Now this might not surprise you, but it seems that hedgehogs really are rubbish when it comes to crossing the road.
In some parts of the UK, the number of hedgehogs have almost halved and researchers say it could be because the prickly critters can't cope in traffic.
Scientists found the animals tended to wait until vehicles were too close before trying to cross, then froze on the spot instead of trying to run away.
It's thought about 15,000 hedgehogs are killed on the roads every year.Each week, residents of Seattle, Washington carefully sort their garbage for recycling. They put their plastic bottles, along with the paper, metal, and glass in special recycling containers provided by the city. Then trucks from Waste Management or Rabanco, two companies that operate curbside recycling programs, collect these materials and cart them off, supposedly to environmentally beneficial recycling facilities nearby.
In a vast slum just outside Jakarta, for instance, women work in a crowded, unventilated room, separating the waste newspapers, pieces of clothing, metal scraps, poor quality and highly contaminated plastic from the reusable plastics. It's 90 degrees and too hot to wear protective smocks or gloves, not that they are available anyway. With their bare hands the Indonesian women wipe the sweat from their brows. The huge piles of plastic bags, liquid soap bottles, food wrappers, jugs, and disposable diapers have familiar logos Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Solvay, Mobil.Once separated, the piles of discard are sent to a local dump. One Indonesian recycling company owner estimated that up to 40 per cent of the imported waste is landfilled. Workers shovel the "good" plastic into large grinding machines which turn out plastic pellets or flakes. The women next wash the surface residues and contaminants off these bits. The waste water is then poured onto the dirt floor or out the back door of the recycling plant.
The plastic pellets, sometimes mixed with new plastic or other additives, are melted and formed into long plastic cords. Once cooled, the cords are again chipped and sent to manufacturing plants in Asia to be made into shoe soles, containers, or toys.
Two Months' Plastic Garbage Exports
Plastic Scrap Exports to Asia
February 1 March 31, 1992
Country Number of Shipments Total (pounds)
China (directly) 6 210,894
Hong Kong 586 37,746,957
India 11 2,198,339
Indonesia 50 4,952,518
Japan 5 112,797
Korea 6 241,866
Malaysia 7 561,530
Pakistan 1 41,533
Philippines 58 5,385,902
Singapore 5 157,350
Thailand 6 273,071
Taiwan 6 344,611
TOTAL 750 52,053,376
Link " http://www.things.org/~jym/greenpeace/where-recycled-plastics-go.html"
Fears are growing for millions of people in south-west China who could now be at risk of flooding just two weeks after a deadly earthquake struck.
Dozens of 'quake lakes' formed as landslides triggered by the earthquake blocked rivers in the Sichuan province.
Heavy rain is now causing water levels to rise and officials are warning that several dams and lakes across the province may be in danger of bursting.
A 10-year-old boy is being called a hero after he helped save the lives of two of his friends after China's huge earthquake.
Lin Hao was at school in Yingxiu, which was one of the areas worst hit by the powerful quake last Monday.
The building collapsed while he was walking down a corridor, trapping him and two of this classmates.
Lin was injured, but managed to free himself before carrying his two friends to safety.Wildfires are raging through parts of America forcing hundreds of people to leave their homes.
Dozens of homes on Florida's central Atlantic coast have been destroyed, and more than 120 others damaged.
Some of the fires are thought to have been started deliberately and they're being made worse by the dry and windy weather, which is fanning the flames.
