Coke is moving toward bottles made entirely from plant waste material. Plant bottles in bottling plants!

What may be the greenest material around? Steel. More is recycled than paper, plastic, glass, copper and aluminum combined. Steel is recycled from automobiles at a rate of 106% (because newer cars are lighter and use high-strength steel). See other impressive info here (opens a PDF).

Man trucks 400 miles with cardboard windshield.

This useful article on choosing reusable respirators highlights getting employee input

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Inspect any light poles at your site that came from Whitco Co. LP (now out of business). They may not be safe.

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Missouri lawmakers banned floating polypropylene but meant polystyrene.

UCLA has a plan for improving lab safety about 7 months after a deadly accident served as a wake-up call and prompted attention including our post.

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SkillTV is offering prizes for the best photos of kids coming in contact with maintenance.

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How toast is manufactured.

This study says that hands-free phones are no safer than hand-held phones. The distraction factor is why the National Safety Council urges banning all mobile phone use during driving.

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TreeHugger.com (unfairly?) slams energy-generating speed bumps, particularly those installed at a Burger King drive-through.

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Advice on how to reengineer your maintenance stockroom to save time.

Researchers are making progress in mimicking the super-strong adhesives produced by snails and slugs.

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Here’s an alternative to power-washing for cleaning concrete. Very interesting and apparently green.

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This new company turns mushroom roots into foam-based material for packaging, insulation and more.

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Trench collapses just as worker exits at the urging of OSHA inspector.

Kellogg will donate an entire day of cereal production to fight hunger. Could you do the equivalent? Or maybe you already do?

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Self-healing, bending concrete!

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Maintenance crisis now referred to as a perfect storm hitting the skilled workforce. The factors are:

• An aging workforce

• A compromised education system

• The lack of technical apprenticeships

EPA takes first step toward new regulation of greenhouse gases.

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Quick introduction to safety knives, written by an expert from this company.

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Quick overview of confined space training.

Their storage & handling was their downfall: Trackable plastic pallets lead to grand theft arrest.

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Here’s a nice overview of storage & handling related to flammables and combustibles written by an expert at Justrite. It touches on all of the following:

Spill Containment Pallets
Drums and Containers
Type I Safety Cans
Type II Safety Cans
Safety Cabinets
Chemical Storage Cabinets
Non-Combustible Waste Containers
Aerosol Can Disposal
Oily Waste Containers
Absorbents

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Both the EPA and Earth Day turn 39 this year. Click here for a video from Administrator Lisa Jackson.