17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer in his garage and nowhere to sell them

Editor’s Note: Normally, we applaud the entrepreneur who seizes on a marketing opportunity to cash in. Not so much in the case of this guy whose get-rich-quick plan was short circuited by Amazon. Thank you, New York Times, for such an interesting story. What do you think? Share your view by clicking on the ‘comments’ link. — Frank Brill

An Amazon merchant, Matt Colvin, with an overflow stock of cleaning and sanitizing supplies in his garage in Hixson, Tenn.Credit…Doug Strickland for The New York Times
Jack Nicas
Jack Nicas

By Jack Nicas of the New York Times

On March 1, the day after the first coronavirus death in the United States was announced, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin set out in a silver S.U.V. to pick up some hand sanitizer. Driving around Chattanooga, Tenn., they hit a Dollar Tree, then a Walmart, a Staples and a Home Depot. At each store, they cleaned out the shelves.

Over the next three days, Noah Colvin took a 1,300-mile road trip across Tennessee and into Kentucky, filling a U-Haul truck with thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and thousands of packs of antibacterial wipes, mostly from “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,” his brother said. “The major metro areas were cleaned out.”

Matt Colvin stayed home near Chattanooga, preparing for pallets of even more wipes and sanitizer he had ordered, and starting to list them on Amazon. Mr. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for. To him, “it was crazy money.” To many others, it was profiteering from a pandemic.

The next day, Amazon pulled his items and thousands of other listings for sanitizer, wipes and face masks. The company suspended some of the sellers behind the listings and warned many others that if they kept running up prices, they’d lose their accounts. EBay soon followed with even stricter measures, prohibiting any U.S. sales of masks or sanitizer.

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Now, while millions of people across the country search in vain for hand sanitizer to protect themselves from the spread of the coronavirus, Mr. Colvin is sitting on 17,700 bottles of the stuff with little idea where to sell them.

“It’s been a huge amount of whiplash,” he said. “From being in a situation where what I’ve got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?’”

Mr. Colvin is one of probably thousands of sellers who have amassed stockpiles of hand sanitizer and crucial respirator masks that many hospitals are now rationing, according to interviews with eight Amazon sellers and posts in private Facebook and Telegram groups from dozens more. Amazon said it had recently removed hundreds of thousands of listings and suspended thousands of sellers’ accounts for price gouging related to the coronavirus.

Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other online-commerce platforms are trying to stop their sellers from making excessive profits from a public health crisis. While the companies aimed to discourage people from hoarding such products and jacking up their prices, many sellers had already cleared out their local stores and started selling the goods online.

Now both the physical and digital shelves are nearly empty.

Mikeala Kozlowski, a nurse in Dudley, Mass., has been searching for hand sanitizer since before she gave birth to her first child, Nora, on March 5. When she searched stores, which were sold out, she skipped getting gas to avoid handling the pump. And when she checked Amazon, she couldn’t find it for less than $50.

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“You’re being selfish, hoarding resources for your own personal gain,” she said of the sellers.

Sites like Amazon and eBay have given rise to a growing industry of independent sellers who snatch up discounted or hard-to-find items in stores to post online and sell around the world.

These sellers call it retail arbitrage, a 21st-century career that has adults buying up everything from limited-run cereals to Fingerling Monkeys, a once hot toy. The bargain hunters look for anything they can sell at a sharp markup. In recent weeks, they found perhaps their biggest opportunity: a pandemic.

As they watched the list of Amazon’s most popular searches crowd with terms like “Purell,” “N95 mask” and “Clorox wipes,” sellers said, they did what they had learned to do: Suck up supply and sell it for what the market would bear.

Initially, the strategy worked. For several weeks, prices soared for some of the top results to searches for sanitizer, masks and wipes on Amazon, according to a New York Times analysis of historical prices from Jungle Scout, which tracks data for Amazon sellers. The data shows that both Amazon and third-party sellers like Mr. Colvin increased their prices, which then mostly dropped when Amazon took action against price gouging this month.

At the high prices, people still bought the products en masse, and Amazon took a cut of roughly 15 percent and eBay roughly 10 percent, depending on the price and the seller.

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All Pennsylvania schools to close for two weeks over coronavirus, Gov. Wolf orders

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered all K-12 schools to close for 10 school days.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has ordered all K-12 schools to close for 10 school days.(Marc Levy/AP)

JACQUELINE PALOCHKO and ANDREW WAGAMAN
THE MORNING CALL |MAR 13, 2020 | 3:49 PM

As the coronavirus continued to spread Friday across southeastern Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that all K-12 schools will be closed for 10 school days starting Monday.

The Wolf administration will decide at the end of the 10-day period, or March 27, whether to extend the closure into the week of March 29.AdvertisementPauseUnmuteLoaded: 0%Progress: 0%Remaining Time-0:31Fullscreen

“We understand that these are trying times and recognize the impact of the coronavirus on our students and communities,” Wolf said in a statement. “First and foremost, my top priority as governor – and that of our education leaders – must be to ensure the health and safety of our students and school communities.”

The decision followed Wolf’s directive Thursday that all schools in Montgomery County, the hardest hit by COVID-19 so far, close for two weeks. Earlier Friday afternoon, neighboring Bucks County had followed suit, canceling in-person classes for the next two weeks because of the number of employees who live in Montgomery County.

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Pennsylvania joined at least seven other states, including Maryland and Virginia, in closing all schools for at least a week. As of 2 p.m., about 22,000 schools had been closed or were scheduled to close, affecting at least 15 million students, according to Education Week. That didn’t include all closings in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Pennsylvania’s order affects more than 1.7 million school children alone in public and private schools.

Pennsylvania’s case count jumped to 33 from 22 on Friday, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, including a pediatric patient in Monroe County. The Lehigh Valley’s first and only case of coronavirus so far was reported Thursday morning in Northampton County.

No school district will be penalized if it fails to meet the 180 day or school hours requirements, Wolf said in a statement.

Bethlehem Area Superintendent Joseph Roy said he’s concerned what working parents will do for childcare now that schools are closed for two weeks. That was one of the reasons why Roy didn’t shut down Bethlehem Area’s 22 schools.

“It’s not like summer where there’s camps,” he said. “There’s nothing. It’s a major problem.”

Roy said the district is ironing out plans, such as whether it will have lessons for students and how to get meals to students who are dependent on the district for meals.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education announced Friday that it received a federal waiver allowing eligible schools to serve meals to low income students in a non-congregate setting, such as a drive-through or grab and go, during this closure. The department said it would work to assist school districts with its efforts.

READ MORE: Meals to low-income children will still be provided as coronavirus outbreak forces schools to close for two weeks »

In Allentown, 77% of its 17,000 students live in poverty. When the district announced it was closing Thursday and Friday because an employee was being tested for coronavirus, many were concerned about students receiving meals if the closure is longer.

Because of Allentown’s high poverty rate, all students receive free breakfast and lunch. Allentown, one of the state’s largest school districts, was the first in the Lehigh Valley to announce it was closing as a precaution because of the coronavirus.

Wolf has asked Pennsylvanians to avoid malls, movie theaters, gyms and other gathering places, and “strongly encouraged” the suspension of planned large gatherings, events, conferences of 250 individuals or more.

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J. Seward Johnson Jr., Sculptor of the Hyper-Real, Dies at 89

His works often caught passers-by unawares. One was so lifelike that, after 9/11, firefighters are said to have tried to rescue it.

J. Seward Johnson Jr.’s sculpture “Double Check” survived the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. His lifelike creations were often displayed in public settings.
J. Seward Johnson Jr.’s sculpture “Double Check” survived the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. His lifelike creations were often displayed in public settings.
Credit…Susan Meiseles/Magnum Photos

By Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times

J. Seward Johnson Jr., a sculptor who may be responsible for more double takes than anyone in history thanks to his countless lifelike creations in public places — a businessman in downtown Manhattan, surfers at a Florida beach, a student eating a sandwich on a curb in Princeton, N.J. — died on Tuesday at his home in Key West, Fla. He was 89.

His family said through a spokesman that the cause was cancer.

Mr. Johnson had another distinction besides his art. As a member of the family that founded Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical and consumer products giant, he was one of six siblings who, in a high-profile court case in the 1980s, sought to overturn his father’s will, which left his vast fortune to a former maid, Barbara Piasecka Johnson, whom the senior Mr. Johnson had married late in life. A settlement was reached just before the case went to the jury, giving the children a share of the estate but leaving most of it to Mrs. Johnson.

But more enduring were the sculptures, which often caught passers-by unawares; many would pause for a closer look and, in the cellphone age, a picture. One sculpture in particular became something more than a curiosity. It was a work Mr. Johnson called “Double Check”: a seated businessman reviewing the contents of his briefcase.

The sculpture was in Liberty Park near the World Trade Center when the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left the area in ruins. Many other artworks in the buildings and outside were destroyed that day, but the man with the briefcase, though knocked off his perch, survived, covered in debris.

The sculpture is so lifelike that firefighters are said to have tried to rescue it. It became a makeshift memorial — a symbol of endurance to some, a reminder of the bodies never recovered to others. In 2006 it was installed in the newly named Zuccotti Park, not far from its original spot.

“I thought of him as a businessman Everyman — with his briefcase — getting ready for his next appointment, and people identified with him,” Mr. Johnson told The New York Times in 2005. “So when he survived, it was as if he was one of them — surviving as well.”

Mr. Johnson at work on his first sculpture, “Stainless Girl.” It won a contest sponsored by U.S. Steel.
Mr. Johnson at work on his first sculpture, “Stainless Girl.” It won a contest sponsored by U.S. Steel.Credit…The Seward Johnson Atelier, Inc.

John Seward Johnson Jr. was born on April 16, 1930, in New Brunswick, N.J. His father was the son of one of the founders of Johnson & Johnson. His mother, Ruth Dill Johnson, was a native of Bermuda whose father had been Bermuda’s attorney general.

Mr. Johnson, by his own admission a poor student, was sent to the Forman School in Litchfield, Conn.

“It was a place for dyslexics,” he told The Times in 2002, “although we weren’t called that then.”

He tried college at the University of Maine, where he studied poultry husbandry. (“It was the only thing they’d let me into,” he said.) Then, in 1951, he joined the Navy.

After leaving the Navy in 1955 he took a management job in the family company, but a troubled first marriage, to Barbara Kline, proved distracting. He is said to have hired private detectives to raid his own house in the middle of the night hoping to catch her in an indiscretion; she was alone, thought the detectives were intruders and shot one of them, injuring him.

Soon after their divorce in 1964, Mr. Johnson married Cecelia Joyce Horton, who got him interested in art. Sometimes they would paint together, although he wasn’t very good at it.

“I didn’t like what I could do with paint,” he told The Times, “so my wife suggested sculpture because I had some mechanical ability.”

He took some classes and made his first piece, in stainless steel. It won a contest sponsored by U.S. Steel.

One of Mr. Seward’s many lifelike sculptures, “Gotcha” (1993).
One of Mr. Seward’s many lifelike sculptures, “Gotcha” (1993).Credit…Carl Deal III

“I thought, oh gee, this is great, maybe sculpture isn’t so bad after all,” Mr. Johnson told the newspaper U.S. 1 in 2002. “I never won anything after that.”

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Washington legislature passes bills on single-use bags and PCR requirements

Washington State Capitol – Jenny Lee Silver photo

E.A. Crunden@eacrunden reports for WasteDive

UPDATE: March 11, 2020: A bill banning single-use plastic bags (SB 5323) has been sent to Gov. Jay Inslee for final approval. If he signs it, which is considered likely, Washington will become the ninth state with some form of bag policy. Another bill setting post-consumer recycled content standards (HB 2722) has also passed both chambers of the state legislature, following final amendments, and is also off to Inslee for consideration. 

Dive Brief:

  • Washington state is considering establishing minimum post-consumer recycled content (PCR) standards for plastic beverage containers (HB 2722), banning single-use plastic bags that do not meet minimum content standards (SB 5323), and banning expanded polystyrene products (SB 6213).
  • The first bill has passed the state House and the latter two have passed the state Senate, with further committee hearings scheduled this week. But it is unclear how each might ultimately fare. A prior version of the bag ban, for example, passed the Senate last year before stalling in the House. 
  • Groups like Zero Waste Washington are supportive of these bills and other waste-centric legislation. Heather Trim, the organization’s executive director, told Waste Dive the uptick reflects a growing national trend. “I think there’s going to be a lot of plastics-related legislation across the United States because there’s so much public interest,” she said.

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New Jersey organics bill awaits governor’s signature as opponents still angle for landfill exemption

New Jersey could become the ninth site with a food waste diversion policy. Yet a multi-year debate over whether landfills with gas capture should count as organics recycling may continue.

Starr from Gilbert

Cole Rosengren reports for WasteDive

What actually counts as food waste recycling, and who controls the infrastructure behind it, remains a topic of intense debate in New Jersey even after a potentially decisive vote last week.

The New Jersey Senate passed the latest version of a long-fought organics diversion bill (A2371) on Thursday. If signed by Gov. Phil Murphy, it would require establishments generating one ton or more of food waste per week to arrange for separate recycling if an authorized processing facility is within 25 road miles. Additionally, the bill would designate food waste recycling facilities as “Class I renewable energy” and establish a Food Waste Recycling Market Development Council. It would also direct state agencies to use compost and soil products in transportation projects when feasible.

Murphy’s office told Waste Dive it does not comment on pending legislation. The bill’s proponents are optimistic because the language aligns with the conditional veto of a prior version, in which Murphy said landfills with gas-to-energy systems (LGTE) and incinerators should not be counted as authorized organics recycling options. LGTE backers still believe they have a path forward even if the bill is signed.

While a discussion over LGTE versus anaerobic digestion or composting has been playing out in the broader waste industry for years, it has been especially relevant in New Jersey where many counties own and operate disposal sites. All of this has made for one of the more unique and contentious state organics policy debates in the country.

If enacted, A2371’s requirements would take effect within 18 months. New Jersey would join California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont in having some form of organics recycling policy.

Years in the making

Following multiple stalled attempts in recent years, the New Jersey legislature passed a version of this bill for the first time last spring only to see it vetoed by Murphy over the exemption issues. A new bill without the exemptions advanced in December, but failed to pass before the previous legislative session ended in January.

Sen. Bob Smith vowed to bring the bill back and he maneuvered it to the Senate floor without going through a committee vote after it passed the Assembly in February. Sen. Paul Sarlo, chair of the budget committee that was skipped over, called it a “very, very silly bill and not practical” before unsuccessfully attempting to pass a floor amendment reinstating the LGTE exemption.

“Change is hard,” said Smith from the floor, pushing back on critiques from Sarlo and others. “We have to do everything we possibly can to turn around the global climate change that’s rushing at us now.”

One concern that came up during the debate was where new facilities might be sited, with Smith recognizing there are environmental justice factors and Senate President Steve Sweeney agreeing to take up a related bill at a later date. A2371 ultimately passed by a vote of 22-17.

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 “Many senators rose today to ensure that environmental justice is considered as the organics industry expands investments in green jobs and facilities within the state. We support that goal and hope to work with them to make that a reality,” said New Jersey Composting Council President Jairo Gonzalez in a celebratory email to supporters following the vote.

Other groups also heralded its passage, touting expected environmental benefits.

“Governor Murphy must sign this bill quickly. As we move toward getting to zero carbon, we need to move towards getting to zero food waste,” said New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel in a statement that also questioned classifying biogas from digesters as renewable.

Patrick Serfass, executive director of the American Biogas Council, pushed back on that notion, telling Waste Dive that “organic material is renewable and will be perpetually produced,” while also noting the potential for expanded infrastructure to help avert emissions from farming and agricultural sources.

New Jersey currently has a handful of commercial-scale food waste processing facilities – including the Trenton Biogas digester, Waste Management CORe pre-processing site and AgChoice windrow composting operation. Supporters hope this bill will attract further development.

Serfass pointed to the increasing number of states with organics recycling policies as a sign this was part of a trend. As for whether LGTE should be considered equivalent to digestion, he emphasized that biogas from landfills is important but generally disagreed with the characterization.

“[T]he highest and best use of organic material like food waste is digesting it, because you’re going to have a more complete conversion to biogas and you’re also going to be able to recycle your nutrients and create a soil product as a result.”

Opponents do not agree, largely because many New Jersey counties rely on landfill tip fee revenues and have also invested in LGTE systems.

An opposition letter from New Jersey Association of Counties Executive Director John Donnadio cited concern “that without the LGTE exemption, this legislation would divert critical volumes of decomposing organic food waste from county LGTE facilities, which would adversely affect the quantity and quality of gas relied upon and ultimately jeopardize their economic viability.”

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Honolulu Sues Petroleum Companies For Climate Change Damages to City

The city’s lawsuit cites the industry’s concealing of science that predicted catastrophic consequences for the continued burning of fossil fuels.

Honolulu is Already Feeling the Effects of Climate Change
At Mike Leary’s Island Demo’s equipment yard, more frequent tidal flooding from rising seas has inundated the property in recent years. Credit: Mike Leary

Honolulu city officials, lashing out at the fossil fuel industry in a climate change lawsuit filed Monday, accused oil producers of concealing the dangers that greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum products would create, while reaping billions in profits. 

The lawsuit, against eight oil companies, says climate change already is having damaging effects on the city’s coastline, and lays out a litany of catastrophic public nuisances—including sea level rise, heat waves, flooding and drought caused by the burning of fossil fuels—that are costing the city billions, and putting its residents and property at risk.

“We are seeing in real time coastal erosion and the consequences,” Josh Stanbro, chief resilience officer and executive director for the City and County of Honolulu Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency, told InsideClimate News. “It’s an existential threat for what the future looks like for islanders.”

The lawsuit puts it simply: The industry has known for decades that those impacts could be catastrophic, yet did nothing.

Fossil fuel companies have “promoted and profited from a massive increase in the extraction and consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas, which has in turn caused an enormous, foreseeable, and avoidable increase in global greenhouse gas pollution,” the suit states.

“Defendants had actual knowledge that their products were defective and dangerous and were and are causing and contributing to the nuisance complained of, and acted with conscious disregard for the probable dangerous consequences of their conduct’s and products’ foreseeable impact upon the rights of others, including the City and its residents,” according to the 119 page lawsuit filed in in the First Circuit Court of Hawaii.

Hawaii's Economic Costs as Sea Level Rises

The lawsuit seeks to hold fossil companies, including Exxon, Shell, Chevron and Phillips 66, accountable for the costs and damages caused by misleadingly promoting and selling products that their own scientists and experts warned could impose “severe” or even “catastrophic” consequences.

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