Current Topics
The Digital Television Transition: Don’t Kick Your TV to the Curb – eCycle Instead
After June 12, 2009 all full power television stations will only broadcast in digital, over-the-air signals. EPA encourages all U.S. citizens who own an analog TV set and who receive free broadcasts (via rabbit ears or a roof-top antenna) to extend the life of their TV by subscribing to a paid TV service or connecting it to a converter box. For consumers who choose to buy a new TV, EPA recommends purchasing Energy Star-qualified sets. EPA also encourages consumers to recycle their unwanted TVs, which recovers valuable materials from the circuit boards, metal wiring, leaded glass, and plastics.
More info on the digital TV transition: EPA.
More info on where to recycle a TV: Lawrence Electronic Recycling.
Public Servant Receives Imagination & Place Environmental Award
The Imagination & Place Environmental Award for a public servant, a government employee, was presented during a ceremony at the Lawrence Arts Center on April 22nd. The recipient for 2009 was William H. Busby, Baldwin City, associate scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and courtesy associate Professor of ecology & evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas. Busby was recognized for his long-term dedication to monitoring the grassland birds and endangered species of Kansas, providing data that can be used for important policy decisions concerning the Kansas environment. Busby received a framed oil painting award by Lawrence artist Paul Hotvedt.
The I&P Environmental Award is designed to recognize Douglas County community members who have made a demonstrable and positive impact on the local, regional, and/or global environment. The awards honor one of the following categories (in a five-year cycle): businesses, educators, artists, volunteers, and public servants. The award was established by the Committee on Imagination & Place of the Lawrence Arts Center in partnership with the City of Lawrence Waste Reduction & Recycling Division.
Past Imagination & Place Environmental Award winners are: 2008, Volunteers from Friends of Hidden Valley, Cans for Community, Friends of the Kaw, Schwegler Elementary School PTA, and individual Marie Stockett; 2007, Artist Laura Ramberg and writer Ken Lassman; 2006, educator Kelly Kindscher, with runners-up Nancy O'Connor, David Owen, Rex Powell, and Marty Birrell; 2005 business Community Mercantile, with runners-up Free State Brewing Company and Z's Divine Espresso.
Play the new "What's In Your Trash?" Game!
What's In Your Trash? This is a question the Solid Waste Division researches frequently in order to divert the most amount of waste from the landfill (through recycling and composting) in the most cost effective manner to you - our community! Click on this game and test your perception of how much municipal solid waste ("trash") we generate, what the facts state, and what the City is doing about it. Enjoy the game!
