Howard County will soon allow residents to add banana peels, egg shells and even old pizza boxes to their recyclables, becoming one of the first East Coast localities to start a large-scale composting program.

Administrators at the new, state-of-the-art green conference center couldn't believe their water bill. The sensor-driven toilets "perceived" a need to flush every time people entered washroom stalls, closed the door or even moved an air column. The new smart toilets, which saved users the "labor" of having to flush (said the salesmen) flushed before, after and during people's use of them. Some went into flushus epilepsis and flushed continuously for hours.

An investment programme, combined with better management procedures, were responsible for a continued improvement in the Guardian's environmental performance in the last financial year.