Fresh water trucked in, crops destroyed as floodwaters swamp US midwest

Des Moines, Iowa: As some communities along the Missouri River start to shift their focus to flood recovery after a late-winter storm, residents in two Iowa cities are stuck in crisis mode after their treatment plants shut down and left them in need of fresh water.

People on a boat float down floodwaters that cover
Washington Street in Hamburg, Iowa, on Wednesday. 

Tanker trucks from the Iowa National Guard and a private company are hauling water into Hamburg and Glenwood, said Lucinda Parker, a spokeswoman with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Many evacuated from flooded areas in the southwestern part of the state are staying in shelters or with family and friends in the wake of the flooding and water struggles it has caused.

Read the story from The Age by Margery Beck - “Fresh water trucked in, crops destroyed as floodwaters swamp US midwest."

Hidden in plain sight: what the recycling crisis really looks like

The recycling industry has been in crisis mode in Australia since January when China, which previously bought 50% of the recycling we collect, implemented a ban that cut out 99% of what we used to sell.

The The recycling industry is in crisis, yet for most Australians
 it’s out of mind beyond the rattle of the recycling bin
pickups each week. So what does this crisis really
 look like? Guardian Australia visited three processing
sites to find out what happens to bins once they leave the kerb

Recycling companies had relied on this export revenue stream to stay afloat – the amount of waste recycling we create exceeds the demand we have to buy and use within Australia. Without an outlet, some companies began stockpiling recycling or sending it straight to landfill.

Now the industry is in an uneasy state as it moves to fix the problem, and what happens to our waste depends mostly on which bin it ends up in. 

Read the story from The Guardian - “Hidden in plain sight: what the recycling crisis really looks like.”