EnviroPolitics Blog

New grant program seeks to Grants of up to $50K aim to boost compostable packaging recovery

By Cole Rosengren, Managing Editor, Waste Dive

The Composting Consortium, in partnership with the U.S. Composting Council and Biodegradable Products Institute, is starting a grant program to increase the recovery of food-contact compostable packaging.

Grant awards can be as high as $50,000, though the total funding availability was not disclosed. Applications are open through June 13, and all projects must be completed by March 1, 2026.

This is the latest move by the Composting Consortium, which is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, to bolster and scale organics recycling infrastructure.

While compostable packaging is viewed as a way to increase overall food scrap recovery volumes, its acceptance and value in the system elicits a range of opinions. Some composters have welcomed it, while others cite concerns about how the material breaks down and whether it invites non-compostable plastics.

The consortium’s new grant program aims to help composters, local government and nonprofits fund on-site equipment improvements, public education, testing and market development related to packaging.

Read the full story here

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Waste industry revving up large company acquisitions

Republic Services’ purchase of Shamrock Environmental led spending for the quarter. Other notable deals include Waste Connections’ purchase of Atlantic Coast Recycling in New Jersey.

By Cole Rosengren, Managing Editor, Waste Dive

The U.S. solid waste industry’s five largest publicly traded companies spent an estimated $1.49 billion on acquisitions to start the year, with plenty more activity expected.

The totals include spending reported by WM, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL Environmental and Casella Waste Systems.

Below is a recap of M&A activity for each company along with executives’ insights from recent earnings calls about what’s ahead.

Read the full story here

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When it comes to the environment, it’s Trump vs. the states

By Claire Brown and Karen Zraick, The New York Times

In April, President Trump issued an executive order announcing his plan to protect “American energy from state overreach” and directing the Justice Department to block state and local climate initiatives “that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.”

Last week, the contours of that effort became clearer when the department filed lawsuits against four states.

Two of the lawsuits target climate superfund laws passed last year in Vermont and New York, which are designed to force fossil fuel companies to help pay for climate-related costs. Also last week, the Justice Department filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan just days after learning Hawaii was planning to sue fossil fuel companies for climate-related damages, as nine other states have done. Michigan had also indicated was planning to sue.

When the executive order was first issued, many legal experts said it amounted to little more than a signaling exercise because presidents do not have the power to alter state laws. The new legal actions will test the limits of that theory, and also test the willingness of states to pursue their climate plans.

“We had expected the administration to do lots of deregulatory actions,” said Meghan Greenfield, an environmental lawyer who previously worked at the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency and is now a partner at the law firm Jenner & Block. “I don’t think that we expected, also, at the same time, an offensive effort against the states.”

In areas like abortion and education, the Trump administration has supported states’ rights to make their own policies, a traditionally Republican position. The executive order on state climate policies “works in the opposite direction,” Greenfield said. “It’s taking away authorities that states have been exercising,” she said.

In response to a request for comment, the White House pointed to a Department of Justice statement announcing the four lawsuits.

Here are some of the state climate initiatives that may face challenges.

Read the full article here

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The new cash crop in California is solar energy

In California’s water-stressed Central Valley, farmers are fallowing land and installing solar, providing financial stability and saving water.

By Matt Simon, Canary Media

Around the world, farmers are retooling their land to harvest the hottest new commodity: sunlight. As the price of renewable energy technology has plummeted and water has gotten more scarce, growers are fallowing acreage and installing solar panels. Some are even growing crops beneath them, which is great for plants stressed by too many rays. Still others are letting that shaded land go wild, providing habitat for pollinators and fodder for grazing livestock.

According to a new study, this practice of agrisolar has been quite lucrative for farmers in California’s Central Valley over the last 25 years — and for the environment. Researchers looked at producers who had idled land and installed solar, using the electricity to run equipment like water pumps and selling the excess power to utilities.

On average, that energy savings and revenue added up to $124,000 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) each year, 25 times the value of using the land to grow crops. Collectively, the juice generated in the Central Valley could power around 500,000 households while saving enough water to hydrate 27 million people annually. “If a farmer owns 10 acres of land, and they choose to convert 1 or 2 acres to a solar array, that could produce enough income for them to feel security for their whole operation,” said Jake Stid, a renewable energy landscape scientist at Michigan State University and lead author of the paper, published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Read the full story here

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Sequoia trees are sprouting in Detroit. Yes, Detroit

Vacant lots becoming home to majestic trees, which help air quality

**Gianna Holliday** planted a seedling for Giant Sequoia Filter Forest in Detroit, the pilot city

By Corey Williams, Associated Press

DETROIT — Arborists are turning vacant land on Detroit’s eastside into a small urban forest — not of elms, oaks and red maples indigenous to the city but giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees that can live for thousands of years.

The project on four lots could improve air quality and help preserve the trees that are native to California’s Sierra Nevada, where they are threatened by ever-hotter wildfires.

Detroit is the pilot city for the Giant Sequoia Filter Forest. The nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive donated dozens of sequoia saplings to be planted by staff and volunteers from Arboretum Detroit, another nonprofit, as a way to mark Earth Day on April 22.

Co-founder David Milarch says Archangel also plans to plant sequoias in Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; and London.

What are they?

The massive conifers can grow to more than 300 feet tall with a more than 30-foot circumference at the base. They can live for more than 3,000 years.

“Here’s a tree that is bigger than your house when it’s mature, taller than your buildings, and lives longer than you can comprehend,” said Andrew “Birch” Kemp, Arboretum Detroit’s executive director.

The sequoias will eventually provide a full canopy that protects everything beneath, he said.

“It may be sad to call these .5- and 1-acre treescapes forests,” Kemp said. “We are expanding on this and shading our neighborhood in the only way possible, planting lots of trees.”

Read the full story here

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NJ Assembly environmental panel taking up product packaging, scrap metal legislation, and more on May 8 in Trenton

The Assembly Environment, Natural Resources and Solid Waste Committee will meet at 1 p.m., May 8 , in Committee Room 9, Third Floor, State House Annex, to consider the following bills:

A5009 – “Packaging Product Stewardship Act.”

A5195 – Requires manufacturer of certain firefighting equipment containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances to provide written notice to purchaser; prohibits sale, manufacture, and distribution of certain firefighting equipment containing intentional

A5223 – Requires manufacturer of firefighting personal protective equipment containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances to provide written notice to purchaser.

A5265 – Authorizes enforcement of landscape irrigation law by local enforcing agency and increases penalties.

A5533 – Establishes requirements for receipt and purchase of scrap metals containing propulsion batteries.

A5534 – Requires business that violate State environmental laws to forfeit economic development subsidies under certain circumstances.

A5535 – Requires certain facilities that store or process automotive shredder residue to obtain DEP permit; defines “hazardous waste” to include automotive shredder residue.

S4126 – Prohibits certain uses of perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene.

The public may address comments and questions to Christina Denney, Committee Aide, or make bill status and scheduling inquiries to Melissa Berrios, Secretary, at 609-847-3855, fax 609-292-0561, or e-mail: OLSAideAEN@njleg.org. Written and electronic comments, questions and testimony submitted to the committee by the public, as well as recordings and transcripts, if any, of oral testimony, are government records and will be available to the public upon request.

If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for a full month

NJ Assembly environmental panel taking up product packaging, scrap metal legislation, and more on May 8 in Trenton Read More »

New grant program seeks to Grants of up to $50K aim to boost compostable packaging recovery

Waste industry revving up large company acquisitions

Republic Services’ purchase of Shamrock Environmental led spending for the quarter. Other notable deals include Waste Connections’ purchase of Atlantic Coast Recycling in New Jersey.

When it comes to the environment, it’s Trump vs. the states

The new cash crop in California is solar energy

In California’s water-stressed Central Valley, farmers are fallowing land and installing solar, providing financial stability and saving water.

Sequoia trees are sprouting in Detroit. Yes, Detroit

Vacant lots becoming home to majestic trees, which help air quality

What are they?

NJ Assembly environmental panel taking up product packaging, scrap metal legislation, and more on May 8 in Trenton

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