The Rural Blog

A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Rural Blog

PAGES

Many 'recycled' items go to a landfill instead; here's how to improve your recycling efforts, particularly involving plastics

Home septic systems need regular care and maintenance to prevent 'seriously unpleasant' and expensive problems

Transforming wastewater directly into drinking water might sound 'yucky,' but experts say it could work well

Repurposing sewage can be environmentally friendly, but it's objectionable to some, and has to be carefully managed

Tenn. farmers challenge Tyson Foods' right to taxpayer financing, saying barns it controls are not 'family farms'

North Carolina is the biggest chicken state, but at what cost to the environment? Veils of secrecy make it hard to say

Rural recycling programs in U.S. are squeezed by China's tougher standards for imports of paper and other waste

National parks, left open but understaffed during government shutdown over border wall, are being trashed

Looking for solutions to sewage problems in Alabama's Black Belt -- and perhaps other rural areas with the issue

Alabama towns protest backup of rail cars full of New York City sewage sludge headed for local landfill

Leaked Trump infrastructure plan includes incentives for rural transportation, broadband, utilities

Uncle and nephew win Kentucky award for public service through community journalism

Weekly publisher wins fight against coal-ash landfill

N.C. farm experimenting with ways to raise antibiotic-free hogs and decrease farm runoff

500,000 U.S. homes lack sewage disposal systems; problem especially bad in rural Black Belt

Rural Oregon residents say plan to close garbage transfer stations could lead to illegal dumping

Photographer spends six years documenting Okla. town's fight against coal ash from nearby plant

California county paying thousands of dollars each year to clean up large trash items from rural roads

Renewable energy market shifts from biomass to solar, pinching Calif. farmers and biomass plants

For series, reporter travels 300 miles by canoe to get firsthand feel of impact of Ohio River tributary