New British Environmental Site Holds Promise

"Edie is a free, personalised, interactive news, information and communications service for environmental professionals around the world. With comprehensive independent coverage, powerful search facilities, e-mail alerts and discussion forums, edie provides a one-stop-shop for the exchange of environmental information on the Web." Sounds good doesn't it?

According to edie, which has a British accent, it is supposed to become an "electronic personal assistant" for people engaged in the business side of environment--those dealing with evironmental products, services and suppliers. This is not your common environmental site and won't draw the interest of the public, but it might prove useful for environmental consultants, planners, designers, government employees and businesses that want to search for one another.

The site is brand new so when I looked at it the information was what I'd call scarce but the site structure suggests it could become useful as information is added to the databases. I tried the Library, for example, and received a "no can find" reply so I e-mailed a bug report to the site owner. I searched the site's Technology Database for two or three keywords and turned up nothing. I suspect that my keywords (read that "environmental interests") are environmental topics not relevant to the database or simply not available yet because the database is small.

I'm thinking about trying the free e-mail weekly international environmental news summary but I'm beginning to wonder about how many free environmental news services I can read since I already receive a feed from five. Oh well, what's one more, and it promises a "searchable news archive and feature article archive."

The site also will offer a database of reference documents that can be purchased and in some cases looked up for free on the web. This is where I found (on line) The Wastebook, a guide to recycling and better waste management for organisations in the Northern Home Counties and North London.

This book is a find! It may have a narrow geographic focus but waste is waste and I like anything that provides me with new ideas. This one is loaded (take a deep breath): green waste and composting, food waste, used vegetable oils and fats, wood waste, wood burning, construction and demolition wastes, soil and aggregate recycling, building materials reclamation, architectural salvage, paper and office consumables, toner cartridges, common metals - ferrous and non-ferrous, precious and rare metals, electronic and electrical scrap, refrigeration equipment, rubber and tyres, packaging materials, mineral oils, lubricating oils, solvents, clinical and veterinary waste, nappies (pee-yew!) and personal products, photographic waste, batteries, asbestos, radioactive wastes, end of life vehicles, motorcycles, heavy goods vehicles, unwanted goods, textiles, furniture and household effects, medical equipment, to name a few.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic