In the news: Toyota Motors Sales USA Inc. has announced recently that they will launch a nationwide tour with a theme â??Highway to the Future: Mobile Hybrid Experienceâ? which aims to provide customers with the opportunity to personally experience automotive hybrid technology.

The tour has already kicked off January 11 this year at the San Jose international Auto Show and will continue to travel to more than 150 events throughout the country for the next 18 months. Consumers are to be given the chance to test Toyotaâ??s Hybrid Synergy Drive system and at the same time be educated on the hybrid technology through the various interactive educational exhibits and test drives.

According to Celeste Migliore, Toyotaâ??s National Manager for Advanced Technology Vehicles, “Most people have heard of hybrid technology and probably have a vague idea of how it works, but few have actually driven a hybrid and or taken an up-close look at its operation. This tour allows consumers to learn more about the technology behind this system and the benefits of hybrid vehicles.”

Toyota, maker of the high quality Toyota outer tie rod will also allow attendees the opportunity to test drive some of their hybrid vehicles such as the Prius, Camry Hybrid and Highlander. Aside from the test drives there will also be distinct interactive learning areas within the exhibit such as the following:

*”Alternative Fuels: Fueling the Future,” identifies the differences in the various types of alternative fuels and how they are produced.

*”Environment and Resources: Small Steps, Big Difference,” shows attendees what they can do to make a difference to the environment.

*”The Prius Driving Experience” simulates the current Hybrid Synergy Drive technology allowing visitors to interact with system while on screen instructions offer driving tips.

*”Hybrid Technology: Not All Hybrids are Created Equal” exhibit gives visitors a better understanding of the various hybrid technology options on the market and how hybrids benefit the consumer and the environment.

The tour will not only be educational but will also benefit the environment since Toyota will plant more than 50,000 trees as tribute to those who will join the tour and also in connection with the National Arbor Day Foundation. The trees will also help in offsetting the carbon footprint of the trucks transporting the tour while it goes around the country.

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion in the United States, marketing products and services through a network of 1,427 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers in 49 states.

The Hunza Environmental Committee (HEC) was formed in December 1997 as a project of KADO.It is a community response to the civic needs of the growing tourist and business towns in central Hunza, where in the absence of any municipal agency, the issue of solid waste disposal was getting worst day-by-day and there was no mechanism to arrest the situation and manage the problem.

After initial funding support for start-up costs by AKF-UK/EU and NORAD through AKCSP, and mobilization of local resources to create an endowment fund, the project now sustains operations through user-fees and utilizes local resources and collaborates with local institutions for awareness raising programmes, independent of any external donor support.

HEC executes the first and only community-based municipal service in the country. Its approach to solid waste management is distinctive in that it has used an innovative approach by linking local voluntarism and technical capacity of a local NGO with the social responsibility of the private sector while keeping close coordination & linkages with the local administration/government.

Almost 90 % of the clients are from the business community; shopkeepers, traders, cabins, hotels, restaurants, barbershops, auto workshops etc. Other clients include; Institutional/organizational clients like hospitals, offices, Schools, Colleges, Banks, Mosques/Community Centers etc. and a small number of individual households near the roadsides are also users. Total number of users is around 600 and 85% of them pay their user fee regularly.

The total waste daily generated in central Hunza has been estimated to be around 3,293 kg. It is estimated that HEC handles 50% of the total waste generated in the area and the remaining 50 % of the solid waste is dumped into the rivers, streams, water courses and in the backyards posing grave threat to both human and animal health.