TerraCycle of New Jersey, USA reports that as of October 2011 it is now transforming around a billion pieces of so-called waste each month by collecting materials like juice pouch packaging and flip-flop sandals, then turning them into creative and eco-friendly products such as folders, backpacks and even playgrounds.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/10/world/americas/terracycle-recycling-waste-szaky/index.html?hpt=ila_t2
http://www.terracycle.net/how-terracycle-works.html

The Los Angeles, California, USA area experiences record-setting heat with downtown temperatures of 37.2 degrees Celsius, or 11 degrees above normal on October 12, 2011.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/heat-wave-records-los-angeles.html
http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/10/14/2741s662778.htm
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=weather&id=8388743

At a mid-October 2011 meeting of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, experts cited a loss of 24 billion tons of soil annually to factors such as erosion and livestock grazing of livestock as they urged for actions to reverse the process.

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20111009000124
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40041&Cr=desertification&Cr1=