Sunday, October 01, 2017

When I stepped into environmental activism it was to protect my family and the future.

I never thought I'd see the day when my family has to revisit the same activism that protected them so far. Really, Scott? Amazing. The USA is crying at the shame of this DC administration.

Next week "Hazard Waste."

September 20, 2017
By Anya Khalamayzer 
Creating great products (click here) is any company's goal, but to those that think long-term about their value, making a profit "means nothing" unless they scale production in a way that doesn't harm consumers and the environment, said attendees at a circular economy summit during VERGE 17.

The circular economy, which moves away from the take-make-dispose system of "business as usual" and infuses manufacturer's material streams with recycled goods, is the mechanism that will allow companies to achieve this goal.

There are still massive barriers to implementing the circular economy as "business as usual," and it will require pulling a company's full value chain on board, said the panelists, meeting under Chatham House Rule. For example, the chemical processes that allow polymers to be dissolved and recirculated are still expensive to implement — and may have hidden health risks.

Getting into "full circularity at once isn't likely," said an attendee from an environmental nonprofit. Finding and optimizing the pipeline of circular opportunities means using the levers of technology, policy and investment from the consumer goods sector.

Here are five major challenges to proliferating the use of reclaimed goods, and the opportunities that may arise from them — because, essentially, circular thinking is about finding jewels in a waste stream.

- American recycling facilities must up the ante
- Don't depend on consumers
- The devil is in the details
- Everyone must be on board
- Build trust

Real dangers and real rules. The rules are written because of a methodology to classify dangers.

...The place where the chemical originates is called the source. Chemicals can enter the environment from many different sources such as landfills, incinerators, tanks, drums, or factories. Human exposure to hazardous chemicals can occur at the source or the chemical could move to a place where people can come into contact with it. Chemicals can move through air, soil, and water. They can also be on plants or animals, and can get into the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink.

The different ways a person can come into contact with hazardous chemicals are called exposure pathways. There are three basic exposure pathways: inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact. Inhalation is breathing or inhaling into the lungs. Ingestion is taking something in by mouth. Skin contact occurs when something comes in direct contact with the skin. Ingestion can be a secondary exposure pathway after skin contact has occurred, if you put your hands in your mouth and transfer the chemical from your hands to your mouth....

...Water

Exposure can occur when people drink contaminated groundwater or surface water, or accidentally ingest it while swimming or showering. Direct skin contact also is an exposure pathway that occurs during activities like swimming and showering. For more information about water and hazardous chemicals, view the MDNR, CDC and EPA websites.

Soil, Sediment, or Dust.

People can be exposed to hazardous chemicals in soil, sediment, or dust if they accidentally ingest it, breathe it in, or have direct skin contact. Children are highly susceptible to these exposure pathways. In their daily activities, children have a tendency to have frequent hand-to-mouth contact and introduce non-food items into their mouths. For more information about hazardous substances, view the EPA webpages.

Air

Exposure can occur when people breathe in hazardous chemical vapors or air that is contaminated by hazardous chemicals or dust. More information is available about chemicals in the air at the websites of MDNR, CDC and EPA.

Food

People can be exposed to hazardous chemicals through the food they eat. Food contamination can occur if the food has come into contact with hazardous chemicals. It can also occur further down the food chain such as through eating contaminated fish. For more information, see the DHSS fish advisory

Coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste;

December 13, 2007
By Mara Hvistendahl

...Among the surprising conclusions: (click here) the waste produced by coal plants is actually more radioactive than that generated by their nuclear counterparts. In fact, the fly ash emitted by a power plant—a by-product from burning coal for electricity—carries into the surrounding environment 100 times more radiation than a nuclear power plant producing the same amount of energy....

Scott Pruitt is the worst EPA director ever. His idea about helping business stay out of trouble with the government to prevent fines, etc., is to change the law to allow the pollution. It is immoral practice by Pruitt. It sells out the best interest of the American people to easy profits for business. He wants to allow radioactive waste to be dumped in rivers and tributaries. This is one of the reasons why.
 September 19, 2017
By Ken Silverstein 
...“This decision is a galling giveaway to industrial polluters, (click here) even by this Administration’s standards of pandering to industry at the expense of the public,” said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans, in a release. “The EPA is sending a crystal-clear message to families across the country: our job is to protect wealthy polluters, not you and your children. These toxic dumps should have been cleaned up decades ago. Americans will not stand idly by as the EPA puts their health and safety at risk—and neither will Earthjustice or our partners. We will fight for these critical safeguards.”

At present, most coal combustion residual is buried in landfills, although those sites must keep a safe distance from surface and groundwater supplies. For coal ash buried on utility grounds, the ponds need to be properly lined to keep the waste from bleeding out.
 
Coal power plants produce about 140 million tons of coal ash a year, at roughly 1,100 sites in 37 states. The waste contains arsenic, mercury and selenium that is harmful to human health and the environment.
 
Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment did a study that found 21 unlined disposal sites had leaks in five southeastern states. “In all the investigated sites, we saw evidence of leaking,” said Avner Vengosh, a professor of geochemistry and water quality. “Some of the impacted water had high levels of contaminants.”
 
All this is coming nearly nine years after a coal ash spill at the Tennessee Valley Author’s Kingston facility near Knoxville, Tenn. On December 22, 2008, a dam had burst, releasing 5.4 million cubic yards of “wet coal ash” into the local communities there — considered one of the worst environmental disasters in American history.
 
Five years later Duke Energy also had a coal ash spill that released 100,000 cubic yards of waste into the nearby Dan River. The river turned completely grey

A few important rules.

Title 40: Protection of Environment

PART 261—IDENTIFICATION AND LISTING OF HAZARDOUS WASTE (click here)

§261.3   Definition of hazardous waste. (click here)(a) A solid waste, as defined in §261.2, is a hazardous waste if:
(1) It is not excluded from regulation as a hazardous waste under §261.4(b); and
(2) It meets any of the following criteria:
(i) It exhibits any of the characteristics of hazardous waste identified in subpart C of this part. However, any mixture of a waste from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals excluded under §261.4(b)(7) and any other solid waste exhibiting a characteristic of hazardous waste under subpart C is a hazardous waste only if it exhibits a characteristic that would not have been exhibited by the excluded waste alone if such mixture had not occurred, or if it continues to exhibit any of the characteristics exhibited by the non-excluded wastes prior to mixture. Further, for the purposes of applying the Toxicity Characteristic to such mixtures, the mixture is also a hazardous waste if it exceeds the maximum concentration for any contaminant listed in table 1 to §261.24 that would not have been exceeded by the excluded waste alone if the mixture had not occurred or if it continues to exceed the maximum concentration for any contaminant exceeded by the nonexempt waste prior to mixture.

 
42 U.S.C. (click here)

United States Code, 2011 Edition
Title 42 - THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
CHAPTER 82 - SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL

42 U.S. Code §6901 (click here) - Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Many of the environmental laws of the USA date back to the 1970s. Earth hasn't changed in nearly five decades.

October 1, 2017

New Delhi: The Centre  (click here) has notified a new set of rules for preservation of wetlands under which the states will have to identify water bodies to be brought under this category by March next year.

The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2017, notified on September 26, shall replace the earlier set of guidelines which came into effect in 2010.


However, under the 2010 rules, not a single water body was notified as a wetland over and above the ones already recognised as such by the Centre and the Ramsar Convention, defeating its purpose in a way.

The Ramsar Convention, which dates back to 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty aimed at the "conservation and wise use of wetlands". India became one of its signatories in 1982.

According to an Environment Ministry notification, wetlands are vital parts of the hydrological cycle.

These are highly productive ecosystems which support rich biodiversity and provide a wide range of ecosystem services such as water storage, water purification, flood mitigation, erosion control and aquifer recharge, it says.

With rapid urbanisation, it has also become a highly contentious subject with wetlands being encroached across the country by land sharks, leading to depleting ground water levels and floods in urban areas....


A common fear about preserving wetlands is the idea flooding will be worse with the wetland rather than filling it with dirt, etc. That is not the case. The best example is Hurricane Katrina in 2005. If the wetlands had been protected rather than destroyed by the petroleum industry, the storm surge would have been far lower. The wetlands would have created an barrier to all that water. The outcome to New Orleans would have been very different if the wetlands were in place. The USA government was told to protect the Louisiana wetlands and then "The Big One" came.

June 30, 2017
By Ignatius Pereira

August 19, 2012, (click here) it will be 10 years since the brackish water Ashtamudi Lake with eight creeks was declared a Ramsar site by designating it as a wetland of international importance. The lake was recommended by the Ramsar Convention’s partner organisations as a wetland of 61.4 sq km. And the lake entered the Ramsar list as site number 1,204.

However, since then, the area of the lake has shrunk to 34 sq km and it is facing serious environmental degradation. Revenue authorities dispute the 61.4 sq km extent but agree that the lake may have shrunk by at least 5 sq km in the past 10 years.

Internationally there are 2,046 wetlands designated Ramsar sites and India has 25. The main purpose of declaring an important wetland as Ramsar site is to enable its conservation through local and national-level action with international cooperation for achieving sustainable development....

Definitions

A solid waste is any material that is discarded by being:

Abandoned: The term abandoned means thrown away. A material is abandoned if it is disposed of, burned, incinerated, or sham recycled.

Inherently Waste-Like: Some materials pose such a threat to human health and the environment that they are always considered solid wastes; these materials are considered to be inherently waste-like. Examples of inherently waste-like materials include certain dioxin-containing wastes.

A Discarded Military Munition: Military munitions are all ammunition products and components produced for or used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) or U.S. Armed Services for national defense and security. Unused or defective munitions are solid wastes when:

     - abandoned (i.e., disposed of, burned, incinerated) or treated
              prior to disposal;
     - rendered nonrecyclable or nonusable through deterioration; or
     - declared a waste by an authorized military official.
     - Used (i.e., fired or detonated) munitions may also be solid wastes if
              collected for storage, recycling, treatment, or disposal.

Recycled in Certain Ways: A material is recycled if it is used or reused (e.g., as an ingredient in a process), reclaimed, or used in certain ways (used in or on the land in a manner constituting disposal, burned for energy recovery, or accumulated speculatively). Specific exclusions to the definition of solid waste are listed in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 40 CFR section 261.4(a). Many of these exclusion are related to recycling.                          

There are reports stating FEMA is still unable to function to it's fullest because communications are still uncertain.

September 30, 2017
By Tammy Leitner and Phil Helsel

Local and federal officials said Saturday that progress is being made in Puerto Rico to restore water, gasoline and communications to the hurricane-battered island, as President Donald Trump railed on Twitter against "fake news" and defended recovery efforts.

Only five percent of the island has electricity service as of Saturday, 10 days after Hurricane Maria made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm, wrecking infrastructure and communications on the U.S. territory, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"This was a catastrophic storm. We're making progress every day," FEMA acting regional administrator for region II John Rabin told reporters Saturday. Puerto Rico's Aqueducts and Sewers Authority reported that 47 percent of its clients now have water service, according to the governor's office.
"Today will be a little bit better than yesterday. Tomorrow will hopefully be a bit better than today was," Rabin said.
The governor's office said cellular service has been restored to 33 percent of the island's customers by Saturday....

September 30, 2017
By Anthony Faiola, Samantha Schmidt and Mare Fisher

Jentia Cuffy (click here) rounded the old almond tree, its branches now snapped like twigs, as she headed toward her office at Barbuda's ruined hospital. The island's public-health nurse hadn't been back in nearly three weeks, since every soul was evacuated from this flat disk of an island laid waste by Hurricane Irma.

With the people gone, it was as if Barbuda had gone feral. Abandoned dogs had formed packs and were taking down livestock. From the hospital courtyard, Cuffy could smell death — animal carcasses rotting in the rubble. A corner of the roof had collapsed, the windows blown in. The medical dorms were a scrap heap. An ambulance was wedged into a tree.







Industrial solid waste is defined as waste that is generated by businesses from an industrial or manufacturing process or waste generated from non-manufacturing activities that are managed as a separate waste stream.

Proper waste management (click here) is an essential part of society’s public and environmental health. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), passed in 1976, created the framework for America’s hazardous and non-hazardous waste management programs. Materials regulated by RCRA are known as “solid wastes.” Only materials that meet the definition of solid waste under RCRA can be classified as hazardous wastes, which are subject to additional regulation. EPA developed detailed regulations that define what materials qualify as solid wastes and hazardous wastes. Understanding the definition of a solid waste is an important first step in the process EPA set up for generators to hazardous waste to follow when determining if the waste they generated is a regulated hazardous waste....

...RCRA (click here) states that "solid waste" means any garbage or refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities. Nearly everything we do leaves behind some kind of waste.
It is important to note that the definition of solid waste is not limited to wastes that are physically solid. Many solid wastes are liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material....  

Doing the right thing is important. Children know that. When did extremist politics develop to allow harm to our country and the world?

...Importance and benefits of waste recycling (click here)

Recycling is beneficial in many ways including:

Recycling helps protect the environment:
This is because the recyclable waste materials would have been burned or ended up in the landfill. Pollution of the air, land, water and soil is reduced.

Recycling conserves natural resources:
Recycling more waste means that we do not depend too much on raw (natural) resources, which are already massively depleted.

Recycling saves energy: 
It takes more energy to produce items with raw materials than from recycling used materials. This means we are more energy efficient and the prices of products can come down.


Recycling creates jobs:
People are employed to collect, sort and work in recycling companies. Others also get jobs with businesses that work with these recycling units. There can be a ripple of jobs in the municipality....

Getting really, really smart about the future.

October 1, 2017
By Allison Jones

Toronto — From coffee grounds, (click here) to leftover fettuccine alfredo, to the slimy, brown head of lettuce forgotten at the back of your fridge, the Ontario government is aiming to keep all organic waste away from landfills.

It's an ambitious target for a province that generates nearly 12 million tonnes of waste a year — more than 850 kilograms per person — and only recycles about a quarter of that amount.

If improvements aren't made, the province's landfills could run out of capacity within the next 20 years, the government warns.

In 2004, the Liberal government promised to boost the rate of waste diversion — through recycling and composting programs for example — to 60 per cent in four years. But 13 years later, the rate hasn't changed. Now, the government has set its sights on an even more distant target of 100 per cent.

Hence the Strategy for a Waste-Free Ontario, which aims to create a "circular economy," where waste is considered a resource that can be recovered, reused and reintegrated.

One area of focus is organic waste, which decomposes in landfills producing gases, such as methane, that contribute to global warming. Ontarians generate 3.7 million tonnes of organic waste per year, and greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector — mostly organics in landfill — account for six per cent of the province's total emissions....

...More than half the food waste in the province is generated at home, but the residential sector has steadily improved how much of that is diverted from landfills, with a rate now just over 50 per cent. In contrast, only a quarter of the food waste produced by the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors is diverted....

Why doesn't the conscience of the home transcend business?

...The City of Kingston consistently has one of the best organic diversion rates, but still battles resistance, said its manager of solid waste.
"Most of the reasons why people don't want to use it is this perception that it smells and that it's gross or it attracts rodents," said Heather Roberts. "(But) consider that all of the things that would go into your green bin would still go into your garbage bag."
Kingston is also one of just nine municipalities that has extended green bin programs to condos and apartment buildings, but it's not mandated, so there isn't a lot of uptake, Roberts said.

The City of Toronto offers organic collection at about 65 per cent of its multi-residential buildings, and a few receive private pick-up, officials said. But most Ontario municipalities still send their food waste from multi-residential buildings to landfill....
...At restaurants, grocery stores, food producers and institutions
"The line you have to cross is: is it more cost effective to compost this material or to throw it in the trash?" said James Rilett, the Ontario vice-president of Restaurants Canada.
The cost for the industrial, commercial and institutional sector to dispose of waste is $118 per tonne to the U.S. and $134 per tonne in Ontario, but $205 per tonne to divert.
The Provision Coalition works with food and beverage manufacturers to integrate sustainability into their business model, aiming to save businesses money by preventing food waste in the first place.
It's common for food producers to turn waste into animal feed, but Cher Mereweather of the Provision Coalition said her organization will point out the energy, labour, water and raw ingredient costs that went into making that product.
"We really need to move away from this concept of, 'Well, it's OK, it gets composted,' because there's a significant cost and environmental impact of that wasted food in the first place," she said.
Some manufacturers send product that won't sell or is mislabelled to food banks, which is where organizations such as Second Harvest come in.
The food rescue charity picks up the food and delivers it to social service agencies, to the tune of about 4.7 million kilograms this year. But they won't pick up anything less than 45 kilograms worth of food, said executive director Debra Lawson.
To ensure smaller food donors can participate in similar programs, Second Harvest is developing a web-based platform that would connect them to the closest agencies in need. Lawson said it's hoped a pilot can be running next spring....

Basic Definitions

Garbage

It is unwanted materials and objects that people have thrown away. It is often also called trashgarbage, rubbish, or junk. It can be solid, liquid, or gas, or it can be waste heat.


Processing

Processing has many definitions, however, the best general definition to apply to waste, refuse or garbage is: 

- to convert into marketable form by special series of steps

Americans generate trash (click here) at a rate of four pounds per day, per person. This translates to staggering 600,000 tons per day and 210 million tons per year, which is almost twice as much per person as most other countries. So what happens to all that trash? One of three things:


  • It’s landfilled 
  • It’s recycled 
  • It’s composted
The next time you throw something away, consider where it’s going and how long it will be there. Remember, if you can recycle or reuse, you’re not just saving materials, you’re saving the environment and valuable landfill space.

Recycle

Recycling, a form of environmental conscience, is about the future. Dumping into a landfill or burning in an incinerator is about the past. Why do Americans worry about the future and not just here and now?

Environmental conscience is about the future. Is here and now thinking required for extremist politics that cheat the future? Why is it so easy for American politicians to say, "...but, you don't know that..." as if the future is not conceivable?


Ideas that can change lives. (click here) Renowned inventors, scientists and futurologists describe the big idea that they want to solve and how it can transform the world.

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. ... Recycling can prevent the waste of potentially useful materials and reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, thereby reducing: energy usage, air pollution (from incineration), and water pollution (from landfilling).

Disposal

Removing and destroying or storing damaged, used or other unwanted domestic, agricultural or industrial products and substances. Disposal includes burning, burial at landfill sites or at sea, and recycling.
September 29, 2017
By Katherine Schwab


Give that massive pile of trash a currency, a passport, and a flag, and you’ve got yourself a nation.

Could the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (click here) –that big floating amalgam of garbage that’s floating in the Pacific Ocean–ever become a bona fide country? That’s what a group of creatives and environmentalists are advocating for, as part of an international campaign to raise awareness about the massive clump of trash roughly the size of France.
It may sound like a joke, but the campaign–a collaboration between the nonprofit Plastic Oceans Foundation and the U.K.-based entertainment company LADbible–has already sent an application to the UN requesting that it recognize the Garbage Patch as a country. (Its official name? The Trash Isles.) The crusade launched earlier this summer, but it’s picked up steam this fall with Al Gore agreeing to become the country’s first honorary “citizen.” Since then, more than 125,000 people have signed a petition requesting citizenship–which would make Trash Isles the 25th-smallest country in the world....

It is Sunday Night 

"Naked and Afraid." (click here) Alison Teal walks through piles of burning trash on the Maldives’ Trash Island. 








GEORGE HARRISON ROSEWOOD TELECASTER®: $2,499.99
To honour Harrison’s venerable career, Fender has created the George Harrison Rosewood Telecaster, a limited-edition commemoration that embodies Harrison’s elegantly restrained playing style and sound. Based on the original Telecaster created for Harrison by guitar designer Roger Rossmeisl and Fender craftsman Philip Kubicki, this model remains true to its heritage with a classic look and the unique tone only an all-rosewood guitar can produce. The body is chambered for reduced weight and increased resonance. Other features include a rosewood neck with a laminated 9.5″ radius rosewood fingerboard and a custom neck plate engraved with an Om symbol. A classic in every way, this refined instrument was born in the era that defined rock n’ roll. George Harrison’s legacy is one of innovation and creativity, and the rosewood Telecaster became one of his primary instruments during a pivotal moment in his career. Only 1,000 units will be available worldwide. You can find out more here – 

George Harrison - Devil's Radio (Live)

Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip
I heard it in the night
Words that thoughtless speak
Like vultures swooping down below
On the devil's radio
I hear it through the day
Airwaves gettin' filled
With gossip broadcast to and fro
On the devil's radio
Oh yeah, gossip
Gossip, oh yeah
He's in the clubs and bars
And never turns it down
Talking about what he don't know
On the devil's radio
He's in your TV set
Won't give it a rest
That soul betraying so and so
The devil's radio
Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip
(Oh yeah) gossip, (gossip) oh yeah
(Gossip) oh yeah, (oh yeah) gossip
It's white and black like industrial waste
Pollution of the highest degree
You wonder why I don't hang out much
I wonder how you can't see
He's in the films and songs
And on all your magazines
It's everywhere that you may go
The devil's radio
Oh yeah, gossip
Gossip, oh yeah
Runs thick and fast, no one really sees
Quite what bad it can do
As it shapes you into something cold
Like an Eskimo igloo
It's all across our lives
Like a weed it's spread
'till nothing else has space to grow
The devil's radio
Can creep up in the dark
Make us hide behind shades
And buzzing like a dynamo
The devil's radio
oh yeah
(Gossip) gossip, (gossip) gossip
Oh yeah, gossip I heard you on the secret wireless
Gossip, oh yeah You know the devil's radio, child
Gossip, gossip
Gossip, gossip