The Waste Age crew is decamping to Atlanta (OK, we’re actually just commuting down the road) for WasteExpo 2010. If you’re not going to be able to make it to the convention this year (or even if you are), we’ll be providing updates direct from the show. Be sure to sign up here to receive our WasteExpo Online Show Daily e-newsletter. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you at the show!

With sweeping recycling legislation pending in New York City, it’s no wonder trash has been on the minds of New Yorkers. In case you missed them, two recent pieces in the New York Times took on the issue of waste-to-energy (WTE) and disposal of waste. First, a lengthy debate over whether the country should burn or bury its trash. And this week, an op-ed argues for halting export of the city’s waste in favor of burning it in WTE facilities.

Waste Age has reported on stirrings in the WTE sector. What are your thoughts on wider adoption of the practice in New York specifically and in the United States in general?

I am a fan of the PBS anthology series Independent Lens, which features independently produced films that may or may not have had a theatrical release. Beginning today (depending on when the show airs on your local PBS affiliate), Independent Lens will be featuring the film “Garbage Dreams.” The documentary follows three boys who live among Egypt’s Zabaleen or “garbage people,” a segment of the population that sorts trash for their livelihood. Despite being responsible for an 80 percent recycling rate in the country, their way of life is threatened by incursions from multi-national waste handling corporations.

To see when the film will air in your market, you can check local listings here.

As you’ve no doubt been reminded 500 times by now, today is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the event created to draw Americans’ attention to environmental issues. Lately, it seems like it’s become more of an occasion for companies to issue press releases touting relatively transparent attempts to swath themselves in green. But we should not let that tarnish a holiday that has actually help drive some real environmental progress over the last 40 years. This video from the Mother Nature Network offers a brief (and amusing) summary of how far we’ve come.

What are you doing to honor Earth Day? Will you still be doing it tomorrow?

A group of fifth-graders at Rutherford Elementary in Stillwater, Minn. had a problem. Reliant on bikes or walking to get to school, the kids were forced to navigate a maze of trash bins on collection days. Cars weaving through bins in the road made things even more unsafe.

Dubbing themselves the Twizbots, the kids sought solutions. They first investigated Envac, an elaborate underground piping system that uses a high-pressure vacuum to move trash around. Despite successful deployments at Walt Disney World and in Montreal, the Twizbots realized such an expensive project was not feasible for their neighborhoods.

As an alternative, the Twizbots worked with Waste Management and members of the city council to more accurately define the term “curbside,” ensuring that bins would be constrained to the curb and not allowed in the street. They followed up by distributing leaflets to residents explaining the updated ordinance. The city council, previously unaware of then Envac system, said they might even consider it for some upcoming park construction projects.

Quick! Someone send the Twizbots to Congress.

Source: The St. Paul Pioneer Press

Schlepping a bag of trash to the curb, one generally does not get the sensation of treading the runways of Milan. But fashion designers are different from us.

Louis Vuitton designer Marc Jacobs, who seems to enjoy courting controversy, has released a purse that upon first, second and third glance appears to be little more than a drawstring trash bag with a leather shoulder strap attached. Price tag? $1,960.

The euphemistically named Raindrop Besace does offer some mitigating features: it comes in your choice of industrial brown or greenish gray and is made of waterproof coated canvas that mimics the look of flimsy plastic. But come on. It looks like you’re smuggling $2,000 worth of kitchen scraps under your armpit.

Source: The Huffington Post

One of the simplest ways to reduce the amount of material entering the waste stream is to eschew single-serving plastic water bottles in favor of reusable, refillable bottles or canteens. Even if those bottles are ultimately recycled, they still consume a great deal of energy in manufacturing, transport, and remanufacturing. Yet water in disposable bottles is more popular than ever. Why?

“Tapped,” a documentary by director Stephanie Soechtig, examines the negative effects of bottled water. Soechtig and her crew are in the midst of a cross-country tour to promote the film and educate the public about alternatives to disposable bottles. At each stop, they are swapping plastic bottles for reusable Kleen Kanteens. Traveling in a translucent recycling truck, the filmmakers started in Los Angeles and are collecting bottles over the course of the tour so that when they reach New York, they will have more than 15,000 plastic water bottles.

For more information about “Tapped” or upcoming screenings, visit www.tappedthefilm.com. Remaining stops on the tour:

Friday, April 9 - Houston

Saturday, April 10 - New Orleans

Tuesday, April 13 - Atlanta

Wednesday, April 14 - Nashville, TN

Thursday, April 15 - Bloomington, IN

Friday, April 16 - Chicago, IL

Saturday, April 17 - Goshen, IN

Monday, April 19 - Washington, DC

Wednesday, April 21 - New York

Thursday, April 22 - New York

Friday, April 23 - Greenwich, CT

You had a party. You’ve got empties. Sure, you could just chuck them in the recycling bin. But where’s the panache?

Good thing there are 50 Awesome Ways to Reuse All Your Old Beer Bottles.

Fair warning: Most of these will not impress your wife.

We are exactly one month out from WasteExpo 2010 in Atlanta. As Waste Age plans its coverage, we’d like to know what you want to hear about. We’ll be providing updates here on The Heap, via our e-mail show daily (sign up here), and of course in the magazine after the show.

What aspects of the show most interest you? How do you generally consume news about the show? Would you be interested in Twitter or Facebook show updates? Let us know!

In case you missed it, Thursday was April Fool’s Day. Among the usual parade of delightful but disingenuous news items to come across the wire was this little gem from Grist claiming that McDonald’s was abandoning its composting program because the company’s food simply would not decompose.

Then again, it might not be a joke after all.