🚀 go-pugleaf

Your community recycles organic wastes?  Interesting.  Do they have a
composting facility to which these organic wastes are added?  What do
they do with the resulting compost?


In article <8gi0sg$8rq$1@news.sysnet.net.tw>,
  Michael Adams <adams@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>   Here's an interesting one.... recycling and composting can cause
> serious health problems. I don't recall our local enviornmentalists
> warning us about this when they started the recycling tax, oh I mean
> mandated "curbside recycling fee" and forced us to pay it on the
> water bill.
>   I recycle every week, but you would think those encouraging
> recycling and composting would put some kind of warnings in with
> the water bill.
>   "Warning  - recycling can be hazardous to your health."
>
>    BBC News Online
>    Wednesday, 1 March, 2000, 19:02 GMT
>
>    Recycling health warning
>
>    Kitchen Microbes can be released into the kitchen
>
>    Recycling household waste could be bad for your health, scientists
>    have claimed.
>    Rubbish bins containing organic leftovers such as banana skins,
potato
>    peelings and apple cores release far higher numbers of potentially
>    harmful bacteria and moulds into the kitchen than bins containing
>    mixed garbage, say Dutch researchers.
>    These include substances known to aggravate common respiratory
>    ailments, such as asthma.
>    A team from Wageningen University analysed household dust from 99
>    Dutch households.
>
>    There were loads of complaints about the smell from organic bins,
and
>    some people with respiratory illnesses said their symptoms got
worse
>
>    New Scientist magazine reports that their research followed efforts
by
>    the Dutch government to encourage people to separate out their
organic
>    waste for composting.
>    Lead researcher Dick Heederik said: "There were loads of complaints
>    about the smell from organic bins, and some people with respiratory
>    illnesses said their symptoms got worse."
>    Dr Heederik said microorganisms thrive in the humid conditions
created
>    by rotting organic waste.
>    The team tested for cell fragments called endotoxins, which are
>    released when bacteria die.
>    If people are exposed to these fragments in sufficiently high
>    concentrations they can become breathless, cough and develop
flu-like
>    symptoms.
>    The researchers also screened for mould components, including
>    beta-glucans-sugars found in the coatings of numerous fungi.
>    Beta-glucans have been shown to cause lung and throat inflammation.
>    In homes where organic bins regularly remained unemptied for a week
or
>    more, levels of the bacterial endotoxins were three times as high
as
>    in homes with unseparated waste.
>    Levels of the mould materials were up to eight times as high.
>    Dr Heederik said the solution was either to keep the bins outside,
or
>    to empty them more regularly.
>
>

--
Light, Love, & Laughter,
Kitten

"Thousands of years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never
forgotten this." - Anonymous
"Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for
what you want."  - Joseph Wood Krutch




Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.