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India is the Biggest Dumping Ground for E-Waste. Here's How Teens Recycle It

<ul class="summary-list"><li>People often salt slippery, winter roads to melt ice, making it safer to drive and walk on.</li><li>Some counties in Wisconsin have been using cheese brine or a beet juice blend instead. </li></ul>People from Wisconsin are sometimes <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paul-ryan-scott-walker-wisconsin-rnc-convention-gop-2012-8">called Cheeseheads</a>. Because of the way some state counties beat icy streets, we might propose calling their highways Cheese-roads.A few counties across the state have used <a href="https://www.insider.com/how-feta-cheese-is-made-greece-brine-aged-2022-2">cheese brine</a> to melt icy roads in the winter. Other tricks, like using beet juice, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-cities-put-beet-juice-beer-waste-molasses-on-roads-2018-1">beer waste, or pickle brine</a>, have been employed across the upper Midwest. Though road salt, the traditional de-icer, is effective, it has its problems, Andrea Bill, the associate director of the University of Wisconsin's Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory, told Business Insider.The road salt, "keeps getting more and more expensive," which makes it harder for states to purchase, Bill explained. Add to that, excess salt can damage roads, pollute groundwater, and wreak havoc on local marine life.So in the case where salt might not always be the best solution, cheese brine could be another weapon in Wisconsin's winter arsenal.<h2>The problems with traditional road salting </h2><div type="image" title=": A worker salting streets as snowfall blankets the Times Square in New York City, United States as massive snow storm hits the east coast." height="683" width="910" msid="105575584" hostid="261" sizebytes="135346"></div>According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the most common type of salt used on roads is the same salt on your dinner table — sodium chloride. In small amounts, it's relatively harmless.However, excessive use of salt on the roads can seep into groundwater when the snow melts. Many people get their drinking water from the ground, and drinking salty water can affect people with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-hypertension">high blood pressure</a>, according to the EPA.If the snowmelt doesn't go into groundwater, it may run off towards local rivers or ponds where it increases salinity, which may be toxic to marine life, according to the <a href="https://extension.umn.edu/lawns-and-landscapes/effects-deicing-salts-landscapes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Minnesota</a>.Outside of the environmental concerns, salt can wear down roads and bridges, according to the EPA. The agency estimated that salting roads may result in as much as $5 billion dollars in annual repairs in the US.There's also the issue of upfront costs. Since cheese brine is a waste product that wouldn't otherwise be used for any purpose, counties usually get it for free and only have to pay to transport it, Chris Narveson, the highway commissioner for Green County, told BI.It costs Green County around $2.80 to $4.20 per mile to use cheese brine on its roads, whereas it costs more than ten times that amount — $15 to $25 per mile — to use rock salt, Narveson estimated.Green County is lucky enough to have a functioning cheese factory where it gets its cheese brine for de-icing. Other counties, like Polk County and Burnett County, have used cheese brine in the past but stopped when the local cheese factory halted operations. <div type="image" title="Photo shows hand made production of graviera a hard yellowish Cretan cheese matured in brine in Greece." height="1499" width="3000" msid="105575585" hostid="261" sizebytes="196774"></div>If you don't have access to cheese brine, then beet juice is a popular alternative, though it's not as cost-effective as cheese brine, Josh Kelch, the highway commissioner for Burnett County, told BI. Sauk County has used a beet juice blend in years past, Pat Gavinski, the highway commissioner for Sauk County, told BI. He said that, anecdotally, it keeps roads clear a little longer than rock salt. "The traffic doesn't wear it off as quick, that's why we like it," Gavinski said.While these alternative methods may be more environmentally friendly, Bill said her main concern about these methods is that there might not be enough of these byproducts to combat the amount of snow and ice these regions get each year.Bill is studying <a href="https://www.maine.gov/mdot/winterdriving/snowicecontrol/#:~:text=MaineDOT's%20proactive%20use%20of%20salt,and%20snow%20throughout%20the%20storm." target="_blank" rel="noopener">other types of brine,</a> just made of pure water and salt, as alternative methods for ice management.

Why a Wisconsin county is dumping cheese brine on its roads this winter

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A bulldozer in <keyword id="12068458" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="denmark" source="Orion">Denmark</keyword> sweeps up seaweed and plastic from a beach and then releases it back into the water, according to video released by Danmarks Radio.</li><li>Environmental experts who spoke with Danmarks Radio described the process as "completely idiotic."</li></ul>A Denmark municipality has spent more than $150,000 a year to remove debris and seaweed from a beach only to dump it back into the water, according to Danish national broadcaster <a href="https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/regionale/sjaelland/kommune-bruger-en-million-kroner-paa-fjerne-tang-og-plastik-dumpe-det-i?beta=1">Danmarks Radio</a>. Video published by Danmarks Radio shows a bulldozer out in the water at Stillinge Beach in Slagelse, Denmark. The bulldozer blade lifts and appears to dump a slew of material and debris, which reportedly included plastic, into the water before coming back out to shore.The bulldozer operator uses the rake and the blade to scoop up seaweed and plastic along the beach shore. When the collected debris fills the blade, the bulldozer heads out to the water, Danmarks Radio reported. The process happens twice a week during the summer in Denmark. Environmental experts who spoke with Danmarks Radio described the process as "completely idiotic.""I think it's stupid because what you do is scrape the seaweed off the beach with a big tractor that makes noise, and then you drive it into the water and deposit it, and then the tractor drives back ashore again," said Professor Torkel Gissel Nielsen, a faculty member at the National Institute of Aquatic Resources."And that means that what you have just thrown into the water is washed up on the beach immediately after," Nielsen added.Deputy Mayor Villum Christensen defended the practice in an interview with Danmarks Radio. He claimed plastic is not being swept up by the bulldozer but contended that cigarette buds and other small debris are. "It will by and large be there anyway," Christensen said of cigarettes and other debris, according to Danmarks Radio. "The water comes and collects things and things with it, which drift out into the water again."Christensen added that he wants Stillinge Beach to be "neat and clean."<keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">News</keyword> of the bulldozer beach-cleaning practice marks at least the second time experts have blasted Danish authorities over questionable environmental methods. Just in May, Danish officials <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgvab/denmark-races-to-dig-up-the-millions-of-dead-mink-it-just-killed">dug up millions of dead mink</a> despite a report from Denmark's own environmental agency warning that the process might release harsh contaminants.

Denmark spent over $150,000 to rid a beach of debris and seaweed, then dumped it in the water with a bulldozer

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11892889" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="california" source="Orion">California</keyword>'s attorney general is suing <keyword id="11893281" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="walmart" source="Orion">Walmart</keyword>, saying the company illegally dumps toxic waste.</li><li>The state estimates more than a million items are disposed, with a combined weight of 159,600 pounds.</li></ul>The state of California has filed a <keyword id="11921506" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="lawsuit" source="Orion">lawsuit</keyword> against Walmart, saying that the mega-retailer is responsible for illegally dumping thousands of tons of hazardous materials in local landfills across the state, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-statewide-lawsuit-against-walmart-illegal">Attorney General Rob Bonta announced</a> on Monday.Joined by 12 district attorneys and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, the complaint alleges that Walmart violated environmental laws and regulations in discarding materials at sites that were not equipped to handle toxic or hazardous items."When one person throws out a battery or half-empty hairspray bottle, we may think that it's no big deal," Bonta said. "But when we're talking about tens of thousands of batteries, cleaning supplies, and other hazardous waste, the impact to our <keyword id="11901561" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="environment" source="Orion">environment</keyword> and our communities can be huge."In a statement to Insider, Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove said the state's compliance demands go beyond what is required by law and that the company intends to fight the suit.Using estimates from internal Walmart waste audits, the Department of Justice says the company discards over a million items each year, weighing in at a combined 159,600 pounds.The waste has included alkaline and lithium batteries, insect killer sprays and other pesticides, aerosol cans, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints, and LED lightbulbs, <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/Walmart%20Complaint.pdf">according to the suit</a>.Walmart operates more than 300 stores and distribution centers in the state, and the company says that state environmental regulators have carried out more than 3,800 inspections of its facilities since 2010 and have not imposed any fines.In addition, Walmart said audits of its trash compactors have shown the company to have just a fraction (0.4%) of the statewide average (3%) of "items of potential concern" in its waste stream.The California lawsuit also alleges that Walmart does not do enough to eliminate personally identifying information on certain products that get thrown into its trash streams.Walmart was previously the defendant in a 2010 environmental lawsuit concerning the disposal of bleach, pesticides, and other hazardous materials. The company agreed at the time to pay $24.7 million in civil penalties, as well as additional fees and costs.

Walmart is accused of illegally dumping 'toxic' waste and confidential customer information into landfills, California lawsuit says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The land used to produce food that's wasted in the US totals the size of California and New York.</li><li>There are many reasons food gets tossed but consumers are the biggest source of waste.</li></ul>Danielle Melgar is working with the caterer for her wedding to make sure that between the "I do's" and the last dance, food won't be going to waste.The October ceremony, at a botanical garden in Michigan, will feature a buffet so guests aren't served more than they can eat. And there will be containers so people can take home leftovers.Wanting to limit how much gets tossed at an event she's hosting comes naturally for Melgar, whose work focuses on food issues. She notes that some <a target="_blank" href="https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_Report.cfm?Lab=IO&amp;dirEntryId=353471">140 million acres</a> of agricultural land in the US are devoted to food that is ultimately wasted. If all that food came from a single farm, it would be about the size of California and New York combined."We're wasting more than enough food to feed every hungry person twice over," Melgar, who focuses on food and agriculture for the consumer advocacy group PIRG, told Insider.<div type="image" title="Danielle Melgar sits at a picnic table with food" height="3024" width="4032" msid="103555127" hostid="261"></div>The waste baked into the US food system is a problem for obvious reasons: People go hungry, money and resources are lost, and landfills, where most surplus food goes, continue to fill up. There isn't one fix that would do away with the problem, though advocates say consumer education and a renewed push to apply national standards to the "use by" dates manufacturers put on food products could go a long way toward helping the US meet a goal of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/united-states-2030-food-loss-and-waste-reduction-goal#:~:text=The%20goal%20seeks%20to%20cut,money%20for%20families%20and%20businesses.">cutting food waste in half</a> by 2030.<h2>It's not me, it's you</h2>Part of the problem with unused food is that because it's so commonplace, it's easy to overlook. But it piles up. Estimates vary, but <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs">about 30% to 40%</a> of food in the US is wasted. That's why food is the No. 1 type of everyday garbage making its way into US landfills — comprising some 24% of municipal solid waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.And the biggest contributor to that waste? You and me. Consumers scraping off plates we couldn't finish or ditching the moldy artifacts we come across in our kitchen are the biggest sources of discarded food in the US — more than the food waste coming from restaurants and grocery stores."People often talk about food waste as if it is one problem, but in reality, you're really talking about fixing the whole food system," Dana Gunders, the executive director at the nonprofit ReFED, told Insider. She said different factors are at play depending on whether you're talking about fields of tomatoes that aren't getting harvested, too many potatoes on a breakfast platter, or "the science experiment in the back of your fridge."Emily Broad Leib, the director of the Food Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School, told Insider that many of us don't realize how much we're wasting. She pointed to one academic study in which three in four of the consumers surveyed said they got rid of less food than the average American. In her own home, Broad Leib said, once her family started using a composting service that collects kitchen scraps, she realized how much excess food waste her family produced."Actually one of the biggest benefits has been when you really see all your food in one place, you start to really recognize what you're wasting in a way that I think is really beneficial," Broad Leib said.All that waste can add up: The US Department of Agriculture estimates the average American family of four <a target="_blank" href="https://www.usda.gov/foodlossandwaste/consumers">loses $1,500</a> a year on uneaten food. And all that food rotting in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas that's initially <a target="_blank" href="https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-crucial-opportunity-climate-fight#:~:text=Methane%20has%20more%20than%2080,warming%20in%20the%20near%20term.">80 times more powerful</a> than carbon dioxide before breaking down.People usually have good intentions when buying food but end up dumping it because there's just so much of it. We want to be sure we buy enough for a party or for a busy workweek. And some consumers might decide they're going to start eating better, so they scoop up good-for-you things like leafy greens."They might buy a bunch of produce at the grocery store because they want to eat healthy, but then go out for pizza and never get around to it," Gunders said. "And we don't really have sort of a cultural taboo on throwing food out as we do for things like littering."Beyond not following through on our intentions — or committing the cardinal sin of shopping while hungry — we have an overabundance of inexpensive food available to us.Gunders notes the average grocery store carries some 50,000 items. And while spikes in food prices have drawn headlines in the past couple of years, costs in the US are lower as a percentage of our incomes than in decades past. That makes it easier to junk our leftovers. And with restaurants and grocery stores, things like labor costs tend to trump concerns about the comparatively smaller expenses tied to food.<h2>Your milk hasn't gone bad</h2>Another source of the problem in the US, in particular, is that there aren't federal regulations around date labels on food products other than for baby formula."They generally are not indicators of safety. They're not federally regulated, and they don't mean the food will make you sick," Gunders said of the expiration dates on food.<a target="_blank" href="https://pingree.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4587#:~:text=The%20bipartisan%20Food%20Date%20Labeling%20Act%20establishes%20an%20easily%20understood,life%2C%20after%20which%20the%20product">Proposed federal legislation</a> would set standards by allowing "use by" dates to indicate the point after which food shouldn't be consumed. And it would allow "best if used by" date so producers can indicate when the quality of the food might start to fade.Some states don't allow food to be donated after the quality date has passed — another source of unnecessary food waste, advocates say."We don't have a mechanism to show people which of those labels are related to quality versus which foods are really a safety risk," Broad Leib said.She said milk is one of the top foods people waste because the date has passed. But, she said, milk can go bad before the date stamped on the container or still be good for days after.Not wasting so much food could also help combat food insecurity. While not all of it is fit for people, much of what grocery stores or food sellers might discard could still be used."Twenty minutes before, it was safe for people to buy, take home and eat. And then all of a sudden, you know, the end of the day comes and it's not perfect anymore — or the date passes — and suddenly, it's trash and goes to the landfill," Broad Leib said.<h2>Wasteless Wednesdays</h2>Part of the fix could involve simple things like making a grocery list, taking inventory of your fridge before you shop, and freezing food before it goes bad. There are various efforts to educate consumers; terms like "stir Fridays" or "wasteless Wednesdays" are meant to prod us to look twice at what we can cobble together into a meal.Some observers also sense an opening."If we are throwing, you know, 30 to 40% of our food away — and the money along with that — there's actually a lot of opportunity and business proposition in not throwing that out," Gunders said.There are apps like Flashfood and Too Good To Go that let consumers buy food that grocers and restaurants would otherwise toss at discounted prices. Hellman's, the mayonnaise brand, has an app called Fridge Night that helps people figure out what to do with leftovers. And a company called Mill lets you <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mill.com/">dry your food waste</a> in a mechanized container and mail back the resulting mix to be used as feed on farms. Shuggie's, a restaurant in San Francisco, uses food that would otherwise go to waste to create meals, including pizzas it refers to as "trash pie."<h2>Thinking about food waste at every meal</h2>Melgar is focused on policy goals like setting standards around food-date labels because changing consumer habits can be tough."There are a lot of solutions that help people compost in their own backyards or make their food last a little bit longer, but it doesn't necessarily reduce the amount that they're buying," Melgar said."Our entire goal as a society when it comes to agriculture has been to make sure that everyone has enough food. We have achieved that but we have not acknowledged that," she said. "And so we have continued to construct our food system in a way that prioritizes producing as much food as possible, when actually we could be lessening the impact of our food system by not producing so much surplus in the first place."Melgar said she knew she'd found the right wedding caterer when she learned the woman already had a policy of sending excess food home with her staff rather than throwing it out."I'm thinking about food waste every time I have a meal, every time I go grocery shopping," Melgar said. "So it was very natural that I wanted to have that conversation with someone who's going to be serving food to a lot of people on a day when I get to control what happens with that food."

If a single farm produced all the food wasted in the US, it would be the size of California and New York combined. We're the culprits.

<keyword id="14540624" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="james-howells" source="Orion">James Howells</keyword> is known as the man who accidentally threw away 8,000 bitcoins. Now he has an $11 million master plan to get them back.James Howells' life changed when he threw out a <keyword id="14078126" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="hard-drive" source="Orion">hard drive</keyword> about the size of an iPhone 6. Howells, from the city of Newport in southern <keyword id="12102399" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="wales" source="Orion">Wales</keyword>, had two identical laptop hard drives squirreled away in a drawer in 2013. One was blank; he says the other contained 8,000 bitcoins — now worth about $181 million, <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/big-short-michael-burry-krugman-cuban-crypto-price-market-crash-2022-6">even after the recent crypto crash</a>.He'd meant to throw out the blank one, but instead the drive containing the cryptocurrency ended up going to the local <keyword id="14540625" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="dump" source="Orion">dump</keyword> in a garbage bag.Nine years later, he's determined to get back his stash, which he mined in 2009.Howells, 36, is hoping local authorities will let him stage a high-tech treasure hunt for the buried bitcoins. His problem is that he can't get into the dump.<div type="image" title="A man stands looking at the camera in front of a road and a metal fence." height="1995" width="2661" msid="93087349" hostid="261"></div>For almost a decade, Newport's city council has denied his requests to dig for his hard drive, saying it would be expensive and environmentally damaging, but Howells is not deterred.He gave Insider a first look at his new $11 million proposal — backed by venture-capital funding — to search up to 110,000 tons of garbage. He hopes presenting it to the council in the coming weeks will persuade it to let him finally try to recover the hard drive.<h2>Finding a hard drive in 110,000 tons of garbage</h2>Looking for a hard drive among thousands of tons of garbage might seem like a Herculean task.But Howells, a former IT worker, says he believes it's achievable through a combination of human sorters, robot dogs, and an artificial-intelligence-powered machine trained to look for hard drives on a conveyor belt.His plan has two versions, based on how much of the landfill the council would allow him to search.By his estimates, the most extensive option would take three years and involve scouring 100,000 metric tons — or about 110,000 tons — of garbage at a cost of $11 million. A scaled-down version would cost $6 million and take 18 months.He has assembled a team of eight experts specializing in areas including AI-powered sorting, landfill excavation, waste management, and data extraction — including one advisor who worked for a company that <a href="https://www.ontrack.com/en-gb/blog/how-kroll-ontrack-recovered-data-from-the-columbia-space-shuttle-disaster">recovered data from the black box of the crashed Columbia space shuttle</a>.The experts and their companies would be contracted to execute the excavation and would receive a bonus should the <keyword id="11893902" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="bitcoin" source="Orion">bitcoin</keyword> hoard be successfully retrieved."We're trying to achieve this project to a full commercial standard," Howells said.Howells said machines would dig up the garbage, which would then be sorted at a pop-up facility near the landfill.Human pickers would sift through it, along with a machine from a company in Oregon called Max-AI. The machine would look like a scanner set over a conveyor belt.Remi Le Grand of Max-AI told Insider the company would train AI algorithms to spot hard drives that look similar to Howells'. A mechanical arm would then pick out any objects that could be contenders.Howells has built security costs into his plan, fearing people may try to dig up the hard drive themselves.He's budgeted for 24-hour CCTV cameras as well as two robotic "Spot" dogs from Boston Dynamics that would function as mobile CCTV patrols at night and sweep the area for anything that looks like his hard drive by day.<div type="image" title="A yellow quadrapedal robot with a mechanical arm attached to its back stands on a stage in front of a purple backdriop that says &quot;collision.&quot;" height="1957" width="2609" msid="93087351" hostid="261"></div>Howells told Insider his team had its first meeting in May at the Celtic Manor Resort outside Newport for what he called a dress rehearsal of his pitch to the council.The meeting was filmed and attended by the former "Top Gear" host Richard Hammond, who has released a <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cZr97E5PgzQ">short YouTube documentary</a><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cZr97E5PgzQ"> </a>about Howells."They're clearly a bunch of very committed people who have faith in him and the plan," Hammond told Insider of Howells's team."It's a story that goes from the incredibly mundane to the colossal," Hammond said. "If I were in his position, I don't think I'd have the strength to answer the door."After excavation, the garbage would be cleaned and as much as possible would be recycled, Howells said. The rest would be reburied."We do not want to damage the environment in any way," he said. "If anything, we want to leave everything in a better condition."<div type="image" title="An arial shot of a landfill, with grass turf over it." height="2780" width="3706" msid="93087355" hostid="261"></div>His plans also include building either a solar or wind-energy farm on top of the landfill site once the project is completed. Yet the chance of the council agreeing to his vision anytime soon looks slim."There is nothing that Mr. Howells could present to us" that would make the council agree, a council representative told Insider. "His proposals pose significant ecological risk, which we cannot accept and indeed are prevented from considering by the terms of our permit."<h2>Will the hard drive even work if it's found?</h2>Whether the hard drive will work depends on a component called the "platter" — a disc made of either glass or metal that holds the data. Howells says that so long as the platter isn't cracked, there's an 80% to 90% chance the data will be retrievable.Phil Bridge, a data-recovery professional who has advised Howells on the project, told Insider these figures were accurate.<div type="image" title="A close-up of an open hard drive being held in two hands." height="1997" width="3000" msid="93087356" hostid="261"></div>But if the platter is damaged, Bridge says, there is only a small chance the data could be retrieved.Bridge says he got involved with the project because he found it intriguing. "It's just one of those cases that piques anyone's interest," he said. "It would be just a fantastic success story to help him get it back and prove everyone wrong really."<h2>Where would the funding come from?</h2>Hanspeter Jaberg and Karl Wendeborn, two venture capitalists who are based, respectively, in Switzerland and Germany, told Insider they had promised to provide $11 million to fund the project if Howells won council approval."It's obviously a needle in the haystack, and it's a very, very high-risk investment," Jaberg said.Howells said he didn't have a contract with the prospective backers but had discussed the plan in Zoom meetings. "Until I've got something in writing from Newport City Council," he said, "there is nothing to sign up to."<h2>What if he does find the bitcoin stash?</h2>Howells said if he managed to retrieve the data, he would keep roughly 30% of what's on there — worth just over $54 million at current value.He said about a third would go to the recovery team, 30% to the investors, and the rest for local causes including giving £50, or about $61 at current value, in bitcoin to each of Newport's 150,000 residents.The amount has fallen from the $240 each he told <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/15/uk/bitcoin-trash-landfill-gbr-scli-intl/index.html">CNN</a> in January 2021; Howells said he decided to put more money into securing "professional companies" for the excavation to help convince the council.<h2>What if the council doesn't agree to his plans?</h2>If Howells fails to get the council's backing, he says, his last resort will be taking the local authority to court with the claim that its actions constitute an "illegal embargo" on the hard drive. "I've been reluctant to go down that route in the past because I've not wanted to cause problems," he said. "I wanted to work with Newport City Council."Howells said he'd never been granted a face-to-face meeting with the council. He said he was given a 20-minute Zoom meeting in May 2021 but hoped his new business plan would help him break through.He said he met with his local member of Parliament, Jessica Morden, on June 24. Morden's office confirmed the meeting took place.Once he's made the council aware of his new plan, all he can do is wait. "This is the best situation I've been in so far," he said. "This is the most professional operation we've put together, and we've got all the best people involved."The "crypto proponent" says he makes his living by buying bitcoin every month and selling it when he needs cash.Howells says he tries not to think too much about what his share of the money would allow him to do, if the hard drive is ever found in working order. "Otherwise," he said, "you just drive yourself crazy."

The quest to find $181 million in bitcoin buried in a dump

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A man was sitting in his backyard in <keyword id="12373197" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="windsor" source="Orion">Windsor</keyword>, England, when raw sewage suddenly fell from the sky.</li><li>According to a local councilor, his "whole garden, garden umbrellas, and him" were "covered" in <keyword id="12020579" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="poop" source="Orion">poop</keyword>.</li></ul>A man was enjoying the sun in his backyard in Windsor, southeast England when a passing plane dropped toilet waste over him and his garden furniture, a local councilor said during a recent meeting.The unfortunate incident, in which a plane "discharged sewage," took place in July, according to the <a href="https://rbwm.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=147&amp;MId=8070&amp;Ver=4mp;Ver=4">minutes of Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead's most recent aviation forum.</a>"His whole garden was splattered in a very unpleasant way," said Karen Davies, ward councilor for Clewer East, during the October 14 meeting. "He was out in his garden at the time and it was a really horrible, horrible experience," the local lawmaker continued.The "whole garden, garden umbrellas, and him" were "covered" in poop, Davies explained. "It's absolutely dreadful," she said during the meeting.Davies said that there are several incidents every year in which "frozen sewage" is dropped along flight routes. Windsor is on the flight path to London's Heathrow Airport, which is about 8 miles away from the historic town.In June, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15221045/blocks-frozen-poo-fell-from-the-sky/">The Sun reported</a> that Portsmouth, in southern England, locals were left "terrified" after "frozen poo" fell from the sky.But, Davies said that raw sewage landing in someone's backyard is much rarer. Another councilor suggested that the summer's warmer weather might have contributed to it.Whitfield parish councilor Geoff Paxton, who has worked with <keyword id="11898285" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="airlines" source="Orion">airlines</keyword> for four decades, said what happened was "so rare" and one he had not seen in a long time. He added that modern toilets on <keyword id="11896629" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="planes" source="Orion">planes</keyword> are vacuum secured and are normally reliable as they rely on pressure suction to work, so this unfortunate situation must have resulted from aircraft failure or a failure to adequately service it.According to the <a href="https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/gallery/windsor/171893/windsor-resident-struck-by-human-waste-from-aeroplane-whilst-in-garden.html">Maidenhead Advertiser,</a> the Windsor resident was unable to claim any insurance from the ordeal as the cost of the damage was relatively low.

A man was 'covered' in poop after a passing plane dumped toilet waste over his backyard, lawmaker says

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Wasil Daoud made a name for himself on TikTok for a trend he calls "food dumping." </li><li>Following backlash from people arguing the trend encouraged food waste, Daoud changed his niche. </li></ul>In mid-2021, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wasil Daoud</a> was a rapidly growing TikTok creator with 4 million followers, known for a niche he calls "food dumping." The concept is simple: Daoud took large amounts of ingredients and poured them together to create excessive results. One <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7018673296426142981?q=wasil%20daoud&amp;t=1691760363886" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> from October 2021, which has 123 million views, shows Daoud appearing to empty a jumbo bucket of ice cream into a bowl, topping it off with containers of chocolate sauce and sprinkles to create a mega-sundae. He told Insider the ingredients featured in his posts were mostly expired, taken from relatives in the restaurant business or from grocery stores with leftover expired goods, and that he also used tricks like mixing water and glue together to look like milk.He thinks the appeal of these videos was the "satisfying" factor of seeing lots of food being put together on camera. Food content, from <a href="https://www.insider.com/mukbang-video-the-extreme-eating-trend-making-youtube-rich-2020-2">mukbangs</a> to <a href="https://www.insider.com/20-minute-tiktok-recipes-viral-cooking-quick-easy-2023-7">recipe</a> inspiration, are hugely popular on social media, and Daoud found his food dumping videos would also get lots of attention from viewers. In the first six months of 2021, he gained 2.2 million followers, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to analytics tracker SocialBlade</a>.Daoud said he believes he was the first to develop the food dumping trend on TikTok, but as <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@colie.1/video/7038703239029804334" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@topperguild/video/7034317764563291438" target="_blank" rel="noopener">creators</a> produced similar content and the genre became more visible, it was met with more online backlash. Daoud, 21, was frequently <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/6913281619507891462" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of wasting food "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeSlIRQ9EGY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">for</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNC-pBlgDBI" target="_blank" rel="noopener">views</a>," and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/6903633942872657158" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some</a> TikTok <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/6915121723985628421" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commenters</a> suggested his videos were insensitive and disrespectful towards people struggling financially. After months of backlash, Daoud's content pivoted gradually to posts <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7063960950876998959" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discouraging</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7082072472585080107" target="_blank" rel="noopener">food waste</a>, and towards the end of 2022, he <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7167479321404132650" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began</a> <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7168222002346495275" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posting</a> videos that still involved displaying large amounts of food on camera, but this time resulting in him distributing meals to people in underserved communities.He told Insider he has handed out around 20,000 meals over the past six to eight months as a result, and he's <a href="https://socialblade.com/tiktok/user/wasildaoud/monthly" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gained 5.4 million followers</a> since the start of the year, standing at 11.8 million followers when he spoke to Insider. But he knows he can't please everybody. <h2>'I did not want to be known as the guy who wastes food on the internet anymore.'</h2>Initially, Daoud said he felt there was nothing wrong with the food dumping videos he was making because he was using expired products, but as backlash started to grow, he said he began to think his videos might still send a negative message."I think I influenced a lot of people to waste food, and I think it was wrong," he said, telling Insider he feels regretful about his previous content. Daoud said he tried looking for ways to change his image: "I did not want to be known as the guy who wastes food on the internet anymore." In mid to late 2021, he moved from his home in New Jersey to Los Angeles, California, where he says he was taken aback by the scale of homelessness in the city."I live in a more expensive area in New Jersey, so I never really witnessed that growing up," he said. After spending a year in LA, Daoud moved back to New Jersey and decided he would post TikTok content about providing meals to people living on the street. He told Insider he funds the videos himself using money generated from social media and personal finances. His mom, who helps him film clips cooking in the kitchen, and his cousin, who goes out with him on the streets as his cameraman, also make it possible.Daoud said he can feed up to 300 people per video, and he has now built relationships with many rough sleepers in the area. He added that he plans to visit other countries and hand out meals, hoping that one day he can run his own charity. <h2>Daoud's new videos have led to a surge in support, but he's still had to navigate ethical dilemmas</h2>Daoud thinks that what sets his content apart is his shift from food dumping to meal donation. Many of his posts <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7234590786849983787" target="_blank" rel="noopener">begin</a> with a short clip of him from an old food dumping video, before switching to the present day, where the TikToker uses ingredients to batch-make meals, defying his former self in the process. "It's kind of like a niche in itself," he told Insider. The response to Daoud's rebrand has been largely positive. Commenters have applauded him for his charitable acts, saying they believe he has <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@wasildaoud/video/7265070470494555435" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"changed"</a> as a person. His videos arguably fall under the "random acts of kindness" genre, which involves creators filming themselves performing charitable deeds for strangers, such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/random-act-of-kindness-groceries-recipient-tiktok-trend-upset-him-2022-7">buying their groceries</a> — but it can be controversial. Creators have previously come under fire for filming strangers <a href="https://www.insider.com/afghan-refugee-did-want-be-an-acts-kindness-tiktok-2022-7">without</a> <a href="https://www.insider.com/tiktoker-luke-erwin-acts-kindness-video-controversy-consent-2022-11">consent</a>, and been accused of <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@deprinceofzhong/video/7187248090632539393?q=acts%20of%20kindness%20poverty%20porn&amp;t=1691762062093" target="_blank" rel="noopener">using</a> people with financial needs for <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@xo_pennypink/video/7065718198737472815?q=acts%20of%20kindness%20clout&amp;t=1691762281181" target="_blank" rel="noopener">online clout</a>. Daoud told Insider he is aware of the backlash, but doesn't see himself as an acts of kindness creator. His answer to the ethical quandary is to always ask people who he hands a meal to if they consent to being filmed before including them in his videos. At the same time, he said he feels that "no one creator can make everyone happy," and that he believes that even if there are people who conclude that they don't approve of his content, the support that is hugely visible in his TikTok comments section far outweighs this. He also said he stands by his intentions, telling Insider, "I think people see that I'm genuine about it," adding, "Honestly, forget about all the views and everything. It's mostly being able to make a difference in someone's day."<a href="https://www.insider.com/culture">For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.</a>

Influencer Wasil Daoud built a following of 6 million with his controversial 'food dumping' videos. But he doesn't want to be that guy anymore.

<ul><li>Developing countries like India are receiving e-waste while developed nations are sending it out illegally. </li><li>Despite having legislation in place, the illegal movement of e-waste happening due to the complex web of transshipment ports. </li><li>The informal recycling operations result in have severe health impacts and cause environmental damage. </li></ul>Countries like Australia, China and the United States produce most of the world’s e-waste, but it’s developing countries like India that bear the brunt. India has a massive pile of e-waste of its own but it has also become the dumping ground for other developed countries. The World Economic Forum highlights the challenges of global e-waste in its ‘A New Circular Vision for Electronics’ report. <div type="image" title="ewastemap" msid="68077883" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;A New Circular Vision for Electronics, WEF&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

 The report asserts that as the use of technology grows, so do the threats concerned with e-waste. One of the biggest being the illegal movement of e-waste from developed countries to their developing counterparts. The complex web of transshipment ports makes detection of e-waste by authorities a considerable hurdle. Nearly 1.3 million tonnes of discarded electronic products make their way out of the European Union without documentation. Clearing up the legislation E-waste, or electronic waste, refers to all electronic equipment that’s been discarded by users with no intentions of reuse. This includes everything from smaller items like lamps and phones to larger appliances like televisions, refrigerators and washing machines. Countries like India, one of the most populous in the world, at least have legislation in place attempting to counteract the problem. In comparison, only a handful of nations in Africa have some sort of policy to deal with e-waste. But having a policy in place doesn’t necessarily imply the successful enforcement of guidelines or the existence of sufficient <keyword id="837232" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="E-WASTE-MANAGEMENT">e-waste management</keyword> systems. The ‘Global E-waste Monitor 2017’ <a href="https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Climate-Change/Documents/GEM%202017/Global-E-waste%20Monitor%202017%20.pdf">reported</a> that informal recycling operations have been in place for a long in India but they have severe health impacts and cause environmental damage. Clarifying international guidelines for re-integrating discarded technology into new products is only one possible way to negate the negative externalities of e-waste. The market for refurbished phones in India is on the rise but shipment of used products is still to legislative uncertainty. The WEF propagates that creating a e-waste circular economy would keep materials and electronic components at their highest value at all times. This doesn’t only have to do with recycling e-waste but also designing products in way that supports reuse, durability and eventually safe recycling. 80% of e-waste isn’t documented and only 41 countries around the world have official statistics on e-waste in order to monitor the situation.

Developing countries like India bear the brunt of global e-waste

Beer, milk, and produce: All the food that's getting dumped during the pandemic

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Amazon delivery packages from North America were found in illegal dump sites and mills in India.</li><li>Plastic waste ends up in dump sites that emit vile odors and can pollute the air, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-india-plastic-recycling-pollution/">Bloomberg</a> reports.</li></ul>Amazon consumers in the US and Canada may think that their Amazon delivery packaging will find a second life once they recycle it. But <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-india-plastic-recycling-pollution/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a Bloomberg investigation</a> found that many of these plastic shipping envelopes, alongside other consumer packaging, are now ubiquitous at six illegal dump sites in the remote town of Muzaffarnagar, India — thousands of miles away from where they were discarded.It's not necessarily the fault of Amazon: Many consumers wrongly assume that packages labeled recyclable or featuring the three-arrow recycle logo are safe for recycling everywhere, but the majority of American recyclers can't process soft plastics, Bloomberg reported.As a result, plastic, like the Amazon envelopes, often gets mixed into the paper waste that is shipped to countries with lax enforcement of disposal rules, which is how the plastic can end up polluting someone's backyard on the other side of the world, per Bloomberg. Laurie Smyla, a former recycling coordinator with a degree in environmental science who is based in Sloatsburg, New York, recycled a plastic Amazon envelope that made its way to a three-acre plastic dump site in India just a few hundred feet away from the home of Bobinder Kumar and his family, Bloomberg found. "I feel betrayed as a consumer," Smyla told Bloomberg. "That recycling symbol — it's all a marketing feel-good message and very deceptive. It should not be harming other people in other parts of the world."Kumar said that the site is flooded with Amazon's blue-and-white shipping envelopes and that the packaging emits a vile odor."We can't escape the smell of the trash, even in our home," Kumar told Bloomberg. "It's very terrible to live close to the site, but what can we do?"Amazon delivery packaging was also found mixed in with materials processed at sugar cane and paper mills in Muzaffarnagar, according to Bloomberg. Burning plastic, like the packaging, releases toxic chemicals like mercury and dioxins into the atmosphere, which can cause harm to humans, agriculture, and animals.Residents of Muzaffarnagar told Bloomberg that they know when plastic is burnt while they are asleep because they wake up to find sheets of ash covering their terraces and crops. Muzaffarnagar's chief medical officer said that air pollution and the burning of plastic are linked to a 30% uptick in respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis among the town's residents, Bloomberg reported. Often times, waste is transferred from wealthy countries to less wealthy ones with the help of brokers who charge a fee to throw away trash or buy the trash at a cheap rate to sell across borders, Bloomberg reported. These brokers have alleged links to criminal gangs and fraudsters.Bloomberg's findings come three years after the Indian government lifted its ban on importing plastic waste due to the country's waste shortage, <a href="https://www.indiatimes.com/explainers/news/government-allows-import-of-plastic-waste-565972.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the India Times reported.</a>The findings pose a challenge to <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?amazonTrackingID=biauto-60624-20&amp;postID=63ab09363864673035143f6e&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fsustainability.aboutamazon.com%2Fenvironment%2Fpackaging" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon's sustainability commitments</a> to increase the recyclability of its delivery packages and to reduce its waste. Last year, the company generated 709 million pounds of plastic packaging waste, according to a <a href="https://oceana.org/press-releases/report-amazons-plastic-packaging-waste-jumped-18-to-709-million-pounds-in-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report by international environmental group Oceana,</a> and it used 97,222 metric tons of single-use plastic across Amazon-owned and operated global fulfillment centers, the company said.In 2021, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-return-program-cut-wasted-destroyed-inventory-from-unsold-products-2021-8">Amazon announced programs</a> to sell returned items as "used" and for vendors to sell their overstocked inventory in bulk as part of its pledge to prevent millions of its products from entering the landfill.While Amazon didn't respond to Insider's request for comment on its packaging being found in Muzaffarnagar, a company spokesperson told Insider in a statement that it "is committed to minimizing waste and helping our customers recycle their packaging.""Since 2015, we have invested in materials, processes, and technologies that have reduced per-shipment packaging weight by 38% and eliminated over 1.5 million tons of packaging material," the spokesperson said.The spokesperson also referred Insider to <a href="https://affiliate.insider.com?amazonTrackingID=biauto-60624-20&amp;postID=63ab09363864673035143f6e&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Famsc%3Fref_%3Dnavm_em__amsc_hamburger_0_1_1_55" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amazon Second Chance</a>, a guide for customers to understand how to recycle their Amazon packaging. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2022-india-plastic-recycling-pollution/">Here is the full report from Bloomberg.</a>

You Searched For "dumping of waste" and got 11 results

India is the Biggest Dumping Ground for E-Waste. Here's How Teens Recycle It

Insider

Why a Wisconsin county is dumping cheese brine on its roads this winter

Maiya Focht

Denmark spent over $150,000 to rid a beach of debris and seaweed, then dumped it in the water with a bulldozer

Yelena Dzhanova

Walmart is accused of illegally dumping 'toxic' waste and confidential customer information into landfills, California lawsuit says

Dominick Reuter

If a single farm produced all the food wasted in the US, it would be the size of California and New York combined. We're the culprits.

Tim Paradis

The quest to find $181 million in bitcoin buried in a dump

Isobel Asher Hamilton

A man was 'covered' in poop after a passing plane dumped toilet waste over his backyard, lawmaker says

Joshua Zitser

Influencer Wasil Daoud built a following of 6 million with his controversial 'food dumping' videos. But he doesn't want to be that guy anymore.

Charissa Cheong

Developing countries like India bear the brunt of global e-waste

Prabhjote Gill

Beer, milk, and produce: All the food that's getting dumped during the pandemic

Madeline Stone

Amazon's plastic packaging was reportedly found thousands of miles away at illegal dump sites in India

Aaron Mok

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