Waste News articles from March 2005

Waste News archives from March 2005

At Deadline: Bill supports safer chemical making.(Late News)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., has introduced a bill that would encourage efforts to improve chemical safety by finding less toxic alternatives and minimize the creation of harmful byproducts during manufacturing. "Chemical manufacturing is the...

Waste Industries buys three Atlanta operations.(News)(D&D Disposal)(Southland Disposal)(A Plus Disposal Inc)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Waste Industries USA Inc. is acquiring three disposal companies in Greater Atlanta, the regional solid waste management company said. D&D Disposal, Southland Disposal and A Plus Disposal Inc. will bring almost $3...

New law, crime worries help shredding; Paper shredders are hot commodities for business, home.(News)
March 14, 2005... Byline: H. Lee Murphy Crain's Chicago Business Growing concern about identity theft is sparking interest in paper shredders - not just in corporate offices but in average households, too. The Federal Trade Commission estimates roughly...

Chicago-bound company sells former headquarters; U.S. Plastic Lumber leaves Florida.(News)(Lees Development Corp)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini U.S. Plastic Lumber Corp. took another step in its reorganization March 7, closing the sale of its Ocala, Fla., plastic lumber manufacturing facility. Lees Development Corp. bought the plant for $3.25 million at a...

Personnel.(People)
March 14, 2005... 100% RECYCLED PAPERBOARD ALLIANCE - Paul Schutes named executive director. ADVANCED ENERGY RESEARCH CORP. - Helmut Ziehe appointed environmental advisor to the technical advisory board. AMERICAN BALER CO. - Linda Keesee promoted to...

New Products.(Products)(TEREX PEGSON)(JOHNSTON MADVAC INC)
March 14, 2005... INDUSTRIAL SPECIALTIES MANUFACTURING has introduced a series of black or white polypropylene filters. Suitable for air, liquid or vacuum service, these quickly disassembled filters are easily serviced by replacing the filter materials, the...

Waste Generator Briefs.(Briefs)
March 14, 2005... Energy Indiana halfway to tax credit expansion The Indiana Senate has passed clean energy legislation that would expand tax credits passed during the 2003 legislative session on the production and use of Indiana grain-based fuels and...

Report seeks clarity at haz waste sites.(News)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Congressional investigators said they believe that federal environmental officials could better protect the public's health and safety by improving guidelines for setting limits on future land use at hazardous waste...

E-waste initiative folds.(National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini The first multi-stakeholder electronics recycling dialogue officially is done. Catherine Wilt, the University of Tennessee facilitator of the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative, notified...

EPA finalizes Clean Air Interstate Rule.(News)(Environmental Protection Agency)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Only one day after the Senate Environment Committee rejected President Bush's Clear Skies Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which aims to accomplish many of the...

Lonely at the top.(Opinion)(EPA's new administrator)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... The Bush administration has made a choice that's probably as popular and safe as it could in nominating Stephen Johnson as the next administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Johnson has been acting administrator of the EPA...

Waste earns best infrastructure mark.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Solid waste is not an industry that is often envied, but folks handling the nation's trash are showing up at the head of the class in a new report card that grades the nation's infrastructure. Like the brainiac who...

Tie vote sinks Clear Skies bill.
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Republicans on the Senate Environment Committee failed to gather enough votes to pass the Bush administration's Clear Skies emission reduction proposal out of committee. Opponents of the bill called for both...

Utility settles case for $545M; Pollution controls at Ill. plants among those Dynergy to upgrade.(News)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini Dynegy Inc. has agreed to spend $545 million on emission control projects to settle a Clinton administration New Source Review federal lawsuit. The Houston-based power company and the U.S. Department of Justice...

Feds enter e-waste arena.(News)(Electronic Waste Recycling and Promotion and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 )(Column)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini A national bill with bipartisan support seeks to ban electronics from landfills and establish tax incentives for consumers and businesses to recycle computers and other electronics. Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jim...

WN readers to vote on top stories.(News)
March 14, 2005... Workers in New York and Washington clean up after the Sept. 11 attacks. USA Waste buys Waste Management. New York City brings down the Mob. Would you rate any of these stories as the most significant since Waste News began...

More ships may go overseas.(News)(obsolete ships sent overseas for scrapping)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman A federal program to dispose of obsolete ships recently won a court victory that could clear the way for more vessels to be sent overseas for scrapping. However, at about the same time, Congress' Government...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
March 14, 2005... Capacity problem I think maybe you were more interested in jabbing New York City than promoting good waste disposal practices ["Plumb backwater in NYC,'' Feb. 14, Page 8]. For those of us that work in the business of waste treatment...

Phoning in a fund-raiser; Motorola launches cell phone recycling program for schools.(News)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini Motorola Inc. hopes to collect 1 million used mobile phones through a fund-raising program that will help schools raise money for scholastic and extracurricular activities. The "Race to Recycle'' program will pay...

Optimism surrounds Johnson nomination; Bush's EPA pick spent career as agency scientist.(News)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman President Bush's decision to nominate career scientist Stephen Johnson as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator drew expressions of support from most environmentalists and representatives of...

Aerobic bioreactor system avoids fire, odor.(Technology)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Roger Renstrom A Marquette, Mich., business is marketing an aggressive aerobic bioreactor landfill technology system with potentially significant economic benefits for a processor. The system breaks down municipal solid waste...

Waste Services sues WM; Firm says Waste Management interfered with Fla. landfill deal.(News)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Waste Services Inc. claims Waste Management Inc. and its former CEO interfered with attempts to buy a Florida landfill and wants a court to award tens of millions of dollars in damages. Waste Services alleges its...

British Columbia plant will address runoff; Mine currently releases 1,400 pounds of heavy metals into ocean each day.(News)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini The province of British Columbia and Canadian power provider Epcor Utilities Inc. have commenced building a $22 million treatment plant to address one of North America's most significant mine runoff sources. The...

Inhofe backs funds for sewers.(News)(Government funding for water supply construction)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Senate Environment Committee Chairman James Inhofe, R-Okla., has asked the head of the Senate Budget Committee to allocate more money to sewer improvements than President Bush asked for in his fiscal year 2006...

Coming Events.(Calendar)(Calendar)
March 14, 2005... North America March 29-31 - Works 2005 Conference on Solid Waste Management, Newton, Kan. Contact Jim Rudeen (785) 296-1603 or visit www.kdhe.state.ks.us. March 30-31 - Environmental Health & Safety Symposium, Cincinnati. Call (614)...

Allied raises stock sale plan by $100M; Firm now to sell $600M in preferred stock.(News)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Allied Waste Industries Inc. is increasing by $100 million the amount of new stock it intends to sell as part of larger refinancing plan. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company now plans to sell $600 million in...

A Look Back.(News)
March 14, 2005... Five years ago: The new owner of the Waste Expo convention, Primedia, reverses a move made three years earlier by the show's previous owner, the Environmental Industry Associations, to switch the event from spring to fall. A year ago: The...

Anti-blending bill; Congressmen oppose wastewater rule.(News)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Four Congressmen introduced a bill March 3 that would block federal regulators from adopting guidelines specifically allowing wastewater plant operators to blend and discharge partially treated sewage with fully...

Grants to help cities retrofit trash trucks.(News)(Federal cash doled out for diesel exhaust makeovers of garbage trucks)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Trash trucks, considered one of the most polluting vehicles on the road today, are receiving much of the $1.6 million in federal cash being doled out for diesel exhaust makeovers. The cash, spread to various parts...

Environmentalists exult, industry regroups.(News)(National Association of Manufacturers)(Clean Air Act)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Representatives of the electric utility industry and manufacturers said members of the Senate Environment Committee should renew their efforts to find common ground on a multi-emissions bill that would be more...

Ark. joins mercury switch group; State becomes latest to require automakers to fund removal of switches.(Automotive industry)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Automakers are on the hook in yet another state to fund the removal of mercury switches from junked cars before they are shredded and recycled. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee signed into law March 3 a state Senate...

New recycling chief sees need to partner with WM.(News)(Pat DeRueda of Recycle America Alliance)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson As the new chief of Recycle America Alliance, Pat DeRueda sees the need for the recycling company to work more closely with its majority owner, Waste Management Inc. DeRueda was unveiled as president of Recycle...

Waste News Pricing Report.(News)(Waste disposal equipment)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... (With graph: Atlanta recovered post-consumer HDPE): A MILD RETREAT: High-density polyethylene prices continued to increase in early March, but colored HDPE prices may begin to back off. The average price for natural HDPE reached 28 cents per...

Waste Industry Briefs.(Briefs)
March 14, 2005... Waste-To-Energy WM to demolish Michigan WTE plant Waste Management Inc. is moving forward with the demolition of its Dearborn Heights, Mich., waste-to-energy plant, which should be completed by Aug. 16. The company and the Central...

The power to move on.(Opinion)(Clean Air Act)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... The Clear Skies emission reduction proposal is dead, at least for the time being. A major environmental project of the Bush Administration, Clear Skies failed to gain enough votes from the Senate Environment Committee. Now the question is,...

Radioactive waste may need to stay put.(News)(Reports of hazardous waste management issued by National Research Council)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman The federal government should consider keeping significant amounts of radioactive waste in place at former weapons development sites controlled by the Department of Energy, according to a new report. However,...

Universal problem requires similar solution; Volunteers attack Dirty Dozen waste sites in Pennsylvania.(News)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson More than 300 volunteers spent more than 1,700 hours clearing more than 286 tons of trash and debris from Pennsylvania state forests and parks last year. That's more than a small feat, according to the Pennsylvania...

Report points to wastewater sector's vulnerability.(News)(Water treatment plants)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman The nation's wastewater systems are vulnerable to terrorists, according to a recently released federal report. The Government Accountability Office said terrorists could disrupt service, release dangerous...

English database tracks 'fly-tipping'.(News)(government spends too much to clean Illegal dumping )(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Illegal dumping is certainly not a problem confined to the United States, as a new report from overseas points out. A database established for England reports that trash is illegally dumped every 35 seconds in that...

Death, taxes, your local garbage man.(Special Report)(trash collection service development)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson The big picture is this: Trash collection, fundamentally speaking, is not going to change much in the years and decades ahead. That's because the economics of the tried and true method of curbside collection work...

Car of the future's aim: color it green.(Special Report)(research on automobile recycling)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson A look back to 1985, or even 1965, provides examples about how much can change in the automotive industry in a generation or two. Styles change, performance changes and pollution controls change. And life will...

Green by design; Drawing board now often ignores enviro impact.(Special Report)(studying product life cycle for environmental concerns)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Allan Gerlat It all begins with a product. And the product begins with its design. "That's the goal of product stewardship, to design for its end-of-life impact,'' said Scott Cassel, director of the Product Stewardship...

Quest goes on for a nuclear waste answer that will last ten thousand years.(Special Report)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Ten thousand years in the future, high-level radioactive waste coming from nuclear reactors and other sites today will still be radioactive. Will the material be stored 1,000 feet under the desert in Nevada? Will a...

Too many people, and more on the way; Environmental problems caused by population growth may get worse before they get better.(Special Report)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Pete Fehrenbach "Sprawl may be managed well or poorly, and smart growth is better than dumb growth.'' - Gregg Easterbrook, author, "The Progress Paradox'' "Population growth is the primary source of environmental damage.'' -...

Give me government, or give me less; Opposite views persist on how Washington should handle the environment.(Special Report)(environmental laws for future)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Imagine more flexible environmental laws in the future that would be friendlier to the business community. Now imagine stronger command-and-control enforcement with greater funding from the federal government. ...

What a mess: Superfund growing as a financial Supernightmare.(Special Report)(federal government Superfund program)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman What will Superfund look like in 10 years? It could be a well-funded program, or it could be history. The federal government's Superfund program, which cleans up the nation's most contaminated hazardous...

Just can't get along; Power industry, green groups spar over settlement.(installation of pollution control equipment by electric utilities)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini Another New Source Review settlement has given environmental and industry groups yet another opportunity to bicker about emission reduction policy. FirstEnergy Corp. will spend $1.1 billion to reduce emissions at an...

Fla. county faces illegal dump probe.(environmental impact analysis of waste sites)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson A Florida county is at the center of an illegal-dumping probe that has embroiled its public works department and ultimately could cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The dumping, which allegedly involves Clay County...

Yucca data may be fake.(Yucca mountain nuclear waste repository project evaluation)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Government employees working on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project may have falsified documents related to their research, according to the U.S. departments of Energy and the Interior. The...

A fascinating evolution.(Special Report)(waste management)(Column)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Allan Gerlat It was a simpler time, 1995. E-mail and Web sites were mainly for techie nerds. Cell phones still were this kinda new gadget. Nobody heard of reality shows or Paris Hilton, and O.J. was just a football player and...

Panelists.(Special Report)(panel members)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Tod Arbogast, senior manager at Dell Inc. Niel Golightly, director of sustainable business strategies at Ford Motor Co. Kate Krebs, executive director of the National Recycling Coalition Bruce Parker, president and CEO of the...

Not your father's diesel engine; Tougher new standards will mean cleaner machines.(Special Report)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Diesel engines - used to move the vast majority of cargo around the country - are in for a big change in the years ahead. New standards beginning in 2007 and 2010 will see to that, said Allen Schaeffer, executive...

High-tech fertilizing; Precision farming just one way to reduce runoff - and water pollution.(Special Report)(Global positioning satellite technology for pollution management)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Brennan Lafferty Farmers in western Mississippi didn't know what was going on at their neighbor's place. Global positioning satellite technology and infrared imaging were not part of their daily work lives. But they were...

Better mouse traps will come through evolution, not revolution.(Special Report)(software usage for waste management)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Tracy Hayhurst A garbage truck that fuels its route by gulping trash bags may someday roll along the curb, but technological innovations in the world of waste tend to evolve slowly, with an occasional lurch. "We're seeing a lot...

A change of address; Technology helps fuel environmental construction.(Special Report)(green buildings standards)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Tracy Hayhurst The green building movement centers on state of mind more than state-of-the-art. Technology, in the form of more efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, or chemically treated windows that...

10 stories with lasting impact.(Special Report)(Waste news environmental coverage)
March 28, 2005... They're 10 years that shook the environmental world. During the period from 1995 to 2005 we experienced mega-mergers in the waste industry, an economy that went boom and then bust, a growing environmental problem with products such as...

AT DEADLINE: Berkeley aims for zero waste by 2020.(Late News)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... The Berkeley, Calif., City Council wants its town to be waste-free by 2020. Council members have unanimously approved a goal of zero waste within 15 years and a 75 percent waste reduction goal by 2010. A resolution passed late last...

Going the distance.(Special Report)(Waste News newspaper services)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Glen Stout If you have ever watched the film "Field of Dreams,'' you most likely remember one of its more famous lines, "Build it and they will come.'' The parent company of Waste News, Crain Communications Inc., has adopted a...

Two roads diverged in a wood; Waste disposal could move toward bioreactors, or diversion, or both.(Special Report)(bioreactors usage made mandatory)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Waste disposal, the way recycling consultant Peter Anderson sees it, is facing a fork in the road in the years ahead. "I see it up for grabs,'' he said. "It may change or it may not change. That change, if it were to...

Opinions split on mercury reg.(coal fired power plants to reduce mercury emissions)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Federal regulators say the United States is assuming a world leadership role by requiring power plants to reduce their mercury emissions, but environmental critics quickly said the new rule doesn't go far enough....

Kneeling at the altar of the chasing arrows.(Special Report)(recycling revolution )
March 28, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini Nearly a decade ago, a scathing article questioning the economic and environmental benefits of recycling riled a generation of recyclers. "Recycling Is Garbage,'' the New York Times Magazine article that appeared...

Trouble down below and in the bank accounts; Funding shortfall could bring wastewater infrastructure to crisis.(Special Report)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Brennan Lafferty Samuel Gray should be proud. His work lives on in Providence, R.I. More than 100 years ago Providence's city engineer traveled to Paris to study its sewer system. When Providence's system came online in 1901,...

Bright days ahead off the main grid.(Special Report)(future of renewable energy)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini Technology will play the primary role in the proliferation of renewable energy, but maybe not in the way you think. The push for cleaner energy will increase the demand for all sources of renewable energy, be it...

Polar extremes on the polar caps.(Special Report)(antartic ice sheets melting due to global warming effect)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini Is it getting hot in here? A significant temperature drop between 1940 and 1975 led some alarmed scientists to fret over the start of a new Ice Age. Some would argue a similar phenomenon is occurring today over...

An uneven playing field.(Special Report)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Bruce Geiselman Should U.S. environmental regulators re-examine policies that put U.S. manufacturers at an economic disadvantage compared with foreign trading partners? Or would such concessions create Third World environmental...

A never-ending e-buying binge.(Special Report)(recycling electronic wastes)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Joe Truini t's consumerism gone wild. Or perhaps it's just the need to have the biggest and baddest computer system that will continue to feed electronic waste concerns until consumers can conveniently recycle their old units. ...

The pressure's going up and up and up ...(Special Report)(population growth and resource consumption)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Pete Fehrenbach Can the world's nations keep consuming resources at the current rate? It depends who you ask. Many researchers who study population growth and its impact on the environment contend that the level of resource...

Physician, heal thyself: More look to producers for waste solutions.(Special Report)(product manufacturers concentrate on recycling)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Allan Gerlat It all begins with a product. Most of the waste and pollution in the world generates from a company making a product. So what should be the role of that company when the product's usefulness ends? "I think...

The environmental forecast for 2015: Part 1 of 4; WN asks panel of experts to determine what issues we'll face in 10 years, and what the challenges will be to solving them.(Special Report)(Panel Discussion)
March 28, 2005... Last month Waste News invited six experts with varied environmental perspectives to Washington to discuss the future. Ford Motor Co. and Dell Inc. represented the manufacturing community, or the waste generator sector. The leaders to two...

The environmental forecast for 2015: Part 2 of 4; WN asks panel of experts to determine what issues we'll face in 10 years, and what the challenges will be to solving them.(Special Report)(Panel Discussion)
March 28, 2005... Arbogast: From Dell's perspective, we look at our challenges hovering around how we manage the life cycle of our products. As we grow globally, as we expand our product set and as we expand our customer set, our challenges will be, as an...

The environmental forecast for 2015: Part 3 of 4; WN asks panel of experts to determine what issues we'll face in 10 years, and what the challenges will be to solving them.(Special Report)(Panel Discussion)
March 28, 2005... Part II - Discussing possible solutions Waste News: Let's see if we can solve some of those problems. Global warming, climate change. We all agree it is a major concern. So how does that get addressed? Skinner: It is related to...

The environmental forecast for 2015: Part 4 of 4; WN asks panel of experts to determine what issues we'll face in 10 years, and what the challenges will be to solving them.(Special Report)(Panel Discussion)
March 28, 2005... Waste News: The U.S. as a follower is an interesting point that was brought up in the first session. What do you think is the solution there? What has to change? Skinner: I think if we can make a case, that could be a motivator. I think...

Ain't That Peculiar ... Part 1 of 2; A jaunty tour through a decade's worth of weird and wacky tales from the world of waste.(Special Report)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Pete Fehrenbach During its 10 years of existence, Waste News has been foremost a business newspaper. We've written about mergers, reorganizations, plant openings and closings; landfills, disaster cleanups, pollution; legislation,...

Group wants incentives.(Special Report)(recycling promotional activities)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Jim Johnson Creating incentives - through education and the pocketbook - is a key to pushing environmental progress in the years ahead, said members of a panel brought together by Waste News. "I don't think we have talked to...

Ain't That Peculiar ... Part 2 of 2; A jaunty tour through a decade's worth of weird and wacky tales from the world of waste.(Special Report)
March 28, 2005... Byline: Pete Fehrenbach Jan. 21, 2002 - What A Bunch Of Characters: A motley troupe of sneaker-shod recyclables helps Seattle's Public Utilities Department make a promotional splash during an NFL game between the Seahawks and the Kansas...