EnviroPolitics Blog

Listen live today: NJ committee hearing on next big recycling target – recycled content in plastic and glass containers

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

New Jersey lawmakers have made notable strides in recent sessions to boost recycling by passing bills that divert more consumer products and materials into recycling programs and away from landfills and incinerators.

Two landmark laws have been enacted to require the recycling of worn-out computers and TVs and to encourage food waste processors to invest in facilities in the state.

The New Jersey Senate’s Environment and Energy Committee today will address the next frontier in recycling with a bill that would require specific amounts of recycled content in consumer products.

Committee chairman Bob Smith’s S-2515 would impose recycled content levels in plastic containers, glass containers, paper carryout bags, reusable carryout bags made of plastic film, and plastic trash bags. The bill also would prohibit the sale in New Jersey of polystyrene loose fill packaging.

Here’s how you can follow today’s 1 p.m. hearing live or catch is after the session ends.

Click on https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/Default.asp
Click on large, red Live Proceedings button
Click on Senate Environment and Energy link

If the session has ended, repeat step 1 and then click on Archived Proceedings

Having trouble opening the session? Try refreshing your browser

If the topic of recycled content is important to you, consider sharing your views by clicking on the ‘comment’ link under the main headline above. Full disclosure: the author of this post provides legislative counsel to the Association of New Jersey Recyclers, but EnviroPolitics Blog welcomes all points of view.

Listen live today: NJ committee hearing on next big recycling target – recycled content in plastic and glass containers Read More »

WATCH TONIGHT: “The Virus: What Went Wrong?”

Watch tonight on PBS at 9:30/8:30c,

As COVID-19 spread from Asia to the Middle East to Europe and its deadly toll mounted, why was the U.S. caught so unprepared? And how did America’s COVID-19 outbreak become the worst in the world, with a current confirmed death toll of over 115,000?

Tonight, FRONTLINE offers answers in The Virus: What Went Wrong?.

From award-winning journalists Martin Smith and Marcela Gaviria, this new, 90-minute documentary special traces the coronavirus’s path across the globe and identifies a chain of fateful missteps — from Chinese authorities’ early silencing of dissent around the virus’s emergence in Wuhan, to the World Health Organization’s failure to more quickly sound the alarm, to Italian officials’ slow initial reaction.

Then, The Virus zeroes in on key moments in the Trump administration’s halting response — including warnings going back to January, the CDC’s inability to manufacture and mass-distribute a working COVID-19 test early on, and a string of missed opportunities to contain the virus before it was too late.

As the pandemic continues to unfold, The Virus is an urgent and powerful look at how we got here, why our leaders failed to protect us, and what may lie ahead.

The Virus: What Went Wrong? will be available to stream starting tonight at 7/6c at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS Video App. It will premiere on PBS stations (check local listings) and on YouTube at 9:30/8:30c.

We’re always looking for information that might benefit our readers. If you come across something that cries out to be shared, please send it to editor@enviropolitics.com If we agree, you’ll see it here soon.

WATCH TONIGHT: “The Virus: What Went Wrong?” Read More »

Pennsylvania coronavirus update-June 15

In this May 2020 file photo, medical workers test a local resident at a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in Waterloo, Iowa. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)

By LAURA OLSON THE MORNING CALL JUN 15, 2020

Pennsylvania reported 323 more cases of COVID-19 across the state Monday and 28 new deaths, according to daily data released by the state Health Department.

Since the pandemic reached Pennsylvania in March, there have been 79,121 people infected with the virus and 6,243 who died from it.

The Lehigh Valley added another 10 cases, for a total of 7,203. As of Monday, there have been 512 total deaths between Lehigh and Northampton counties, an increase of four additional deaths.

Most of the deaths have occurred in people 65 years old or older, including 4,268 among residents of nursing or personal care facilities.

“With more than half of the state now in the green phase of the process to reopen, it is essential that we continue to take precautions to protect against COVID-19,” Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said in a statement. “The commonwealth’s careful, measured approach to reopening is working as we see case counts continue to decline even as many other states see increases. But the virus has not gone away.”

Nationwide, there have been nearly 2.1 million infections and nearly 116,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University researchers. Globally, more than 7.9 million people have been infected with the virus, with more than 434,000 people dying from it.

Read the full story

If you’re not receiving our free updates, sign up here

Pennsylvania coronavirus update-June 15 Read More »

EPA settles pesticide case with farm in Delaware

C&S Farms, Inc. of Laurel, Delaware, will pay a $25,000 penalty as part of a settlement over alleged violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) related to pesticide safety requirements for agricultural workers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

EPA cited C&S for allegedly failing to comply with FIFRA’s agriculture Worker Protection Standard which requires the display of pesticide and safety information for agricultural workers and for allegedly failing to provide decontamination supplies to employees who worked in pesticide-treated areas.

FIFRA is designed to protect both the public and workers from harmful pesticide exposure and injuries. Through worker safety, training, informational and other safeguards, FIFRA’s Worker Protection Standards offers occupational protection to more than two million agricultural workers and pesticide handlers who work at more than 600,000 agricultural establishments.

Fewer pesticide-related injuries means a healthier workforce and fewer lost wages, medical expenses and absences from work and school.

C&S Farms did not admit liability for the alleged violations but has now certified compliance with the cited FIFRA worker protection safeguards.

See more on FIFRA’s agricultural Worker Protection Standard

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

EPA settles pesticide case with farm in Delaware Read More »

Amid pandemic, scores of U.S. Catholic schools face closure

By David Crary, AP National WriterPosted at 5:31 AM

The pace of Catholic school closures has accelerated dramatically amid economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, sparking heartbreak and anger in scores of affected communities, including Quigley Catholic High School in Economy.

Catholic schools have faced tough times for years, but the pace of closures is accelerating dramatically amid economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, sparking heartbreak and anger in scores of affected communities.

“It’s not a pretty picture right now,” said Sister Dale McDonald, public policy director of the National Catholic Educational Association, which says about 100 schools have announced in recent weeks that they won’t reopen this fall. McDonald fears that number could more than double in the coming months.

Most of the closures are occurring at the elementary level, but also on the list are a number of venerable and beloved high schools including some that produced some famous alumni.

The Institute of Notre Dame, a girls’ school in Baltimore founded in 1847, is due to close on June 30, to the dismay of alumnae like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Immaculate Conception Cathedral School of Memphis, Tennessee, another girls’ institution, is also shutting down after 98 years; it’s where Priscilla Beaulieu finished her senior year while dating husband-to-be Elvis Presley.

Closures in New Jersey include Hammonton’s St. Joseph High School, which has won more than 20 state football championships, and Cristo Rey High School in Newark, which was highly praised for its work helping students from low-income families go to college. Founded in 2007, Cristo Rey says every one of its graduates from the last 10 years had been accepted at colleges.

This year’s closures will reduce the number of Catholic K-12 schools in the United States to about 6,000, down from more than 11,000 in 1970, according to the Catholic education association. Overall enrollment has plummeted from more than 5 million in the 1960s to about 1.7 million now.

“The loss of Catholic schools is a loss to America,” said Mary Pat Donoghue, executive director of the Catholic Education office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

She said the impact would be particularly severe in low-income inner city neighborhoods, generally populated mostly by blacks and Hispanics,

“No one in the non-public school sector has done better there than Catholic schools,” she said.

The long-term enrollment decline has resulted from demographic changes, parents’ difficulty affording tuition and competition from public and other private schools.

Read the full story

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

Amid pandemic, scores of U.S. Catholic schools face closure Read More »

Tonight’s Coronavirus stats for New Jersey

Today’s developments from NJ SPOTLIGHT – June 13, 2020

New Jersey officials today reported another 523 confirmed cases of COVID-19, for a statewide total of 166,605.

The most new cases were in Bergen (64) and Monmouth (60) counties. At the other end, there was one additional case in Warren County.

Among states, New Jersey remains second only to New York, with 382,630, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.The center lists 28,606 New Jersey residents recovered from the virus, a figure not provided by the state.

An additional 103 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported today, bringing that total to 12,589 — surpassing the state’s death toll from World War II. The daily toll surpassed 100 for the first time in more than a week. (Above chart.)The United States still leads the world in total COVID-19 fatalities, with 115,251 as of tonight, according to Johns Hopkins.

The decline in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continued in all categories.

* A total of 1,395 patients were being treated for confirmed or suspected COVID cases in the state’s hospitals, the lowest total since the pandemic began.

*409 were in critical or intensive care, another low.

*279 of those needing special care were on ventilators, just 9 percent of capacity.

*104 COVID-19 patients were discharged, either to their homes or other care facilities.

Nearly 1.1 million tests for active COVID-19 infection have been conducted in New Jersey, including negatives. The daily, or spot, positivity rate of tests on June 8 stood at 2.5% statewide, a drop of more than a point from the day before.

More than 35,000 positive test results have been reported among residents and employees at 551 nursing homes and other long-term care centers in New Jersey. The facilities reporting a cumulative total of 6,296 deaths among residents during the pandemic, more than 5,800 of them laboratory confirmed.They are also reporting the deaths of 115 employees.

Read the full story

Like this? Click to receive free EP Blog updates

State and federal response

Tonight’s Coronavirus stats for New Jersey Read More »