Carlo Ratti, from the SENSEable City Laboratory at MIT has initiated a project to track where trash goes when we throw it “away”.

Philadelphia is adding another unique touch to it’s waste recovery program. Last week we saw Philly’s  recycling trucks wrapped in colorful graphics – and now, Inhabitat shares the news that the city is rolling out over 500 solar powered, compacting garbage cans. The bins can hold about eight times as much waste as a normal garbage can, and are estimated to save the city close to 12 million dollars over the next 10 years.
[via Inhabitat]

New York based artist Adrian Kondratowicz has been working on improving the urban landscape through the use of his custom-made, brightly colored trash bags since August of last year. He’s distributed the biodegradable bags throughout New York City, and in several countries around the world. Adrian will be part of a group exhibition during the ICFF called InDisposed which focuses on sustainability versus wastefulness, and preciousness versus mass production.
He explains:
TRASH: anycoloryoulike is a vivid art intervention for urban beautification and environmental awareness. The project consists of select city blocks in which new artist-created bags transform standard piles of trash [...]

Max Wallack has designed an ingenious shelter for the homeless and disaster victims. The 12 year old was the winner of Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure contest, which asked kids to re-purpose trash into practical inventions. Max’s dome is constructed out of plastic, wire and packing peanuts. Check out the video of its construction below.

[via Green Building Elements]

As the economy goes, so too does our trash and as people tighten their belts and spend fewer dollars, they’re also reusing more and throwing out less.  The LA Times reports on some telling statistics in cities across California: 
Over the last six months, operators at Puente Hills Landfill [in Los Angeles], among the nation’s largest, have noted a 30% decrease in tonnage from neighboring municipalities. The dump used to close at noon because it would reach its daily tonnage limit; now it stays open all day without hitting that mark.
San Francisco is disposing of less in landfills than it has [...]