On the banks of the Hoquiam River in southwestern Washington, a mostly sunken vessel lies along a bank at an angle with only its mast and the top of its pilothouse marking its resting place. This stretch of river is a misty, placid working patch of water marked with boats, boatyards and Highway 101 bridges. The […]

Oregon plans to suspend its recycling program for up to two years to re-educate the public on ways to improve the process. China has stopped accepting most recycling materials from the U.S. due to contamination. “The recycling world is changing dramatically worldwide,” said City Administrator Mike Beazley at a recent council meeting. “It’s affecting this […]

Aqua-DIY D100 uses water-based bonding and heat-reflective pigments to meet demand for dark and wood-grain coatings. Cellular PVC manufacturer Versatex Building Products has partnered with Aqua-DIY, a water-based coating provider for cellular PVC, to create a coating system designed to allow wood-grain finishes and other dark color treatments to resist and reflect heat. This new […]

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law last December, provided qualified pass-through businesses with a 20 percent deduction, bringing the effective tax rate for those businesses down to 29.6 percent.   The law established conditions that would have to be met for a company to qualify for the deduction, and it expressly excluded most […]

Vermont topped the list, with Delaware, Tennessee, Minnesota, New Hampshire, California, Pennsylvania, Washington, Maryland and Texas rounding out the top 10. Call2Recycle announced that in 2017, it recycled more than 8 million pounds of batteries through its battery recycling program. And just this week, the company released its top-performing battery recycling states in the U.S. […]

The Kroger Co. announced it will phase out single-use plastic bags and transition to reusable bags across its family of stores by 2025. Seattle-based QFC will be the company’s first retail division to phase out single-use plastic bags. The company expects QFC’s transition to be completed in 2019. “As part of our Zero Hunger | Zero […]

When designing their dream vacation home in Maui, clients Shawn and Shelley wanted a home that brought the outdoors in. Portland, Ore.-based firm Tiny Heirloom designed a luxurious, 400-square-foot tiny home for the vacationers with views of the ocean. The Iki Hau’oli Hale, which means Tiny, Happy Home, focuses on blending indoor and outdoor spaces. […]

Organizers of Orgill’s Fall Dealer Market pointed to a record-breaking number of attendees at its event in the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Orgill nation came for the deals, the networking and to generally soak in the home improvement knowledge of the three-day event. “We’re excited to see so many of our customers here in […]

We’re obviously very interested in hybrid vehicles here at Ars Technica; our very first car review back in 2000 was on the then-new Honda Insight. But while we’ve covered the development of hybrid cars since then, we haven’t paid quite as much attention to other parts of the transportation sector. As it turns out, there’s […]

The global fleet of electric buses is already helping cities avoiding the purchase of 279,000 barrels of oil per day, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Diesel buses consume an extraordinary amount of fuel compared to a passenger vehicle. Bloomberg noted that “For every 1,000 battery-powered buses on the road, about 500 barrels a day of […]