(NEW YORK) — Recycling on a large scale has always proved to be a challenging endeavor, especially as the production of plastic surged exponentially after the 1970s.
But new technology made to streamline the process may help the U.S. make strides in eliminating the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills.
Nearly 300 million tons of waste is produced in the U.S. every year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Only a fourth of that solid trash is recycled.
The need for automation in recycling centers is “obvious,” Matanya Horowitz, founder and CEO of AMP Robotics, told ABC News, especially since positions to sort through the trash do not pay well and can be dangerous.
Items such as bowling balls, skis, fabric and dirty diapers often make their way to the sorting center, Joshua Taylor, the manager of the Denver recycling plant, told ABC News.
Workers are on their feet in front of a conveyor belt all day, and turnover is high, Taylor added.
“At AMP Robotics, we’re using robotics and artificial intelligence to solve some of the primary challenges of the recycling business,” Horowitz said.
When Horowitz first proposed the idea, the feedback he received from people in the robotics field was not encouraging, he said.
“Most people in robotics that I knew thought it was a terrible idea,” Horowitz said, adding that they were “skeptical of the problems.”
But Horowitz persisted, convinced that the idea could work despite what the experts said.
He and his design team used a “unique” approach involving the use of artificial intelligence to teach the systems to identify a plethora of different materials, whether they’re bottles or cans and whether they are misshapen or have food particles on them, eliminating limitations of previous sorting machines.
“What I saw in recycling, the whole industry was being held back by these core challenges,” Horowitz said. “And if you could develop a vision system that could identify material, even though it’s been smashed and folded and dirty, you could deal with those core challenges, and you would unlock a whole lot for the industry.”
At the Waste Management plant in Denver, an average of 32 tons of waste is processed every hour, Taylor said, describing the recycling center as “a tough place to work.”
“So, you can imagine, every hour we’re doing about one and a half tractor trailer full of recyclable materials through the plant,” he said.
Recycling centers can install the robots in facilities “with almost no change to their existing operations,” Horowitz said.
The recycling industry is not achieving its full potential, said Susan Collins, the executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, a nonprofit that provides information, consultation, technical assistance and tools for recycling.
About 44% of greenhouse gases in the U.S. come from products and packaging, meaning that making recycling more efficient “represents the largest portion of what we can do” to reduce emissions, she said.
“People don’t look to the lowly glass bottle or aluminum cans and think, ‘Oh, that’s an opportunity for me to save energy and save greenhouse gases,'” Collins said. “But it is, and it’s huge.”
(SAN DIEGO) — A 2-year-old girl who spent the first two years of her life in the hospital is back home with her parents and younger brother in California.
It was a joyous homecoming for Addy Smith, who left the hospital on April 5 after 848 days of treatment at two different San Diego hospitals.
Addy was born via cesarean section on Dec. 10, 2019, at 27 weeks and four days at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns in San Diego, where she first received treatment. She was small for her age and according to her parents, was diagnosed with intrauterine growth restriction while still in the womb. IUGR, also known as fetal growth restriction or FGR, is a condition where a baby doesn’t grow at a normal rate in the womb and can lead to a lower weight at birth, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Addy’s parents, Aliesha and Chris Smith, had struggled for seven years with infertility, and at one point were told they weren’t able to have children. They tried several intrauterine insemination procedures that were unsuccessful but then got pregnant one month before they were supposed to begin the in vitro fertilization process.
“We had tried so long. It was never ever on the table, never an option to not see things through with her and not give her a chance,” Chris Smith, 36, recalled to ABC News’ Good Morning America. “The OB (obstetrician) had told us, she just painted a picture of what it would be like for the next, at least couple years, and the rest of her life and we were really like, ‘OK, let’s go. Let’s saddle up and this is what was meant to be.'”
At Sharp Mary Birch, Addy seemed to be making progress, despite her underdeveloped lungs, moving from a ventilator to a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine to help her breathe. But three months after her birth, Addy took a turn for the worse, when she stopped breathing.
“The doctors did not think she was going to make it and we were getting ready to say our goodbyes,” Aliesha Smith, 35, recalled to GMA.
Doctors had to work on Addy for over an hour to resuscitate her, but the team at Sharp Mary Birch told Aliesha and Chris that in order to give Addy a fighting chance, she’d have to be transferred to Rady Children’s Hospital.
Addy was quickly admitted to Rady’s neonatal intensive care unit in March 2020, the same month when COVID-19 was declared a national emergency. Aliesha and Chris Smith also moved into a friend’s recreational vehicle so they could split up time with Addy after the hospital changed their protocols due to COVID-19 and only allowed one parent to stay at Addy’s bedside at a time.
“She was so critical, so critical, that we had a friend that let us use their RV. And so we parked on the street and that’s where one of us would be when one of us would be up by her room,” Aliesha explained, adding that Addy coded two more times on her first two days at Rady.
Dr. Sandeep Khanna, a pediatric intensivist and the medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Rady Children’s Hospital, treated Addy, who had chronic lung disease and had trouble breathing on her own, for over a year in the PICU.
“She was a challenge,” Khanna told GMA. “She was having periods when the air exchange was very difficult on her and we had to give her heavy amounts of sedation to relax her, and sometimes even the heavy, heavy amounts of sedation did not work.”
“The only thing which helped us through was that we had to give her a paralyzing medication after heavy sedation,” Khanna continued. “It was tricky because sometimes those episodes would resolve [after] maybe 30 minutes or an hour. But sometimes she would have periods of those episodes maybe 10 times a day and she would continue to have it for like seven to 10 days. And it was hard to wean her from heavy sedation and muscle relaxation medications. And that’s why she was stuck in the hospital.”
For months, Addy was on some form of paralytic drug, but the Smiths never gave up on Addy, even when her care team, like Khanna, didn’t have any clear answers or solutions.
“I was sitting with [Chris] in the room and I said, ‘Look, the way things are going, Chris, I don’t know when she will go home. I think this might take years. It might take decades, even,'” Khanna recalled. “We are not saying we’re quitting but I’m just telling you that you should be prepared for that. And he said, ‘Well, she’s driving the bus. Keep doing it.’ So we did it.”
“We were always on the same page,” Aliesha added. “We always knew what the end goal was, which was to get her home. And we always made an agreement, Addy is going to tell us when she’s not ready. And if we started questioning that and we would pray about it and say like, ‘God, please give me a sign, tell me if it’s time to stop or if it’s time to keep going.'”
Khanna said there were many factors in Addy’s case but letting her grow in the PICU under the care of her nurses and medical team seemed to help with her breathing episodes, as her lungs continued to develop. Physical therapy also helped with her muscle rigidity and her lungs seemed to improve as her muscles strengthened. By February and March 2022, Addy didn’t have any bronchoconstriction, or muscle spasms in the lungs, when she couldn’t breathe.
The last two years have been extremely difficult for the Smiths but one of their bright spots was finding out they were expecting again. The couple welcomed their second child, a healthy baby boy named Aiden, last year.
Aiden was able to join his parents and accompany his older sister home two weeks ago and they’re getting to know each other already.
“She starts cracking up when he’s laughing or when he’s screaming. She cracks up and it’s funny to see them interact,” Aliesha said. “We’ve taken them on walks together out in the neighborhood, which has been so fun to do.”
Even though Addy still needs to use a ventilator at home for now, Aliesha and Chris are full of hope for their oldest child and want to pass along their hope to others.
“It’s been miracle after miracle with her,” Chris said. “We’re both so excited to see where she goes and what she can do. And I know she’s always going to continue to blow us away and surprise us.”
“I’m hoping we can give another family hope. We felt very alone during this whole thing and if her story can give another family that may be going through something so similar … if we can give them that little peace, I know it would have meant everything to us, as well,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Over the holiday weekend, 12 people were shot at a Columbia, South Carolina, mall. In nearby Hampton County, nine people were shot outside a nightclub. And in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, two juveniles were killed and eight were injured after a shooting at a birthday party.
The recent incidents are just the latest examples of mass shootings that have been occurring at a sustained pace across the United States for the past two years and counting and which coincide with an increase in fatal shootings overall. Fatal shootings, not including suicides, jumped by more than 4,000 from 2019 to 2020 — a 26% increase in one year, according to statistics compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit which identifies mass shootings as cases in which four or more people are shot and tracks them through public data, news reports and other sources.
“These two devastating shootings will leave permanent scars on survivors and entire communities, and unfortunately, they represent only a fraction of the gun violence that impacts South Carolinians on a daily basis,” said the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety in a statement responding to the South Carolina shootings. “Just weeks ago, a twelve-year old was killed in a shooting at Greenville’s Tanglewood Middle School. Days after that, five people were wounded in a shooting along a rural road in Colleton County.”
While the rate of increase in fatal shootings slowed last year, the total number of fatal shootings still grew — to nearly 21,000, according to the GVA. And as the overall number of fatal shootings has increased, there has also been a rise in mass shootings. In 2019, there were 417 mass shootings, and just two years later, there were 693. Through April 17, the pace of mass shootings has slowed, but there have already been 139 such incidents (compared to 148 by the same date last year). Meanwhile, the number of non-mass shootings is on the rise from 5,445 through April 17 last year to 5,451 for the same period this year.
In an effort to address gun violence, President Joe Biden announced earlier this month an initiative to combat ghost guns — a firearm that comes packaged in parts, can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace.
“Anyone could order it in the mail, anyone … Terrorists and domestic abusers can go from a gun kit to a gun in as little as 30 minutes. Buyers aren’t required to pass background checks because guns have no serial numbers,” Biden said.
The new rule essentially expands the definition of a “firearm,” as established by the Gun Control Act, to cover “buy build shoot” kits that people can purchase online or from a firearm dealer and assemble themselves. It will make these kits subject to the same federal laws that currently apply to other firearms.
The goal, officials said, is to keep untraceable guns off the streets and out of the hands of those prohibited from possession.
Biden also nominated former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach to become the next director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — a role that includes enforcing and implementing gun laws.
The White House and gun control advocates, however, have argued that substantive gun control measures will require legislative action through Congress, but that is unlikely given Republican opposition.
“The United States is not the only country with mental illness, domestic violence, video games, or hate-fueled ideologies, but our gun homicide rate is 25 times higher than our peer countries. The difference is easy access to guns,” according Everytown for Gun Safety, which applauded and had called for the recent moves by the Biden administration.
(NEW YORK) — Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo announced Monday that he and model Georgina Rodríguez were mourning the death of their infant son.
Ronaldo, 37, and Rodríguez, 28, announced they were expecting twins in an Instagram post from October 2021. The couple said an infant daughter arrived safely.
“It is with our deepest sadness we have to announce that our baby boy has passed away,” a joint statement from the couple shared to social media on Monday began. “It is the greatest pain that any parents can feel. Only the birth of our baby girl gives us the strength to live this moment with some hope and happiness.”
“We would like to thank the doctors and nurses for all their expert care and support,” the statement continued. “We are all devastated at this loss and we kindly ask for privacy at this very difficult time.”
The pair’s statement concluded, “Our baby boy, you are our angel. We will always love you.”
(NEW YORK) — The New York City Police Department is searching for the person who stabbed a New York City mother to death and dumped her body in a large rollable duffel bag, police sources told ABC News.
Just after 8 a.m. Saturday, authorities responded to a 911 call reporting a suspicious duffel bag with blood on it on a Queens, New York, street corner, the NYPD said.
Officers found 51-year-old Orsolya Gaal inside the bag, police said.
Gaal was stabbed dozens of times, according to police sources. The medical examiner’s office said she died from “sharp force injuries” to the neck.
A trail of blood from the duffel bag led to Gaal’s Queens home, police said.
According to police sources, Gaal may have known her killer.
It’s believed she went out for the night while her husband was out of town and it appeared she was killed in her basement, sources said.
Detectives are looking to speak with three men whose numbers were found in Gaal’s phone, sources said.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris announced Monday night that the Biden administration is setting a self-imposed ban on anti-satellite missile testing with the goal of making it an “international norm for responsible behavior in space.”
The U.S., China, India and Russia have all carried out such tests, which generate dangerous space debris. The U.S. is the first to impose such a ban.
“Simply put, these tests are dangerous, and we will not conduct them,” Harris said during remarks at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The vice president said the U.S. hopes other nations will follow suit.
The U.S. has identified and tracks over 1,600 pieces of debris that Russia created when it used a missile to destroy a satellite in November and more than 2,800 that China generated when it carried out its own test in 2007, Harris said. Russia’s direct-ascent anti-satellite missile test created a field of debris that threatened the International Space Station.
“This debris presents a risk to the safety of our astronauts, our satellites and our growing commercial presence,” she said. “A piece of space debris the size of a basketball, which travels at thousands of miles per hour, would destroy a satellite. Even a piece of debris as small as a grain of sand could cause serious damage.”
“These weapons are intended to deny the United States our ability to use our space capabilities by destructing, destroying our satellites, satellites which are critical to our national security,” Harris said. “These tests, to be sure, are reckless, and they are irresponsible. These tests also put in danger so much of what we do in space.”
Ahead of her remarks, the vice president met with members of the United States Space Force and United States Space Command, receiving briefings on their work advancing U.S. national security.
Sergei Chuzavkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces have since retreated from northern Ukraine, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. The United States and many European countries accused Russia of committing war crimes after graphic images emerged of dead civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. Moscow is now said to be refocusing its offensive on the eastern Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Latest headlines:
-Combat in eastern Ukraine part of Russia’s ‘shaping operations’ for future offensive
-US still assessing Russian strike in Lviv: Kirby
-Thousands more Russian troops back in Ukraine
-Russian forces seize town in war-torn Luhansk region
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 18, 7:55 pm
Zelenskyy: Russian forces have begun offensive in Donbas region
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces have begun their offensive in the eastern part of the country after a week of building up troops.
“It can now be stated that Russian troops have begun the battle for Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time,” the president said in his nightly address. “A very large part of the entire Russian army is now focused on this offensive.”
Ukrainian and U.S. officials have said Russian troops exiting the Kyiv region over the last week were moving to eastern Ukraine as part of a new effort to take over land partially controlled by the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Those two breakaway regions were already aligned with Russia following a war that began in 2014.
Zelenskyy, however, warned that Russian forces would not be successful in taking all of the land in the southeastern region of Ukraine.
“No matter how many Russian soldiers are driven there, we will fight,” he said. “We will defend ourselves. We will do it daily. We will not give up anything Ukrainian, and we do not need what’s not ours.”
Apr 18, 4:54 pm
Combat in eastern Ukraine part of Russia’s ‘shaping operations’ for future offensive
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday that while there has been combat in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine for some weeks, it is part of Russia’s ongoing “shaping” operations for a future offensive, and not the offensive itself.
“We’re not disputing that there’s not combat going on in the Donbas,” Kirby said. “What we’re saying is that we still consider that what we’re seeing to be a piece of shaping operations.”
“That the Russians are continuing to set conditions for what they believe will be eventual success on the ground by using, by putting, in more forces, putting in more enablers, putting in more command and control capability for operations yet to come,” he said.
Asked to clarify his answer, Kirby replied: “We believe that the Russians are shaping and setting the conditions for future offensive operations. We also see … that there is active combat going on right now in the Donbas as there has been for the last several weeks.”
Kirby described the fighting in the besieged port city of Mariupol as part of that since the Russians are “trying to set the conditions for more aggressive, more overt and larger ground maneuvers in the Donbas.”
He added that the Russians have also continued to flow in artillery, helicopters, enabling troops and more command and control units as part of the groundwork for that upcoming operation.
Kirby said that the U.S. believes that Russia has reinforced the number of battalion tactical groups in eastern and southern Ukraine as part of their preparations for a large operation in the Donbas region.
ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, Luis Martinez
Apr 18, 4:45 pm
US still assessing Russian strike in Lviv: Kirby
The U.S. is still assessing what the Russians were attempting to strike in Lviv in western Ukraine on Monday, according to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
Kirby said he would not describe Monday’s airstrike as a “bombardment” and said he did not know Russia’s intent.
“We don’t have a clear sense of battle damage assessment about what they were targeting and what they hit. At this time, we don’t have any indication that Western aid was targeted and/or hit or destroyed,” Kirby said.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Apr 18, 3:23 pm
US offering temporary protected status to Ukrainians in US as of April 11
The U.S. will offer temporary protected status to Ukrainians already in the country as of April 11, according to a new notice from the Department of Homeland Security in the Federal Register.
The Biden administration announced last month that it would offer Ukrainians this legal basis to stay in the U.S. if they had arrived before March 1. This new notice means that Ukrainians who have been in the U.S. as of April 11 can apply for the legal status, which will remain in effect for 18 months — until Oct. 19, 2023.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services estimates that about 59,000 Ukrainians could be eligible, according to the Federal Register notice.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has tweeted about the change, which he said was made at the Ukrainian government’s request.
(NEW YORK) — As experts warn about the spread of COVID-19 misinformation in online parent groups, one mom is speaking out about how she inadvertently became an anti-vaccine influencer.
Heather Simpson of Dallas, Texas, said she turned to wellness groups and became an online influencer almost overnight when she posted anti-vaccine beliefs on Facebook after watching an anti-vaccine documentary.
“I was convinced that if I vaccinated my child, she would die that night,” Simpson told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “That kind of led me into the entire wellness community as a whole.”
“At the time, I was a stay at home mom. I was lonely. I didn’t have family or friends close by,” Simpson continued. “It was so nice to be welcomed into this community. They were listening to your health concerns. They were supportive.”
According to a recent study by The George Washington University, parents like Simpson were especially vulnerable to online misinformation campaigns early on during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were exposed to thousands of alternative health and anti-vaccination communities on networking sites like Facebook.
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children ages 5 and older receive vaccinations to protect against COVID-19. CDC data shows that more than nine million children between the ages of 5 and 11 in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and nearly eight million have received two doses as of April 13.
When Simpson started sharing her own anti-vaccine beliefs online, her posts took off and people shared them hundreds of times.
“People saw me as a health authority,” Simpson said. “I could post anything and they’re going to share it and take it as fact.”
Renee DiResta, a research manager at Stanford University’s Internet Observatory who studies disinformation, the deliberate spreading of false information, and social networks online, says it’s not hard to end up in so-called wellness groups and they can feel welcoming and supportive.
“You have to know which medical websites to trust. If you’re using whatever search engine, you don’t necessarily know if you’re getting reputable information there,” DiResta told GMA.
“You feel like you’re hearing from your friends. You’re getting social feedback. Oftentimes, people who are the most passionate about sharing information are not necessarily sharing the right information,” DiResta added.
The federal government has warned consumers about disinformation, including taking action against fraudulent products that claim to treat COVID-19. In March, the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration, sued a marketer of an herbal tea, called Earth Tea, for false advertising.
The company told GMA it never promoted Earth Tea as a clinically proven COVID-19 prevention method, treatment or cure, and has stopped advertising and selling products in the U.S.
Simpson said ultimately, it was her concern for her 4-year-old daughter’s well-being that led her to change her stance and come to support vaccinations.
“I realized, ‘What if she got the measles? What if she did die from the measles and I could have stopped that?'” she recalled.
Now, Simpson has co-founded a vaccine advocacy site, called “Back to the Vax,” as well as a podcast and support group.
“I feel like there is a responsibility to listen to the anti-vaxxers and the wellness community and try to bridge the gap,” she said.
For credible online sources for medical advice, start with the websites for the CDC and National Institutes of Health (NIH), and ask your health care provider if you’re curious or have any questions about wellness products.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces have since retreated from northern Ukraine, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. The United States and many European countries accused Russia of committing war crimes after graphic images emerged of dead civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. Moscow is now said to be refocusing its offensive on the eastern Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 19, 5:33 am
Russian military calls on Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to surrender
The Russian military is calling on Ukrainian troops in besieged Mariupol to surrender by midday on Tuesday.
Russian forces have been trying to seize the strategic port city in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk Oblast since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24. The Russian Ministry of Defense said it is ready to declare a temporary ceasefire in Mariupol on Tuesday from 1:30 p.m. local time.
Ukrainian troops holed up on the grounds of the Azovstal iron and steelworks plant in Mariupol have until then to stop all fighting and lay down their arms, according to Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center. Moscow has proposed this plan “given the catastrophic situation in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, as well as for purely humanitarian considerations,” Mizintsev said in a statement Tuesday.
“All those who will lay down arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared,” he added. “The actual start of the temporary ceasefire shall be marked by both sides by raising flags — red flags by the Russian side and white flags by the Ukrainian side along the entire perimeter of Azovstal. Furthermore, their readiness to put the temporary ceasefire into effect shall be confirmed by the sides via all communication channels.”
According to Mizintsev, “absolutely all” Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries will be allowed to leave the plant without any weapons or ammunition from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. local time. Moscow guarantees to each Ukrainian soldier who surrenders that their life will be spared and their rights as prisoners of war will be respected, Mizintsev said.
The Beach Boys are celebrating their 60th anniversary this year with their “Sixty Years of the Sounds of Summer” tour, and now the legendary rock band has announced a series of six shows that will see them teaming up with another group marking its 60th year in 2022 — Motown greats The Temptations.
The surf-meets-soul bill will visit Cincinnati on August 16; Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 18; Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 19; Bethel, New York, on August 25; and Chautauqua, New York, on August 26. In addition, The Temptations have signed to perform with The Beach Boys at a previously announced concert in Solomons, Maryland, that also will feature The Four Tops.
The Beach Boys’ upcoming 2022 itinerary includes over 35 concerts, spanning from a May 6 show in Mahnomen, Minnesota, all the way through an October 21-22 stand in Orillia, Canada.
Tickets for most of the new dates go on sale to the general public this Friday, April 22 at 10 a.m. local time.
The tour, which began last month, launched on the heels of the release of a new song by the country duo Locash titled “Beach Boys” that featured contributions from the band’s Mike Love and Bruce Johnston.
