DEP to honor NJ recycling leaders at awards program today

From The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

 While the global recycling community continues to face challenges due to global recycling markets and rising program costs, New Jersey’s recycling leaders are pursuing innovative techniques and strategies to further reduce the waste stream.

Among the 2020 honorees of the DEP’s annual recycling awards are a business that recycles food waste from its cafeterias and plastics from its laboratories; a municipality that recycles 75 percent of its waste, including polystyrene; a university with a comprehensive recycling and reuse program; and an 11 year-old boy who started a successful battery recycling program.

The Department of Environmental Protection will recognize Merck & Co., Inc. in Kenilworth, Union County, Middletown Township in Monmouth County, Princeton University in Princeton, Mercer County, and Sri Nihal Tammana of Edison, Middlesex County among 10 businesses, organizations and individuals during a Thursday, Nov. 19 virtual awards ceremony being held in conjunction with an Association of New Jersey Recyclers educational webinar.

Register for the webinar and ceremony at  www.anjr.com. 

“I commend the award winners for their innovative efforts to promote recycling and educate their communities about the importance of diverting waste,” DEP Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe said. “New Jersey has been a national leader in recycling for many years, thanks in part to the types of initiatives we see from our recycling award winners and those who follow their excellent examples. Their work helps protect our environment by keeping communities clean and reducing the impacts of climate change.” 

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NYC-area nuclear plant sale for decommissioning is approved

By The Post Star

BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff have approved the sale of the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City to a New Jersey company for dismantling, despite petitions from state and local officials to hold public hearings before taking action.

The five-member NRC said Monday that it expects to issue an order next Monday allowing the plant’s owner, Entergy Corp., to transfer its license to Holtec Decommissioning International, which plans to demolish the plant by the end of 2033 at a projected cost of $2.3 billion.

The staff also approved Holtec’s request to use part of a $2.1 billion trust fund set aside for decommissioning to manage spent nuclear fuel stored in dozens of steel-and-concrete canisters that will remain on the site. New York Attorney General Letitia James has called the Holtec deal “very risky,” questioning Holtec’s financing and experience.

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In Georgia, voters approve ballot measure that could direct millions to new recycling efforts

Retrieved from Alabama Extension.
By Leslie Nemo, Waste Dive
  • Georgia voters recently approved a constitutional amendment directing the state legislature to dedicate tax or fee revenue levied for a specific purpose to only be spent on those given purposes. This could have notable implications by redirecting more funding to hazardous waste clean up, landfill management and recycling and waste reduction programs.
  • Since 2009, only $56 million of the $154 million collected for the state’s Hazardous Waste Trust Fund has been used for intended purposes. Meanwhile, the Solid Waste Trust Fund collected $73 million and saw $22 million go to intended uses. This is according to Georgia Recycling Economic Development Partners, which backed the amendment.
  • Some area recycling professionals believe the newly bolstered funding could help prioritize more than $1 million per year for a range of recycling initiatives in a state that was limited by budget cuts years ago. This could include research, a new staff position, educational resources and local program grants.

This is welcome news for regional recycling professionals at a time when funding has been limited, but it still doesn’t mean funding collected will automatically and perpetually be spent only on intended activities. The amendment still requires the state legislature to pass another bill confirming each trust fund will continue. Once passed, the fund (and fees levied to fill it) will expire after 10 years.

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How to undo the Trump damage? Biden plans to move fast with a ‘climate administration’

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr’s aggressive approach to climate change includes undoing years of President Trump’s regulatory rollbacks at agencies like the E.P.A.
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr’s aggressive approach to climate change includes undoing years of President Trump’s regulatory rollbacks at agencies like the E.P.A.Credit…Christie Hemm Klok for The New York Times

By Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman, New York Times

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., eager to elevate climate change issues throughout his administration, is already drafting orders to reduce planet-warming pollution and seeking nominees who will embed climate policy not only in environmental agencies but in departments from Defense to Treasury to Transportation.

Top candidates for senior cabinet posts, such as Michèle Flournoy for defense secretary and Lael Brainard for Treasury, have long supported aggressive policies to curb climate change. Mr. Biden’s inner circle routinely asks “is the person climate-ambitious?” of candidates even for lower profile positions like the White House budget and regulatory offices, according to a person advising the transition.

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Transition team members have been instructed to identify policies that can improve pollution levels in Black and Latino communities. And one of Mr. Biden’s early executive orders is expected to require that every federal agency, department and program prepare to address climate change.

“We have to re-establish American leadership globally on climate change, and re-establishing global leadership is going to require getting our house in order domestically,” said Ernest Moniz, a former energy secretary and adviser to Mr. Biden’s campaign.

Interviews with more than two dozen advisers and members of Mr. Biden’s transition team reveal an incoming administration acutely aware of the challenges ahead, with a narrowly divided Congress and the outsized expectations that some voters have for action on climate change after four years of regulatory rollbacks and presidential hostility.

“There’s no doubt that Covid is the issue of the moment which has to be addressed right out of the box,” Mr. Moniz said. “But we’re going to see climate addressed right out of the box as well.”

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GOP’s Chuck Grassley, third in line for the presidency, tests positive for coronavirus

By Colby Itkowitz and Mike DeBonis, Washington Post

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the president pro tempore of the Senate, which makes him the third in line of succession to the presidency, revealed Tuesday that he has contracted the coronavirus.

“I’ve tested positive for coronavirus,” he tweeted. “I’ll be following my doctors’ orders/CDC guidelines & continue to quarantine. I’m feeling good + will keep up on my work for the ppl of Iowa from home. I appreciate everyone’s well wishes + prayers &look fwd to resuming my normal schedule soon.”

Grassley (R-Iowa), 87, announced earlier in the day that he would be quarantining after finding out he had been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus.

The senator was at the Capitol on Monday and spoke on the Senate floor, taking off his mask to do so.

Grassley’s illness follows news late last week that fellow octogenarian Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska,) the dean of the House as the longest-consecutive-serving member, was diagnosed with the coronavirus.

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Philadelphia bans all indoor gatherings and dining, tightens COVID restrictions through end of the year

New COVID-19 restrictions in Philly and N.J. as city officials warn of potential for more deaths
ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

By Justine McDaniel, Laura McCrystal, Allison Steele and Erin McCarthy,
Philadelphia Inquirer  

Warning of a predicted increase in hospitalizations and deaths, Philadelphia officials on Monday imposed new rules that ban indoor gatherings, close gyms, museums and other venues, and shut down indoor dining in the city’s first coronavirus clampdown since June.

Without changes, the fall-winter surge could be on track to cause about 1,700 deaths in the city before it ends, as many as occurred in the spring, said Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, citing statistical modeling as he announced the restrictions.

“If we don’t do something to change the trajectory of this epidemic, the hospitals will become full, we’ll have difficulty treating people, and we’ll have between 700 and more than 1,000 deaths just by the end of this year,” Farley said, saying hospitalizations could exceed the first wave.

New Jersey, too, announced tighter restrictions on indoor and outdoor crowds Monday as the number of daily COVID-19 infections continued to soar.

Philadelphia and New Jersey join a handful of cities and states nationwide imposing new restrictions in response to the COVID-19 surge. Pennsylvania’s health secretary, meanwhile, said Monday that commonwealth officials have no plans to go back to “red, yellow, green, or any other type of schema” of coronavirus restrictions.

However, the state Department of Health is evaluating hospital capacity and anticipates “making further announcements this week,” a spokesperson told The Inquirer.

» READ MORE: Eagles fans no longer allowed to attend games at the Linc as city tightens COVID-19 rules

Philadelphia’s new guidance bans private and public indoor gatherings and also prohibits serving food and drink at outdoor gatherings, amounting to a ban on Thanksgiving celebrations in either setting for any group larger than a single household.

New Jersey is limiting all indoor gatherings to 10 people, and officials urged residents to keep Thanksgiving dinners as small as possible. Pennsylvania’s health secretary also asked residents to celebrate within their households.

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