About 10 DtaSers hauled themselves to the SF Dump for a tour of the facilities. SF has a huge disposal facility with many separates parts: There’s hazardous disposal (paint, batteries, oil, e-waste, etc.), public dump (for all your personal dumping needs at $123.07/ton), the recycling center (bottles and cans just claps your hand, just clap your hands), and of course the good ol’ household garbage transfer station.

The sheer volume of garbage was staggering…about 14-18 tons per day goes straight to the landfill. Looking out at the field of garbage, it …

Mark Schapiro, author of Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, discussed his book late last year on KQED Forum. It’s a good listen for the first 20 minutes.
The discussion focuses on the plain fact: thousands of products we use everyday (cosmetics, cleaners, etc.) have chemicals that simply are not tested for the safety on humans.
Current US policy requires proof (significant conclusiveness) that these chemicals endanger humans. The EU policy is more precautionary, if mounting scientific evidence points to potential problems, the government will act even if there …

In October, I’ll be giving a talk at DtaS titled: Bottled vs Tap: How do we choose? It’ll be an in-depth discussion on the choices behind our water consumption (health, environment, safety, convenience, etc.). I’ve been giving the talk for a while, should be a fun translation to the science cafe format.
This past week on Science Friday, Elizabeth Royte discussed her new book
Bottlemania. The book details the rise of the bottle water industry and the subsequent decline in our public water infrastructure. In 1987, Americans drank about 5 gallons of …