reserve petroleum for more useful purposes. Recently, San Francisco and Los Angeles counties, as well as the City of Oakland, have enacted bans or recycling benchmarks on plastic bags.

CAW and Plastic Bags:

• Learn More about Plastic Bags

Toys 'R' Us will begin to phase out the use of nickel-cadmium batteries because of the widespread environmental harm it has been causing for factory workers in China. This type of rechargeable battery commonly found in remote-control cars and power tools are safe to use. However, recently they have been a cause of concern for many workers in China, who assemble the batteries, and have been exposed to toxic levels of cadmium, which has been linked to kidney failure, lung cancer and bone disease. The toy store chain said it would prohibit the use of cadmium batteries in toys made exclusively for their stores. Last week the company also agreed to adopt standards for surface lead paint stricter than the federal government's. Jane Spencer of the Wall Street Journal reports:

The announcement is part of a wave of safety initiatives aimed at winnowing out toxins from toys sold in the company's more than 1,550 retail stores world-wide. In addition to the battery phaseout, the company announced stricter rules on lead content in toy surface coatings and tighter rules on phthalates, a vinyl additive that has been linked to cancer in rats.

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Toys R Us also anounced in their press release that it will phase out the use of PVC in its stores. PVC contains many toxins, such as heavy metals and phthalates, that can leach out upon contact.

What You Can Do

• Learn more about the toxic battery issue.
• Learn more about PVC.

I have a frustrating story to share about an HP monitor, and this seemed like the appropriate place to post.

A year and a half ago I bought an HP desktop computer and 19" LCD monitor directly from HP. Since then, I've had many problems with the computer and had to replace the power supply. But until now, the bad power supply was the only e-waste created.

Then, last week, my monitor stopped working. It wouldn't power up. I called HP and was told it was no longer under warranty and that I'd just have to get a new one. I asked if they could fix it, and they would not. So I took the monitor to Leon Pang of Domino Computer in Berkeley (I mention his name because he's an awesome computer tech.) Leon opened it up, tested the circuits, figured out where the problem was, called HP to order a replacement board, and was told that they will not sell these parts. They will only sell a whole new monitor.

This is exactly the kind of business policy that is creating so much e-waste! Why replace an entire piece of equipment when all that's needed is one small part???

I intend to write a letter to HP to let them know of my dissatisfaction with this policy. Is there anything else I can do to influence their environmental policies?

'm trying very hard to eliminate as much waste from my life as possible, especially plastic waste, and I keep a record of my efforts at <a href="http://www.fakeplasticfish.com">http://www.fakeplasticfish.com</a>. I will certainly be writing up this experience there as well.