EnviroPolitics Blog

Food waste ban boosting business in Massachusetts

The ban has created more than 1,600 jobs and generated $390 million in industry activity

By Audrey Trevarthan, Assistant Editor, Waste Today

A recent report has determined the economic impact of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s (MassDEP) ban on commercial food waste disposal. This initiative has contributed to the state’s economy, generating jobs and revenue.

In October 2014, MassDEP amended its existing waste ban regulations, adding commercial organic material to the list of materials banned from disposal in Massachusetts.

In November 2022, the waste ban regulations were amended again, lowering the quantity of organic material businesses and institutions are allowed to dispose of every year. The new rules lowered the threshold from one ton of food waste a week to half a ton a week.

According to the report, the ban has:

created 1,676 jobs, resulting in $143 million in labor income;
generated an additional $194 million in economic value; and
cumulatively generated more than $390 million in industry activity.

“Massachusetts is a leader in reducing food waste,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey says. “Our state’s businesses and institutions have stepped up to innovate and reduce their waste, and this report shows that the long-term impacts are positive. Finding an alternative to throwing away good food is a boost for our communities, our economy and our environment.”

The disposal ban targets businesses and institutions that generate more than half a ton of food waste per week, including supermarkets, colleges, hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants, and food service providers. These entities must redirect their food waste from landfills to sustainable solutions, such as food recovery services, composting, and anaerobic digestion.

“This report reaffirms our commitment to reduce, reuse, and recycle here in Massachusetts,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll says. “Massachusetts has created the necessary infrastructure to ensure good, healthy food does not go to waste. For our cities and towns, this means getting food to those who need it first and foremost. It means jobs for our residents, and it conserves resources and supports local budgets.”

The number of facilities participating in food waste services has increased from 1,350 in 2014 to an estimated 4,150 in 2024. This growth has stimulated economic activity in related sectors, benefiting communities across the state, MassDEP says.

Read the full story

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. Don’t take our word for it. Try it free for a whole month

Food waste ban boosting business in Massachusetts Read More »

Eric Adams withdraws from New York City mayor election race

By Katie Tarrant, Sarah Ellison, The Washington Post

New York Mayor Eric Adams said Sunday that he is dropping his reelection bid, saying in a recorded video message, “Despite all we’ve achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign.”

The Democrat, who has led the city since 2022, faced pressure to drop out of the race — particularly from President Donald Trump — to consolidate more support for former New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Cuomo is running as an independent candidate against the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, and the Democratic nominee and front-runner, Zohran Mamdani. Adams had been running as an independent, even though he was elected as a Democrat.

Adams did not endorse another candidate in the race, and took veiled swipes at both of his erstwhile rivals, Mamdani and Cuomo.

“New Yorkers should be suspicious of any politician or political movement that claims we must wholesale destroy the systems we created together over generations in order to usher in a new, untested order led by self-styled saviors,” he said in an apparent reference to Mamdani.

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. Don’t take our word for it. Try it free for a whole m

Eric Adams withdraws from New York City mayor election race Read More »

Company claims up to 99.9999% PFAS destruction in EPA test

Conducted last year, the study further validates Clean Harbors’ ability to destroy potentially hazardous chemicals like PFOA and PFAS at its Aragonite, Utah, facility.

By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

The U.S. EPA last week released the results of a study conducted with Clean Harbors on the effectiveness of destroying PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in a hazardous waste incinerator. The test revealed the incinerator was able to reach destruction efficiencies of between 99.95% and 99.9999% for nine PFAS chemicals.

This is the third PFAS destruction test conducted in coordination with EPA researchers at Clean Harbors’ facility in Aragonite, Utah. The company has been working with the federal agency to demonstrate its ability to safely dispose of the toxic chemicals.

“This is the most comprehensive PFAS incineration test to date and provides valuable data about PFAS incineration,” the team of researchers conducting the study noted in their report, “but is not intended to be a general recommendation of incineration for the treatment of PFAS.”

Clean Harbors has offered PFAS management for clients for several years as they look to get ahead of shifting state and federal regulations concerning the highly persistent chemicals.

The company has declined to share projected revenues from the PFAS destruction business over the last two quarters. However, at the beginning of the year, co-CEO Eric Gerstenberg stated that Clean Harbors’ pipeline of PFAS business grew an estimated 20% each quarter.

Read the full story

Company claims up to 99.9999% PFAS destruction in EPA test Read More »

Fed up with the PJM grid’s rates, member states threaten to pull out

But such a move is likely hollow since it would drive power rates even higher in the short term

By Kathryn Krawczyk, Canary Media

The U.S. is home to seven regional transmission organizations and independent system operators that are each responsible for managing power transmission and operating energy markets among utilities in their area. PJM is the largest, serving more than 65 million customers across D.C., Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and 10 other states. And for years, leaders in those states have said it’s not doing a great job.

The crux of the issue is rising electricity prices. This summer, PJM announced a new record in its annual capacity auction, which it uses to secure power resources for the grid. Prices hit $16.1 billion, up from $2.2 billion in 2023, Canary Media’s Jeff St. John reported in July.

There are a few reasons for the spike in costs. For one, PJM expects that it will need a ton more power-generation capacity in the coming years as data centers come online — though experts dispute just how big the AI energy-demand bubble will actually be. PJM does have a massive backlog of clean-power and battery projects looking to connect to the grid and meet that demand. But the operator hasn’t undertaken reforms that critics say could speed interconnections, and is instead campaigning to keep expensive, dirty fossil-fuel power plants online.

PJM member states’ longstanding dispute with the grid operator reemerged this week as 11 of their governors met in Philadelphia. There, Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin both said they would leave PJM if states don’t get a bigger role in the grid operator’s governance.

“This is a crisis of not having enough power, and it is a crisis in confidence,” Youngkin said. “It’s this crisis that demands real reform, real reform immediately — and at the top of the list is that states must have a real say.”

PJM President and CEO Manu Asthana acknowledged that his organization needs to take cost-cutting steps like improving its load forecasting and interconnection processes, but he also put the onus on states to better their own infrastructure siting and permitting rules.

Washington Analysis researcher Rob Rains is doubtful that states will follow through and depart PJM. He said doing so could actually cost customers more in the short term, as the states may have to negotiate their own power procurement at rates even higher than what PJM has secured. Rains predicts that instead of cutting ties with the grid operator, governors will pull other levers to pressure PJM to establish stronger power-market safeguards to keep prices low.

Meanwhile, analysts at ClearView Energy Partners suggest that states should continue their efforts to develop more electricity generation as soon as possible.

Read the full story

Fed up with the PJM grid’s rates, member states threaten to pull out Read More »

All Democratic senators oppose EPA ‘endangerment’ chopping

By Lee Ann Anderson, The Hill

In a unanimous decision, the Democratic caucus in the Senate wrote a letter on Monday opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to rescind a 2009 endangerment finding, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determination that concluded the accumulation of six greenhouse gases poses a serious threat to public health.

The proposal would also repeal regulations for motor vehicles and engines. The determination helped set up the legal basis for U.S. climate policy, according to a press release.

The effort, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), comes after the Trump administration said it’d axe the finding in July.

“With this proposal, the Trump EPA is proposing to end 16 years of uncertainty for automakers and American consumers. In our work so far, many stakeholders have told me that the Obama and Biden EPAs twisted the law, ignored precedent, and warped science to achieve their preferred ends and stick American families with hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden taxes every single year, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in July.

“We heard loud and clear the concern that EPA’s GHG emissions standards themselves, not carbon dioxide, which the finding never assessed independently, were the real threat to Americans’ livelihoods.”

The administration used studies authored and published by scientists who deny the existence of climate change to justify the decision. The scientists behind the studies have been attempting to sow seeds of doubt about climate change within the scientific community for years, according to CNN.

Read the full story

All Democratic senators oppose EPA ‘endangerment’ chopping Read More »

Trump lectures the world: Green Energy Is a Scam and Climate Science Is From ‘Stupid People’

In a remarkable United Nations address, the president lashed out at wind turbines and environmentalists while dismissing the dangers of climate change.

President Trump speaks from a lectern in front of several rows of diplomats. — *President Donald Trump at the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times*

By Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times

President Trump went on a rant against climate change at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, calling it the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and saying that the scientific consensus on global warming was created by “stupid people.” He also berated countries, including close allies of the United States, for adopting renewable energy.

It added up to an extraordinary diatribe that overlooked the human suffering caused by the heat waves, wildfires, and deadly floods exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels, while simultaneously standing at odds with the rapid expansion of renewable energy worldwide.

He chose his two targets, demonizing immigrants and green energy, and called them a “double-tailed monster” that he claimed, without evidence, are “destroying” Europe. Both subjects play well to his base in the Republican Party. But it was remarkable that he said all this to a global audience.

“You need strong borders and traditional energy sources if you’re going to be great again,” he said. “I worry about Europe, I love the people of Europe. I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration.”

Read the full story

Trump lectures the world: Green Energy Is a Scam and Climate Science Is From ‘Stupid People’ Read More »