EnviroPolitics Blog

California governor signs recycled-content bill

(c) Jonas Marcos San Luis | Dreamstime.com

Gov. Newsom vetoed a previous version of the bill

California’s AB 793, which would require manufacturers to include recycled materials when making plastic beverage bottles, was approved by the state legislature in early September and was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom Sept. 24. The legislation sets a phased-in timeline of when companies must meet minimum content standards, ultimately achieving 50 percent recycled content, surpassing the 30 percent mandate in the European Union.

“The time has come for shared responsibility,” says California Assemblymember Phil Ting, one of the bill’s sponsors. “Our environment suffers when companies keep making new plastic every time they need a drink container. They need to reuse what they’ve already made. If we don’t make this shift, we will have more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050.”

AB 793 is designed to bolster the market for recycled polyethylene terephthalate in the state. Manufacturers must meet a number of deadlines for recycled content, achieving 15 percent by 2022, 25 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030.

“Assemblymember Ting and I worked extensively with the industry stakeholders to ensure that this bill is both bold and workable,” says California Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin. “The result is the most aggressive recycled content mandate in the world for plastic bottles.”

AB 793 is Ting’s second attempt at recycled-plastic content in bottles. Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year because of cost concerns, which Tsing says have been addressed this year.By signing AB 793, Newsom has made California the first state in the nation to establish minimum recycled content requirements for plastic beverage containers.

“California has long led the way on bold solutions in the climate space, and the steps we take today bring us closer to our ambitious goals,” Newsom said upon signing the bill. “I thank the legislature for taking these important steps to protect the planet and public health.”

If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed 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 an entire month. No obligation.

California governor signs recycled-content bill Read More »

NY adds southern tier to drought watch list

Five Regions Now on Statewide Drought Watch List

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced that the State has expanded its Drought Watch to the Southern Tier drought region, which includes Cattaraugus, Alleghany, Steuben, and Chemung counties. A drought watch remains in effect for Long Island, Upper Hudson/Mohawk, Adirondacks, and Great Lakes/St. Lawrence since Governor Andrew M. Cuomo directed DEC to issue the watch in July after consulting with experts from the State Drought Management Task Force.

DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said, “DEC urges water users in the Southern Tier and previously designated Drought Watch regions to monitor usage and avoid wasting water. While the watch is just the first stage, it provides New York State agencies and emergency responders advanced notice of a developing drought. We can all do our part to conserve water now by taking simple steps. Minor changes in your everyday routine can go a long way in helping prevent increased drought levels.”

Try our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics, free for a full month!

A “watch” is the first of four levels of state drought advisories (“watch,” “warning,” “emergency,” and “disaster”). There are no statewide mandatory water use restrictions in place under a drought watch or warning. Local public water suppliers may impose water use restrictions depending upon local needs and conditions and New Yorkers are strongly encouraged to voluntarily conserve water.

Since spring, dry conditions have been documented in most of New York State and reduced precipitation has resulted in reduced water availability and below-average streamflow with many streams seeing record lows for this time of year. Many lake levels are lower than usual and groundwater levels are reduced due to the prolonged dry spell. Some areas have had water shortages with suppliers issuing water use restrictions and supplementing normal sources.

Conservation tips for homeowners to reduce outdoor water usage include:

Fix dripping and leaking faucets and toilets. A faucet leaking 30 drops per minute wastes 54 gallons a month;
Raise lawn mower cutting height. Longer grass needs less water;
If the community allows watering, water lawns and gardens on alternate mornings instead of every day. Less frequent watering will develop grass with deeper roots, and early morning watering minimizes evaporation;
When using automatic lawn watering systems, override the system in wet weather or use a rain gauge to control when and how much water to use. A fixed watering schedule wastes water. Irrigate only when needed to save water and improve the lawn’s health; and
Sweep sidewalks and steps rather than hosing them. Eliminating a weekly, five-minute pavement hose-down could save between 625 and 2,500 gallons of water per year depending on the flow rate.

For more water saving tips, visit DEC’s webpage.

NY adds southern tier to drought watch list Read More »

Quantifiable levels’ of coronavirus found in wastewater at NY college dorm

Siena College researchers have found “quantifiable levels” of COVID-19 in wastewater at the dormitory that hosted a raucous Derby Day party earlier this month.

Roughly 20 students at Siena College were “temporarily dismissed” from campus housing last week in Loudonville, NY, after school officials caught wind of the Sept. 5 event celebrating the Kentucky Derby horse race on the lawn of the MacClosky Square Townhouses, which students say drew a crowd of 80 to 100.

How much help on waste and recycling problems can two NJ advisory panels recommend without any members?

Governor Murphy and state legislators are making significant progress on enery and climate change but there are other environmental problems that need front-office attention

A recycling facility | Getty Images — New Jersey’s $3.9 billion recycling industry represents more than 17,000 jobs, nearly $1.3 billion in wages and more than half a billion dollars in tax revenue. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images

By SAMANTHA MALDONADO, Politico

Two groups tasked with tackling New Jersey’s recycling and waste problems remain dormant and without members, in part due to inaction by the Murphy administration.

Gov. Phil Murphy in January signed into law a bill to create a recycling market development council, but has yet to appoint anyone to it despite a March deadline to do so. The council is supposed to study bottlenecks in the recycling process and provide suggestions for overcoming related challenges. Under the law, the council is slated to issue a report on its findings by January 2021, but that seems all but impossible.

Meanwhile, the 14-member Advisory Council on Solid Waste Management created within the Department of Environmental Protection in 1970 to improve solid waste management policy has been inactive for years. Members who were appointed previously have seen their terms expire.

“We would encourage the governor to make those appointments,” said Steve Changaris, northeast region vice president of the National Waste and Recycling Association, noting that the industry will continue to work on the issue regardless of governmental activity.

During a Senate environment committee hearing earlier this month, Sen. Bob Smith said both groups “need to be active for us to get our solid waste problem under control.”

Christine Lee, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, wrote in an email that the administration is “working on finalizing members” to appoint to the recycling market development committee.

New Jersey’s $3.9 billion recycling industry represents more than 17,000 jobs, nearly $1.3 billion in wages and more than half a billion dollars in tax revenue. In 2017, the last year for which figures are available, New Jersey recycled 5.3 million tons of material, which avoided more than 15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

That was the same year China stopped accepting plastic recyclable exports from the U.S., a decision that has had adverse effects on recycling in New Jersey, including increased recycling costs for residents and landfills that are overflowing with recyclable material. Sending the material overseas was so cheap that the domestic arm weakened.

“The industry is changing faster than before, and a market development council would be able to keep up with that,” said Marie Kruzan, executive director of the Association of New Jersey Recyclers, or ANJR. “We need to focus on bringing markets back into the United States and to New Jersey. The [recycling market development]council has a charge to look at that, to make New Jersey attractive.”

Preventing materials from ending up in landfills where anaerobic decomposition produces methane, reducing the energy it takes to manufacture the materials and moving away from reliance on the petrochemicals are important steps in mitigating climate change.

“Recycling is a core element of sustainability [and] in the hierarchy — even before you get to recycling — is waste reduction,” said Gary Sondermeyer, vice president of operations at Bayshore Recycling Corporation in Woodbridge. “The stuff the Murphy administration has done on climate change is off the charts. It is phenomenal. Do I wish there was more done on recycling? Of course.”

Read the full story

How much help on waste and recycling problems can two NJ advisory panels recommend without any members? Read More »

Battered, Flooded and Submerged: Many Superfund Sites are Dangerously Threatened by Climate Change

The Obama administration directed the EPA to focus on climate-related threats. Now, the Trump administration refuses to even use the word.

BY DAVID HASEMYER, INSIDECLIMATE NEWS, AND LISE OLSEN, TEXAS OBSERVER

BARRETT, Texas—Fred Barrett thought he’d wait out Hurricane Harvey at his home in this town outside Houston, founded by his great-grandfather in 1889. He prepared for heavy rain, wind and flooding.

But when the murky brown San Jacinto River jumped its banks, flooding Barrett’s neighbors and an ominous cluster of four hazardous waste Superfund sites nearby, Barrett worried the catastrophic 2017 storm could fill his community with deadly toxins.

Fred Barrett, 67, visits his family's original homestead. Credit: Spike Johnson — Fred Barrett, 67, visits his family’s original homestead. Credit: Spike Johnson.Top: Record flooding inundated the San Jacinto Waste Pits Superfund site outside Houston during Hurricane Harvey on Aug. 31, 2017. Credit: Digital Globe, Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies

The most notorious of the sites, the San Jacinto Waste Pits, was smashed by 16 feet of water that undermined a concrete cap covering the site’s toxic contents, washing dioxin downriver. A dive team from the Environmental Protection Agency later found the potent human carcinogen in river sediment at 2,300 times the agency’s standard for cleanup.

Several miles upriver, Barrett, a historically Black town, shares a wooded area with the French Limited Superfund site. That toxic dump was built so close to the Barrett family homestead that, as a young man, Fred Barrett could hear the rumble of tractor-trailers hauling chemical waste, including carcinogens, down the Gulf Pump Road to a foul pond.

Like the San Jacinto Waste Pits, the French Limited site was also inundated by Hurricane Harvey, leading Barrett, 67, and his neighbors to worry that its contaminants had spread. The EPA did not report any leakage, but he and other residents wondered what the floodwaters could have carried offsite.

“What happened back there?” Barrett said in a recent interview. “It was Harvey that made it seem more crucial. We wanted to know: What contaminants are still there—and where is it going once it got out of its banks? Who’s watching the chicken coop?”

Fred Barrett shows photographs of his ancestors who founded the town of Barrett. Credit: Spike Johnson

Those questions highlight the perils posed by the nation’s industrial wastelands as they are increasingly battered by extreme weather worsened by climate change.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned in a report last year that French Limited was among 945 Superfund sites across the United States vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation or wildfires, all of which are intensifying as the planet warms.

Read the full story

Battered, Flooded and Submerged: Many Superfund Sites are Dangerously Threatened by Climate Change Read More »

Pennsylvania coronavirus update: 22 more deaths, total cases top 155,000

By CHRISTINE SCHIAVO THE MORNING CALL

Pennsylvania reported 1,029 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday, bringing the statewide total to 155,232.

On Friday, 806 new cases were reported.

Deaths

Overall: 22 new deaths, compared to two the day before. That brings the total to 8,103.

Hospitalizations

On Saturday morning, 444 people were hospitalized with the coronavirus, compared to 435 the day before. Of those, 60 were on ventilators.

Testing

There were 14,878 new tests, for a positive test rate of 6.6%, compared to 5.5% the day before. The overall positive test rate is now at 7.6%.

Lehigh Valley

Cases: 48 new cases ( 29 in Lehigh County, 19 in Northampton County), compared to31 the day before. That brings the total to 10,073.

Deaths: There were no new Lehigh Valley deaths on Saturday or Friday. To date, 658 people in the Lehigh Valley have died of COVID-19 ( 353 in Lehigh County and 305 in Northampton County).

Other Developments

Centre County, home to Penn State, had the highest number of new cases among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties on Saturday, with 162. Following it were Allegheny, which includes Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, which reported 106 and 65 new cases, respectively.

“We know that congregation, especially in college and university settings, yields increased case counts,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a news release Saturday. “The mitigation efforts in place now are essential to flattening the curve and saving lives.”

Senior journalist Eugene Tauber contributed to this report.

Get the latests coronavirus statistics from the state Department of Health

Don’t miss stories like this Click for free EnviroPolitics Blog updates

Pennsylvania coronavirus update: 22 more deaths, total cases top 155,000 Read More »