Credit: Victoria Reay via Flickr

Due to the growing demand in finding a location to drop off old electronics known as e-waste, the province announced today several depots where Manitobans can bring their material.

Items such as TVs, VCRs, stereos, microwaves, phones, computer equipment, laptops, printers, scanners, fax machines and copiers are just some of the items being accepted at these new depots to be recycled.

Beginning tomorrow, Manitobans will have access to 30 e-waste collection depots. Ten of these sites will offer year-round collection including five in Winnipeg.

Find out more about local e-waste disposal including drop off sites below:
Winnipeg Free Press Article (with map)
Expanded post on ChrisD.ca

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Until a few years ago the Alberta Oil Sands were too expensive to develop. The oil industry had know about them for years but getting the oil it held out of the ground was costly. Eighty dollars a barrel changed that reality. Today these  boreal forests are being cut down so that the sand can be boiled and the oil extracted. It’s a process that uses an incredible amount of resources and leaves a pollution footprint that is difficult if not impossible to clean up.

This 15 part series (each part approx. 6 minutes) put on VBS.tv takes a hard look at the oil sands and it’s effect on the community that exists around it. What is an energy jewel in the eyes of Canada’s current political leaders, turns out to be a black eye for the environment and for all of us.

Warning: this video series uses some coarse language.

Watch the series here

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Global warming, what should have been an honest scientific discussion based on facts, has over time become a contentious debate. By now most people have accepted that global warming is real, but there are still those who believe the opposite is the case.

What happened to create this debate? Was it based on simple diverging scientific opinions? Or is there more going on here? This CBC documentary tries to get to the heard of the matter. What they discover is repeat pattern of another similar debate that happened years ago, when big tobacco was trying to convince the public smoking was safe. Many of the same scientists and companies who were involved in that debate have resurfaced and are applying the same approach to cast doubt on global warming.

Watch the Denial Machine documentary on CBC

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Bisphenol A, by now most of us have heard about this chemical in the news. On one hand we are told it’s amongst the worst chemicals in use today and yet on the other hand some say it’s completely safe. What’s the real story? Are we really as safe as the chemical manufacturers would lead us to believe?

Fast Company has published a candid look at Bisphenol A trying to determine what is the real story behind this enigmatic chemical. What they reported has implications that reach far beyond Bisphenol A, it exposes how the chemical companies produce and certify their products for human use. And the battle between special interest groups on both sides of the health debate. Here’s are two excerpts from the article:

Surely you’ve heard about BPA by now. It’s everywhere. Some 7 billion pounds of it were produced in 2007. It’s in adhesives, dental fillings, and the linings of food and drink cans. It’s a building block for polycarbonate, a near-shatterproof plastic used in cell phones, computers, eyeglasses, drinking bottles, medical devices, and CDs and DVDs…

To some degree, the BPA controversy is a story about a scientific dispute. But even more, it’s about a battle to protect a multibillion-dollar market from regulation. In the United States, industrial chemicals are presumed safe until proven otherwise. As a result, the vast majority of the 80,000 chemicals registered to be used in products have never undergone a government safety review. Companies are left largely to police themselves.

Read the full article here on Fast Company.com