RANGIYA: With the monsoon having set in, the citizens here are in for another spell of unhygienic living, as heaps of garbage soil the roads and add to the existing filth and squalor. While waste and garbage spilling out of bins have become a common sight, most of the streets present a deplorable sight, as the filth lay strewn all over the road owing to the slushy atmosphere, which is accentuated by the rains.

GreenGoa will organise a presentation and workshop on reusing and recycling waste on May 5, at Mineral Foundation, Velho building, Panjim, at 5:30pm. Tania Anselmo, a young environmentalist from Portugal who reuses waste creating useful items like jewellery, bags, purses etc in Lisbon will teach participants simple reulitization techniques of commonly found waste in Goa.

Consumers could be paid for recycling their plastic bottles under a scheme proposed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. CPRE president Bill Bryson and the Wombles launched the campaign in London's Leicester Square (Copyright CPRE) An extra 10 pence would be added to the cost of goods such as drinks which would be returned to the consumer after the bottle is taken to collection points.

Increasing number of mountaineering expeditions is good news for the tourism industry. However, due to inefficient human waste management, such expeditions invariably end up contributing to a "waste dumping yard" at the highest peak of the world. Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) said the mountain environment is threatened by the problem of human waste due to lack of proper management. "When the snow melts at higher altitudes, the smell of human waste including that of urine becomes intolerable," he said.

New regulations to control the export of waste from Ireland for recycling and recovery have been announced by the minister for the environment, heritage and local government. The Waste Management Regulations 2008 were unveiled by Environment Minister John Gormley. The regulations introduce a registration system for waste brokers and dealers which ministers hope will provide increased controls on companies who arrange shipments of waste. Mr Gormley said at present 83% of the waste in Ireland collected for recycling or recovery is "necessarily exported".

The Colombo Magistrate fined some polythene dealers for stocking and selling polythene that were not in conformity with the Government standards. Central Environmental Authority yesterday produced four traders for stocking and selling non standard polythene to the customers before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Majula Thilakaratne and were fined Rs 3000 each.

The Centre for Adult, Continuing Education and Extension (CACEE), Panjab University, in collaboration with the Ashoka Eco Club of Government Senior Secondary School, Khuda Lahora, launched a campaign

Waste Management Inc said on Monday it would open the largest-ever facility to turn landfill gas into vehicle fuel, which will then be used in its own California collection trucks. The project will help the largest US trash hauler develop a source of low-carbon fuel, which is expected to be in wide demand when states such as California begin requiring drivers to cut their carbon dioxide emissions. "We think there's going to be a very significant demand for the fuel," said Waste Management spokesman Kent Stoddard.

The city would be made free from the nasty sight of dustbins and the garbage strewn around them in just four months, said the commissioner, Mr Mukesh Kumar Meena, who returned from Hyderabad after attending a workshop there on sanitation. Talking to the reporters here, Mr Meena said already a pilot project has been launched in Ward Nos 6, 8, 9, 11, 18 and 19 on experimental basis and as it proved to be a successful venture, the project will be implemented all over the city in four months.