U.S. recycling programs in turmoil after Chinese ban

recycling sorting belt in chinese factory WSJ photo
Chinese workers removing trash from recyclables. Wall Street Journal photo
Bob Tita reports for The Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. recycling industry is breaking down
Prices for scrap paper and plastic have collapsed, leading local officials across the country to charge residents more to collect recyclables and send some to landfills.
Used newspapers, cardboard boxes and plastic bottles are piling up at plants that can’t make a profit processing them for export or domestic markets.
“Recycling as we know it isn’t working,” said James Warner, chief executive of the Solid Waste Management Authority in Lancaster County, Pa. “There’s always been ups and downs in the market, but this is the biggest disruption that I can recall.”truck dumping recycling materials
Trash thrown into recycling containers has resulted in a Chinese import ban 
U.S. recycling programs took off in the 1990s as calls to bury less trash in landfills coincided with China’s demand for materials such as corrugated cardboard to feed its economic boom. Shipping lines eagerly filled containers that had brought manufactured goods to the U.S. with paper, scrap metal and plastic bottles for the return trip to China.
recycled paper bbundles
Wall Street Journal photo
As cities aggressively expanded recycling programs to keep more discarded household items out of landfills, the purity of U.S. scrap deteriorated as more trash infiltrated the recyclables. Discarded food, liquid-soaked paper and other contaminants recently accounted for as much as 20% of the material shipped to China, according to Waste Management Inc.’s estimates, double from five years ago.
The tedious and sometimes dangerous work of separating out that detritus at processing plants in China prompted officials there to slash the contaminants limit this year to 0.5%.
China early this month suspended all imports of U.S. recycled materials until June 4, regardless of the quality. The recycling industry interpreted the move as part of the growing rift between the U.S. and China over trade policies and tariffs.

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Pittsburgh utility offering $3,000 rebate on Nissan e-car

Daniel Moore reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Duquesne Light Co. announced on Monday that its customers are eligible for a $3,000 rebate until June 30 on the purchase of a 2018 Nissan Leaf, following a partnership struck with the automaker. 
The rebate is the latest — and largest — effort by Duquesne Light to get more electric vehicles on the road in the Pittsburgh region. The Downtown-based electric utility, which has 500,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties, is in the second year of a campaign to promote EVs as a smart investment.
More EV sales are also good business for the utility, as they mean more electricity sales at charging stations.
“Electric vehicle popularity has grown exponentially over the years and we’re starting to see it gain momentum in our area,” said Joe DeMatteo, the utility’s director of business development, in a press release. “This partnership is another example of DLC helping to raise awareness of EVs and promote the benefits of choosing an environmentally friendly mode of transportation.”
Earlier this year, Duquesne Light announced it is working with ride-hailing service Uber to advance EVs, though details of the partnership remain unclear. Utility and Uber officials in February floated the idea of eventually giving Uber drivers some incentives to buy electric vehicles and give more rides in them.
The rebate is the first time the utility has negotiated such an incentive for customers.
The $3,000 covers about 8 to 10 percent of the Nissan Leaf, which is listed between $30,000 and $36,000, depending on the model. Customers should show their Duquesne Light utility bill at a Nissan dealership to qualify for the rebate, the company said.
In addition to the manufacturer incentives, customers can qualify for federal tax credits of up to $7,500, as well as a $1,750 rebate through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Alternative Fuel Vehicle Rebate Program.
Daniel Moore: dmoore@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2743 and Twitter @PGdanielmoore

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Is Trump’s cut to Sandy aid latest attack on New Jersey?


Herb Jackson reports for The Bergen Record:


Funding for Amtrak’s Gateway project, which includes a new tunnel under the Hudson River, was not touched in the $15 billion package of budget “rescission” requests that President Trump’s administration sent to Congress on Tuesday.


But Trump did propose rescinding $107 million in Superstorm Sandy aid, and the cut has added fuel to a fire burning in the New Jersey delegation that sees the state as under attack from Washington.


“Coming on the heels of a tax scam they bragged was designed to hurt the Northeast, Republicans now want to take away $107 million to help my state continue its recovery from Hurricane Sandy,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson.


“They want to kick New Jerseyans while we’re down all over again. It’s insult to second injury and chutzpah doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Pascrell said.


Rep. Donald Norcross, D-Camden, also reached for some Yiddish.


“You’d have to be an anti-Jersey schmuck to support this,” Norcross said. “The ‘moocher state’ Republicans that voted against Sandy aid in the first place are now trying to use every trick in the book to suck New Jersey dry.”


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Delaware Riverkeeper seeks new PennEast hearing

A federal court ruling could force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to decide whether or not to rehear the PennEast Pipeline application. The natural gas pipeline would go through a portion of Upper Bucks County.





Chris Ullery reports for the Courier-Times: 
After more than three months without a decision, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network is seeking a federal court order to rehear the approved application for the controversial PennEast Pipeline.
On May 9, the network filed a petition for a writ of mandamus in the Washington, D.C., Circuit Court of Appeals asking the courts to compel the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold rehearings for the pipeline application approved earlier this year, a news release from the network states.
FERC approved the pipeline’s Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity on Jan. 19, prompting the network to file a rehearing request five days later.
The network also filed a motion with FERC on Jan. 24 “to halt construction and any other land disturbance pending the rehearing request,” a news release from the network states.


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Silver guilty on all counts in retrial; faces 130-year term

Sheldon Silver found guilty on all counts (Richard Harbus photo)



Kaja Whitehouse reports for the New York Post:

The ex-speaker of the New York state Assembly Sheldon Silver was found guilty on Friday of selling his office for $4 million in kickbacks — affirming a 2015 conviction on the same charges that had been overturned on appeal.

A jury of seven women and five men found Silver, 74, guilty of all seven counts against him, including two counts of honest services mail fraud and money laundering.
He faces as much as 130 years in prison when sentenced on July 13.
Silver showed no emotion as the jury read the verdict to the judge.
“Obviously I am disappointed,” the Lower East Side Democrat said outside of court, adding that he will appeal the verdict.
The verdict is a crushing blow to Silver, who was once one of the three most powerful men in New York along with the governor and Senate majority leader.
In 2015 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, which his lawyers argued was a death sentence for the septuagenarian, who was fighting prostate cancer at the time.

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Poll: Broad support for taxes on wealthy, corporations

NJTV News correspondent Michael Aron reports:

The predominant topic in Trenton this season is, how will Gov. Phil Murphy get his budget passed? The governor has proposed taxing income over $1 million. He also wants to restore the sales tax, currently at 6.625 percent, to 7 percent where it’s been for a decade.
Legislative leaders have been noncommittal. They’ve called tax increases “a last resort.”
Now, a poll commissioned by New Jersey Policy Perspective, a liberal think tank, suggests the public supports Murphy’s taxes. Of 600 respondents, 70 percent support raising the income tax on households earning $1 million or more a year, while just 24 percent oppose. Fifty percent support reinstating a 7 percent sales tax, while only 37 percent oppose.
The head of the organization that commissioned the poll says, while taxes are generally unpopular, when you connect taxes to investments in key areas, the numbers change.
“This should give comfort to people who understand that, to members of the Legislature who know that we need to improve our investments in transportation, in school aid, in all of those things, property tax relief, put those together with higher taxes, it becomes possible,” said New Jersey Policy Perspective President Gordon MacInnes.

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