Using Old Soap To Save Lives

You've probably seen those tiny bars of soap in hotel rooms. After you wash your hands a few times and check out of the hotel, what happens to that soap? Some people are using them to save lives.

Clean the World Foundation, Inc. was founded in February 2009 by Shawn Seipler and Paul Till. They got the idea in Orlando, where millions of people use hotels to visit theme parks.

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Recycling Contamination

Radioactive Metals Found in Recliners, Handbags Due to Recycling Contamination

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Cheese graters, handbags, fencing and recliners are just some of the thousands of consumer products that have been manufactured with radioactive metals, according to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) records.

* A China-made kitchen grater, found in a Flint, Mich., scrap plant, that was laced with the isotope Cobalt-60, giving off the equivalent of a chest X-ray over 36 hours of use.

* About 900 women's handbags made in India and found in the Netherlands that had metal rings laced with Cobalt-60 on each bag's shoulder strap.

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China's wasteland of toxic consumer electronics revealed

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Thomas Ricker of engadget writes "Any self-respecting gadget hound knows that China is responsible for packing millions of shipping containers with the consumer electronics we crave. What you may not know is what we ship in return: our waste for recycling. Of growing concern is e-waste, resulting from the deluge of PCs, cellphones, televisions and crapgadgets we churn through at an accelerating clip each year. While domestic recycling programs are good-intentioned, often the most toxic of our e-waste is shipped illegally back to China and boiled down for its precious metals under some of the most crude conditions you can imagine. When faced with the choice of familial poverty or the slow accumulation of poison in their bloodstream (for $8 per day), it's not hard to imagine what many rural Chinese people will choose. So while we give Greenpeace's self-congratulatory promotions and oft-subjective "Guide to Greener Electronics" company ratings the occasional hard time, their attempts to raise e-waste awareness are commendable. Now go ahead, check the video from 60 Minutes' intrepid reporters after the break and let the guilt wash over you."

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