The Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) issued an August 16th Order Denying a Petition Objecting to the issuance of a Clean Air Act Title V Operating Permit (“Permit”) for the Turnkey...more
Key Takeaways - What Happened? On May 21, 2024, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed the Packaging Waste and Cost Reduction Act (the Act). Minnesota is the fifth state to enact laws implementing packaging EPR rules,...more
The Environmental Research & Education Foundation (“EREF”) has released its annual report titled: Analysis of MSW Landfill Tipping Fees – 2023 (“Report”). The Report undertakes the analysis of Municipal Solid Waste...more
Sixteen individuals (collectively, “Petitioners”) filed a February 9th Title V Petition to Object (“Petition”) before the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) related to Waste Management of New Hampshire,...more
Massachusetts residents and businesses dispose of enough trash yearly to fill up about 31 Fenway Parks. Despite decades of government policies to reduce waste, we continue throwing away about six million tons of waste each...more
A group of 18 California children – ranging in ages from 8 to 17 – has filed a new constitutional climate case in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...more
A bill amending the Alabama Solid Wastes and Recyclable Materials Management Act by specifying when local approval of solid waste disposal permit modifications is necessary has passed both houses of the Alabama Legislature...more
A 2022 Interagency Sea Level Rise Technical Report, authored by various governmental agencies, found that global mean sea levels could rise between one and seven feet by 2100. This would me significant impacts to the more...more
Several individuals (collectively “Petitioners”) filed a Request for Adjudicatory Hearing and Commission Review (“Petition”) on April 14th before the Arkansas Commission on Pollution Control and Ecology (“Commission”)...more
What's Happening? The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) published proposed regulations to amend the Recycling and Disposal Reporting System (RDRS) to increase the specificity of waste...more
Just before the start of the year, the European Commission introduced a Proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR) which will repeal the existing Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) and...more
In 2015, California’s former governor Edmund Brown Jr. set methane emissions-reduction targets for the state. Senate Bill 1383 requires that California reduce organic waste disposal 75 percent by the year 2025. Although most...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued the Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 to address the widespread “forever chemicals,” known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), found in water, air,...more
A long-running dispute over a substantial civil penalty issued by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for violations of Oregon’s landfill closure requirements continued with the Oregon Court of Appeals’...more
The Court of Appeals of Kansas (“Appellate Court”) addressed in an October 21st Opinion a question arising out of a contract that provided the right to repurchase the real estate on which the landfill occupies. See South...more
For the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (“NYSDEC” or “Department”), discretion has been the better part of valor when considering enforcement of certain provisions of the Revised Part 360 Solid Waste...more
On February 24, 2022, EPA announced the selection of 11 organizations to receive a total of approximately $2 million in funding to divert food waste from landfills by expanding anaerobic digester capacity nationwide. ...more
One of my favorite movies is The Graduate. There is a scene in that 1968 film where Ben (Dustin Hoffman) is getting advice about his future from Mr. McGuire. Mr. McGuire takes Ben aside and says, in a conspiratorial tone, “I...more
The United States District Court for the District of Texas (“Court”) addressed in an August 4th Opinion issues arising out of a solid waste storage and recycling facility/shingle pile in Dallas, Texas. See Marsha Jackson v....more
Governor Signs SB 619 Into Law - Local jurisdictions (cities, counties and special districts) that fail to adopt enforceable mechanisms to divert organic waste from landfills in accordance with SB 1383 regulations before...more
A United States District Court (D. Minnesota) (“Court”) addressed in a July 13th Order issues arising out of a Goodhue County, Minnesota, ordinance addressing mixed municipal solid waste (“MMSW”). See Paul’s Industrial...more
I undertook an Arkansas Environmental Federation webinar held by the organization’s Land and Sustainability Committee on May 20th titled: Solid and Hazardous Waste/Recycling Administrative/Judicial Developments: 2020-2021...more
The Court of Appeals of Minnesota (“Court”) in a December 7th Opinion addressed a zoning issue associated with an industrial waste landfill. See AIM Development (USA), LLC v. City of Sartell, 2020 WL 7134863...more
Summary - The Pennsylvania legislature is close to enacting House Bill 1808. Already approved by the Pennsylvania House, the measure could benefit an emerging industry known as Advanced Recycling that diverts single-use...more
Even though Oregon is considered the third greenest state in the United States, and a national leader when it comes to recycling, Oregon’s waste-management programs are not actually recovering all of the state’s recyclable...more