http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
Carroll County Times Calls For Board To Honor Promise on WTE
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Read the editorial here.
Maryland Set to Become America's Smoldering Trash Can
http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
A recently released report details how the incinerator industry is pushing to make Maryland the East Coast's premiere destination for...other people's garbage! That should do wonders for our state's reputation. Read more here
Three Letters in the Paper That Are Worth Reading
http://www.wastenotcarroll.org/
Three recent letters in the Carroll County Times that are worth a read. To see them, click...
Here
And Here
And Here
Three recent letters in the Carroll County Times that are worth a read. To see them, click...
Here
And Here
And Here
More evidence that incinerators produce harmful nanoparticles
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Bankrupted Harrisburg, PA trying to sell Incinerator to Get Out Of Debt
By Romy Varghese - Aug 3, 2011 12:01 AM ET
From Bloomberg.com
Pennsylvania’s capital city must sell a debt-laden trash incinerator, lease its parking system and consider a tax on commuters if those measures aren’t enough to restore fiscal stability, Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson said.
The city, which has a $5 million budget deficit, stands to lose $3 million in state aid -- jeopardizing its ability to pay bondholders and employees -- if the City Council votes down the blueprint announced yesterday by Thompson.
“The plan will accomplish the core objectives and return the city of Harrisburg to solvency,” Thompson told reporters. “And it will do so with shared responsibility and shared burden, with a minimal impact to the citizens.”
The council must vote to approve the plan by Sept. 6 or risk the loss of state aid, said C. Alan Walker, head of the state’s Community and Economic Development Department, which runs a distressed-cities program that Harrisburg entered in December. Click here to read more.
Carroll County Landfill Now Offers Styrofoam Recycling
Check out this great little video, featuring Waste Not!'s own Don West!
Public decries waste-to-energy project
By Patti S. Borda
Potential pollution, traffic and expense associated with a waste-to-energy incinerator drew a group of residents to a meeting Thursday with Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. and the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Members of the public who attended the meeting were not convinced that the county plant will receive enough trash to make it profitable, and if it does they said too much material that could be recycled will be incinerated instead.
Michael Marschner, Frederick County special projects manager, said the county's household recycling program has been designed to divert recyclable material from the waste stream at the landfill and will do the same once the incinerator is operating. He and Wheelabrator representatives said the only recyclable material that will end up in the incinerator is material that comes from households that do not separate their waste.
Click here to keep reading.Lehigh To Start Burning Trash!
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Wheelabrator admits to dumping untreated wastewater, ash into wetlands
Industry encroaches on Maryland's Civil War battlefields
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By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun, April 25, 2011
FREDERICK -
Standing behind the old brick Worthington House, visitors can look down the gently sloping hillside and picture the Civil War battle that likely saved the nation's capital from capture.
Much of the farmland where Union soldiers fought that hot summer day in 1864 to delay a Confederate attack on Washington has been preserved as Monocacy National Battlefield. But the view from the Worthington farm, where the fighting began, appears fated to become less historic.
A huge waste-to-energy plant is planned just across the Monocacy River from the 1,650-acre park - a project that has sparked criticism as the nation marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. One hundred fifty feet tall, with a 270-foot smokestack, the facility will loom over the trees that hide areas where Confederate cavalry forded the river to assault Union infantry.
"This will be visible from the visitors center and other key parts of the battlefield," said Susan W. Trail, superintendent of the historic park on the southern outskirts of Frederick. "It will, in my view, overwhelm part of our landscape." Click Here to Keep Reading.
Frederick County's future dimming
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The long debate in Frederick County over the proposed incinerator/"waste-to-energy" facility for burning waste has left this citizen unconvinced of its merits. Instead of a public process where citizen concerns were addressed adequately and the inevitable benefits of the system portrayed conclusively, we have a series of decisions that leave disappointment and powerlessness in their wake.
The extreme costs locked into the system will inevitably hurt citizens inFrederick County; we'll watch our waste bills increase over time while others profit running our systems. This inflexible, no-turning-back technology will condemn us to a solution not used in decades and which is rapidly becoming totally obsolete. The debt service on the bonds, and, make no mistake about it despite the claims of Blaine Young, all the costs of these operations and management that we'll contractually pay are a burden and long legacy for citizens. Click Here To Keep Reading.
Lots of News and Updates
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* Paid lobbyists, industry representatives, and misguided county employees have once again been making the rounds trying to drum up support for a trash burning plant. This handy guide helps separate fact from fiction in the waste incineration debate. Click here to view/download.
* Robin Davidov, head of the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority, spoke to Waste Not! Carroll last month. Here is video of her presentation and the lively Q & A that followed. Click here to see the video.
* The folks from the Environmental Integrity Project spoke at Waste Not! Carroll's March meeting. They are involved in helping to ensure that existing and proposed incinerators meet current and future air quality standards. Despite what the pro-incinerator lobby claims, trash burning plants produce a lot of pollution and very little electricity. In fact when you compare an incinerator to a coal power plant - as the Environmental Integrity Project has done - you begin to see just how bad for the environment trash burning plants really are. (Thanks to Robbie Orvis from the Environmental Integrity Project for researching and compiling the data). Click here to see this shocking comparison.
* Composting is an important part of any reasonable approach to waste management. This community in PA is showing just how easy curbside compost pick-up is to implement in a small sized municipality. Click Here to Read More.
* One of Frederick County's Commissioners is trying to bully Carroll County into making a decision about whether or not they still want to help build a trash burning plant. Click here to get the full story.
SHOCKER: Industry Lobbyist Tries to Mislead Public
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Tempe Startup Turns Garbage into Compost
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GARIN GROFF, East Valley Tribune
TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — It's said that one person's trash is another's treasure, but for a Tempe startup called EcoScraps, that trash is its very business model.
The fledgling business is based on the grocery industry's massive piles of fruits and vegetables that go bad before they can be sold and until now have been hauled to a landfill.EcoScraps has inked deals with grocers and wholesalers to haul it away and use it as a key ingredient in organic compost and potting soil that it sells at independent nurseries. The company plans to add 88 Bashas' stores and is looking for others in addition to its existing wholesaler supply, said Brandon Sargent, EcoScrap's co-founder and vice president. It hasn't been too difficult to get grocers to sign on, Sargent said, because trash companies charge stores by the weight of what's hauled away. Click Here To Keep Reading.
Hundreds stage noisy protest outside public consultation over incinerator
The demonstration then took to the streets of the city centre, first to the sundial and onto New George Street, along Old Town Street, and then back down Royal Parade and then back to the Guildhall.
To rousing cheers speakers highlighted the myriad of concerns residents and others had raised since the various bids to build incinerators in the region were put in last year. Click Here To Keep Reading.
If You Can't Convince Them...Then Confuse Them
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Interview with Waste Not!'s Don West
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As both the cost and the environmental impact of incineration has become more apparent, you would be hard pressed to find anybody these days who actually thinks that burning trash is a good idea. So what should we do with our trash? For a better understanding of what is at play in the debate over how to handle this county's solid waste (and an excellent summation of the facts in this debate), have a peak at this interview with Don West on Sykesville Online - click here to see it. Or Here.
...Oh, and what's the deal with camel? You'll just have to read the interview to find out!
South Carroll Student Starts Composting Project
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The project was the idea of 17-year-old Emily Peterson, a senior at the school, who has been working since the beginning of the school year to start a compost program there.
SHA will be donating 58 large aluminum panels for the project, and the students will begin building the bins in February.
The school will use the compost from cafeteria waste for general landscaping, planting American chestnut trees and other environmentally-friendly projects around the campus.
AG investigating waste incinerator - Employees tell of pollution releases
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Boston Globe Staff / January 4, 2011Attorney General Martha Coakley is investigating Wheelabrator Saugus, the waste incinerator responsible for burning trash from 15 North Shore cities and towns, for alleged environmental violations including the discharge of hazardous chemicals into the air and water, according to several people who said they were interviewed by state officials.
The state investigation was spurred by two employees of the plant who filed a civil lawsuit against Wheelabrator Saugus Inc. and its parent company, Texas-based Waste Management Inc., more than a year ago in Essex Superior Court. The suit, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe, alleges that operators of the Saugus incinerator have knowingly violated environmental laws for years, endangered public health, and defrauded the communities that paid to send their garbage there for proper handling.
The employees filed suit under the Massachusetts False Claims Act, the law that protects whistle-blowers who report their employers for committing fraud against the government. In accordance with the law, it was filed on behalf of the 15 North Shore towns and cities that contract with Wheelabrator and was sealed by the court to keep it from public view while the state conducted its investigation.
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