U.S. scrap industry frets over new China import policy

Containers ships in Qingdao port, China.

For decades, shipping containers have been loaded with American scrap and waste and dispatched to China for recycling. It’s a $5 billion annual business that is now in danger of sinking.

Jacopo Prisco reports for CNN Money:

Beijing notified the World Trade Organization in July that it plans to ban the import of 24 varieties of solid waste, including types of plastic and unsorted paper commonly sent from the U.S.

China said that the ban would take effect from September, giving American companies little time to prepare. ISRI estimates that roughly a fifth of the trade is at risk.
The announcement has made U.S. recyclers that trade with China very nervous.
“In the short term we’re going to see a significant drop of exports from the U.S. into China, and there is a little bit of panic in the market,” said Adina Adler, an official at the U.S. Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI).
“We respect what the Chinese government is trying to do … and we want to be helpful, but they gave us practically no time for any kind of transition,” said Adler.
Trade deficit
Scrap and waste is the sixth largest U.S. export to China.
The trade works like this: A huge number of container ships laden with consumer goods sail each year from China to American ports.
But the U.S. runs a massive trade deficit with China, and there is little demand for space on the return leg, or “backhaul.” As a result, shipping companies offer major discounts on return runs to China.
The dynamic has been a boon for the U.S. recycling industry, which has an abundance of the scrap metal, paper, plastic, rubber and electronics that Chinese recyclers crave.
Adam Minter, a journalist, explains in the book “Junkyard Planet” that it can be much cheaper to ship scrap from the U.S. to China than to send it by rail from Los Angeles to Chicago.

china shipping line ship

Exports at risk
Beijing says it’s now banning some of the scrap categories out of concern for the environment.
The government told the WTO that it had found large amounts of dirty and hazardous material mixed with solid waste, leading to serious environmental pollution.
China’s State Council said in a statement that it hoped to “reform … the management system of solid waste imports, promote the recycling use of domestic solid wastes, protect the ecological environment and people’s health.”
Minter, however, has argued that the ban could exacerbate environmental problems.
He wrote in July that imported recyclables are cleaner than their Chinese counterparts, and banning them will force many Chinese recyclers to shut down — meaning more waste will be incinerated or end up in landfills.


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Philly says: Yo Amazon, check out these three sites

Navy Yard loungers - Alajandro A Alvarex photoWorkers on break at the Navy Yard, one of the locations that Philadelphia officials plan to feature in their headquarters-site proposal to Amazon.com. (Alejandro A Alvarez photo)Jacob Adelman reports for Philly.comA week after Amazon sent cities North America-wide scrambling to compete for the e-commerce giant’s second headquarters, Philadelphia government leaders are beginning to settle on three locations to pitch most forcefully as the nucleus of a vast regional presence for the Seattle company: The Schuylkill Yards and uCity Square sites in West Philadelphia and South Philadelphia’s Navy Yard.Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. and Commerce Department officials devising the bid believe the three large tracts in central locations with single owners will be a draw as Amazon.com Inc. seeks a site that can smoothly accommodate an expanding corporate campus in a talent-rich locale, according to a person familiar with the city’s approach to the bid but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

These include areas along the Delaware River waterfront, in the Callowhill neighborhood north of Center City, and along North Broad Street, as well as ones outside Philadelphia’s city limits in such places as King of Prussia, Camden and Delaware.

Commerce Department spokeswoman Lauren Cox acknowledged in an e-mail that the large West and South Philadelphia sites are among those that “rise to the top” of the city’s pitch to Amazon but stopped short of confirming them as the headliners. A PIDC spokeswoman referred questions to the Commerce Department.The city also will present additional sites that could support satellite offices — such as those maintained throughout the area by Comcast Corp. — as well as uses complementary to Amazon’s regional presence, including vendor-company offices and housing for an expected influx of employees.Read the full storyRelated story:
Philly, Pittsburgh compete for Amazon; Gov’s in the middle

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Philly, Pittsburgh compete for Amazon; Gov’s in the middle

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the two great metros of the commonwealth, are destined to tangle over landing Amazon’s new headquarters. (Alejandro Alvarez photo)                 

Angela Couloumbis & Liz Navratil report for Philly.com:

“Western Pennsylvania offers many `quality-of-life’ enticements that would be attractive to corporate leaders and staff, a fact that regularly places the region on the top of `best places to live’ lists,” one letter to Wolf declared, signed by 12 senators including Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson).

Scarnati, whose hometown is not terribly close to Pittsburgh, only happens to be the third ranking state official in Pennsylvania.

Politics will not technically be a factor in the two cities’ expected bids for Amazon’s second headquarters, which dangles the promise of 50,000 high-paying jobs and billions in investments. But it is part of the equation in Harrisburg, as both cities — and possibly other areas in the state — vie for Wolf’s blessing as they attempt to land the coveted prize.

For his part, Wolf, a Democrat, is trying to be Switzerland.

“I’m the governor of Pennsylvania,” Wolf said in an interview Wednesday with the Inquirer and Post-Gazette. “We certainly don’t want to get into trying to play favorites within the Pennsylvania family.”

Wolf said his priority is to lure the corporate giant to the state, which he said is home to “two world-class cities.” He said he read about Amazon’s search for a new city late last week, and by Saturday was already schmoozing a top Amazon executive at the Pitt-Penn State football game in State College.

He also sent a handwritten note to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.



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Pa. senators propose health screenings near military bases

Willow Grove hangar
Marty Schy, a veteran Navy pilot who works as a caretaker at the Willow Grove Naval Air Station, looks up at the ceiling of Hangar 175, through which chemical firefighting foam once was piped. Michael Bryant photo


Justine McDaniel reports for Philly.com:

In an effort to determine how tens of thousands of people nationwide have been affected by tainted water near military bases, residents in some of those areas would receive health screenings under an amendment proposed by Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators.

Contamination from military use of firefighting foam, which contains chemicals known as PFOS and PFOA, has sparked fear and frustration among communities near bases from Pennsylvania to Washington state, along with a flurry of attempts from state and federal lawmakers to compel the Pentagon to step up its response.

Residents near the Willow Grove and Warminster bases in Bucks and Montgomery Counties found out in 2014 that their tap or well waters were contaminated. The military is now testing nearly 400 bases for the chemicals, known as PFOA and PFOS, and as of April had confirmed water contamination at or near more than 35 of them. Contamination from industrial sites has also cropped up in sampling.

The amendment, proposed by Sens. Pat Toomey (R, Pa.) and Bob Casey (D., Pa.) would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to choose eight areas affected by the contamination for “biomonitoring,” which looks at the chemicals to which people have been exposed and what remains in their bodies. Testing would begin within six months and be done within two years.

Casey said on a conference call Wednesday that he and Toomey would urge the CDC to include the vicinity of Warrington, Warminster, and Horsham, near the suburban Pennsylvania former air bases, in the set of communities to be monitored.

It would provide some more immediate data as the CDC also embarks on a five-year health analysis, for which Congress has already authorized $7 million.


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Using budget bill, House votes to block climate rules


Georgina Gustin reports for Inside Climate News: The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to cut funding from key climate protection rules and rejected an attempt to save regional offices of the Environmental Protection Agency from being closed. But lawmakers voted against an amendment to cut $1.9 billion from the EPA’s budget, which would have dealt a devastating blow to the beleaguered agency. Offered by Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, the amendment’s cuts would have come close to the 31 percent reductions sought by President Donald Trump. The House bill does cut more than $530 million from the agency’s $8 billion budget, slashing it to less than the agency was spending in 2006.  The votes came as lawmakers worked their way through a broad spending package for the 2018 fiscal year, which begins in October. Final passage by the House will likely come Thursday, but any differences with a Senate version will need to be reconciled. The bill contained hundreds of amendments, many of them “riders” of the kind attached to appropriations bills to score policy points. Dozens of these proposals have drawn criticism from environmental groups. Hewing closely to party lines, Republicans backed two amendments sponsored by Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). One would prevent funds from being used to enforce an Obama-era rule that limits methane pollution from new oil and gas facilities. The other effectively prohibits the EPA from factoring in future damages from climate change—a calculation known as the social cost of carbon—in weighing the costs and benefits of its rules. Read the full story Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
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Enviros do one-hand clapping for proposed fracking ban


Environmentalist greet ban with approval, but are less pleased with regulations that will address how fracking wastewater will be disposed of in the Delaware River basin

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

Delaware River

Delaware River
The Delaware River Basin Commission yesterday formally began the process of drafting new rules to ban natural gas drilling in the basin, as well as other regulations that could benefit the industry in areas not covered by the prohibition.
By a narrow margin, the commission approved a resolution directing its staff to draw up the new regulations on an issue that has caused huge controversy, including at the interstate agency.
The action, if adopted sometime next year, would ban hydraulic fracturing, the technology used to extract gas from shale formations, within the basin. At the same time, it would propose new rules governing the transfer of water for drilling outside the basin and the storage, treatment and disposal of fracking wastewater in the basin.
NJ Spotlight will explore issues affecting the Delaware River watershed and steps to protect its resources at an event at Camden County Community College tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Follow this link to register.
In effect, the proposals would protect the resources of the Delaware River, which provides drinking water for 15 million people in four states, while at the same time regulating drilling operations in areas where they are now permitted.
The latter concerns environmentalists, who welcome the ban, but oppose water transfers out of the basin for fracking, which requires enormous amounts of water for the drilling process. They also are against disposing fracking wastewater within the basin.


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