November 09, 2004
Senate Natural Resource Committee Hears Testimony on Trash and Electronic Waste
The Senate Natural Resources Committee held an Interim Hearing today. The Committee invited Wade Wheatley the head of the Waste Permits Section to speak about the rule-making activities on trash facilities. At approximately 11:45 am or so he gave a short synopsis of what is happening with the Site Operating Plan (SOP) rule-making (which is going before the TCEQ Commissioners tomorrow Wed. Nov. 10), the broader Chapter 330 Rule-making (which the hearings in May and June were about) and for the first time a new "rule concept" that sounds very dangerous. The new rule making is going to allow for expansions without a major amendment is which the entire permit is open for review. Wade Wheatley said they were looking to the rules regarding industrial and hazardous waste facilities as models. We will probably want to oppose this. Wade Wheatley said this might start next Summer.
Wade Wheatley was grilled on a number of issues, especially on the value of having daily Waste Acceptance Rates in permits that are not enforced. He was also closely questioned on the TCEQ's handling of the Penske/Zenith electronic waste illegally dumped in the Texas Disposal Systems landfill. The Senators were very perturbed with how the TCEQ has midhandled that situation.
At 1:15 pm or so, during the public comment period, Robin Schneider of Texas Campaign for the Environment raised concerns about the Proposed SOP Rules not going far enough to protect the property rights and quality of life for neighbors of landfills. She also spoke about electronic waste. A short while after me, Mary Sahs, an attorney representing a landowner near the Waste Management landfill (soon-to-be transfer station) in Tarrant County on the Parker County border, also spoke about the SOPs, the problem of borrow pits outside of the permit boundaries of trash facilities, traffic issues etc. Bob Gregory, of Texas Disposal Systems, spoke last about the situation at his landfill and the broader problems of allowing municipal solid waste facilities to become hazardous waste dumping grounds and the broader problem of electronic waste in the wastestream.
Here's the link if you want to listen in:
Click here
and then click on November 9, 2004
Posted by robin at 04:04 PM
October 25, 2004
Four News Items
Lots is going on around the State of Texas on trash issues!
1. The newest draft of the rules for Site Operating Plans is available on the TCEQ website. Click here. The TCEQ Commissioners will vote to publish these rules for public comment on Wednesday November 10. If folks can attend in Austin, that would be good.
2. The new group Mount Hutto Aware Citizens in Williamson County turned out a large number of people to oppose their County and Waste Management's plans to get a quick under-the-radar approval of the land use compatibility of the proposed landfill expansion. To see a news article on this Click here. The group also has a new website: www.huttoonline.com/landfill
3. Texas Campaign for the Environment and landfill neighbors with Weatherford Trash Watch filed comments opposing a lateral expansion through a permit modification and called for an enforcement investigation against IESI for running an open dump. The landfill never completed its Subtitle D upgrades and should be considered an open dump. The TCEQ received more than 3500 letters opposing the expansion so far. Contact robin@texasenvironment.org for more details.
4. Central Texas residents finally have good recycling options for their unwanted computers and peripherals. Dell, Goodwill and the City of Austin are partnering to recycle old computers. Central Texans can drop off their unwanted equipment at any Goodwill donation center. City of Austin residents can call the City which will arrange home pick-ups by Goodwill for $10. See www.computerrecyclingproject.com for details. The hope is to replicate this program across the country.
Posted by robin at 06:53 PM
October 01, 2004
Two Landfill Victories & Two Upcoming Battles
Congratulations to Citizens Against the Dump (Brazoria/Ft. Bend Counties) for defeating a landfill proposal. The three TCEQ Commissioners voted 3 to 0 on September 29 to deny a permit to Juliff Gardens. They went through a Contested Case Hearing and were ably represented by the Houston law firm of Blackburn and Carter. They won a great recommendation from the Adminstrative Law Judges (ALJ) that heard the case. The TCEQ Commissioners went along with most of the major points of the ALJ opinion and denied the permit. For more information on their case Click here
Secondly, the Citizens Against the Montgomery Landfill scored a victory last week. The Houston/Galveston Area Council decided that the proposed landfill is "not consistent or inconsistent" with the regional solid waste plan. This was better than they expected! For more details: Click here
Two Upcoming Battles
Folks fighting an expansion of the Williamson County/Waste Management Landfill won a public meeting on the land use issues of a massive proposed expansion. The meeting was finally scheduled for Monday October 11 at the Hutto Primary School. For details: Click here
Lastly, the trash company IESI is attempting to expand its Weatherford dump through a permit modification rather than amendment - and the TCEQ Executive Director is poised to grant it! Please consider sending comments in opposition to creating an ugly precendent by Oct. 15. For details: Click here
Posted by robin at 12:55 PM
September 20, 2004
State Environmental Commissioners Vote to Keep Some Hazardous Electronic Waste Out of Landfill
On Thursday September 16, 2004, at a suspenseful hearing a 2-1 majority of the Commissioners of the state environmental agency voted to overturn their staff's decision on letting hazardous electronic waste to be disposed of in a trash landfill.
Without this ruling, hazardous waste polluters would have gotten the message that the TCEQ would approve plans that reclassifies hazardous waste as "Special Waste" after being mixed with garbage in landfills.
Texas Campaign for the Environment hopes to use this case to increase support for keeping ALL toxic electronic waste out of landfills in Texas.
In addition, this is the second time in 6 months that at least two of the three Commissioners were willing to reconsider actions of staff and do something different than staff recommended on a waste issue.
To see more on this case, the website of the landfill that was unlawfully dumped on and is fighting to have the hazardous waste removed has press clippings and lots of background on the case. Go to Texas Disposal Systems's website and click on "About Us" and then "Latest News" or "TCEQ Filings & Information"
Posted by robin at 05:05 PM
If you have problems with how your local trash facility operates: Have your Say!
The state environmental agency (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or TCEQ) is revising rules regarding garbage dumps and other garbage facilities. Right now, the agency is about to publish proposed rules on site Operating Plans which are the part of the permit that address the day-to-day operations of facility.
The most recent draft Site Operating Plan rules are available now. Latest Version of Proposed Rules on Site Operating Plans for Landfills
You can still make comments on this phase of the rule-making. Here are some comments that a number of groups submitted on a n earlier draft of the rules (Download file).
Here's a link to the TCEQ webpage with details on proposal, timeline, etc. As mentioned above the "Proposed Rule" and timeline are being changed TCEQ Site Operating Plans Rules Re-write Page
Feel free to borrow or echo ideas from the comments submitted by trash groups already, or add your own ideas. Email your comments to: mswsop@tceq.state.tx.us
Include your name and address and request updates!
Posted by robin at 04:59 PM
New Proposed Rules on site Operating Plans Available & Stakeholder Meeting on September 22nd at 9:30 am
The state environmental agency issues newest set of proposed rules on Site Operating Plans for landfills Click here for more information
You are welcome to attend an informal stakeholders meeting about these proposed rules on Wed. Sept. 22 at 9:30 am in Room 201 S Building E at the TCEQ headquarters in Austin.
Posted by robin at 04:50 PM
September 15, 2004
Innovative Recycling Partnership in NYC
New York Times September 15, 2004
City Sees Savings in a Partnership Built on Tons of Plastic and Metal
By Ian Urbina
One of the toughest challenges with recycling has always been finding markets for the recycled goods, whose resale can then help defray the costs of the program. In announcing a 20-year recycling contract yesterday, the Bloomberg administration said it had solved that problem by encouraging a company to find those markets.
The contract with the company, the Hugo Neu Corporation, based in Manhattan, will not only give New York City some of the revenue from the sale of recycled plastic, metal and glass but will also allow the recycling company to take in greater revenue if it finds lucrative markets for those products. "The magic formula here is that as the market for recycling improves, the city wins, and as Hugo Neu's performance improves, the company wins," said Robert Lange, director of the waste prevention, reuse and recycling bureau in the Department of Sanitation. "This is the genius of a true public-private partnership."
The contract, details of which are still being negotiated, features two improvements from previous city contracts with recyclers. First, if the market for recycled materials improves, the city will pay less in fees for its recyclable trash. But if the market worsens, the city will not pay above a certain amount.
The city now pays about $51 per ton to recycle metal, glass and plastic. During the first five years of the contract, the city will not pay more than $48 per ton. By contrast, the city would pay about $70 a ton to send the materials to be buried in a landfill.
The contract's second improvement, according to city officials, is that it gives Hugo Neu the incentive to find markets for the costliest parts of the recycling stream: plastic and glass.
"I am proud to announce that we are entering a new era for recycling in New York City," Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said during a news conference at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, where the city plans to build a $25 million sorting plant. "This long-term contract allows the Hugo Neu Corporation to make the capital investment necessary to develop better markets for the city's recyclables."
The mayor explained that under the new plan the city would save about $20 million a year from what it currently pays to recycle its metal, plastic and glass. Part of these savings come from the contract's sliding scale, which ties the city's recycling future to the shifting and complicated markets for metal, glass and plastic.
The demand for metal is strong at present, largely because of a building boom in China that has driven up prices for recycled metal. The market for certain types of plastic, like that used in the milk jugs and water bottles that are recycled in New York City, is also strong.
But the market for other plastic, like that used in toys or to cover dry-cleaned garments, remains weak. The contract will require Hugo Neu to construct the Brooklyn sorting plant to be able to process these other types of plastics.
The contract also stipulates that if the company can find a market for the other kinds of plastic, it can keep a large part of the money it makes on the sale of that material. This will encourage the company to find buyers for the plastic, thus increasing the chance that in the future, the city might be able to expand its recycling program, a step that would remove even more trash from the waste stream.
"The hope is that there will come a time when the markets for these materials is strong enough that Hugo Neu will pay the city rather than the other way around," said Carmen J. Cognetta, counsel to the sanitation and solid waste management committee of the City Council. "The limiting factor here is glass."
Mr. Cognetta explained that because glass is made of cheap and abundant raw materials, mostly water and sand, it has very little resale value. The value of glass is further lowered by the fact that there is no way to turn one color of glass into another color. Recycling companies now sell mixed-color glass after it is pulverized to be sprayed over landfills to limit odor or to be used as a substitute for sand in construction projects.
As is the case with plastics, the contract will give Hugo Neu a similar incentive to find markets for glass. While exact percentages have not been specified, the contract says that if Hugo Neu finds markets for the glass, it can keep a large part of the profit.
"Finding markets for these products is key," said Mark A. Izeman, a senior lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "But so too is public education and streamlined collection."
Mr. Izeman said that since the cost of picking up the materials accounts for about 90 percent of the overall cost of recycling, the city will need to make sure that sanitation trucks pick up the maximum amount of recyclables possible for each mile driven.
"It's a winning contract, and ultimately stronger public education and more efficient collection will be critical to getting the most out it," he said.
Posted by robin at 09:37 PM