Pennsylvania Waste Association Disappointed in Court's Ruling
The Pennsylvania Waste Industries Association has announced its frustration with a Commonwealth Court decision upholding the controversial use of a "harms/benefits" test for landfill permit applications. The court upheld an earlier decision by the state Environmental Hearing Board that the state Department of Environmental Protection's establishment of the harms/benefits test was a "valid and constitutional exercise of the authority granted to the agency" under the Solid Waste Management Act and the Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act. The association has urged the state to spell out specific requirements of the harms/benefits test so applicants know what to expect...Read More »
Capital Environmental Purchases Florida Landfill
Capital Environmental Resource Inc. (Nasdaq: CERI) has reached agreement to purchase a municipal solid waste landfill site currently under development in Osceola County, Florida for a purchase price of approximately $71 million. The 1,100-acre landfill is expected to open in the first quarter of 2004, and will serve Osceola County and the greater Orlando area, has a permitted capacity of 24 million cubic yards...Read More »
ITec Recycling Expands Operations to Pep Boys Store
ITec Recycling Services, a division of ITec Environmental Group, Inc. has recently expanded its motor oil bottle recycling program in California to include one of the major automotive retail chains in the United States, Pep Boys. Through the California Integrated Waste Management Opportunity Grant Program, the County of San Joaquin has purchased a granulator to grind all motor oil bottles used by the retail chain in their daily oil change activities. The granulator was designed specifically for retail stores and costs $5,300. It is funded through an Opportunity Grant received by San Joaquin County from the state of California...Read More »
San Diego County Landfill EIR Wins Approval
A proposed 200-acre Gregory Canyon Landfill along the San Luis Rey River in Pala, Calif. has moved closer to reality with San Diego County's decision to certify the project's approximately 12,000-page environmental impact report. The landfill developer expects litigation from a group called RiverWatch and the Pala Band of Mission Indians to try and stop the project, but contended that the EIR is thorough and unassailable. About 68 percent of countywide voters approved the Gregory Canyon plan in 1994. A bill to declare it a sacred site was vetoed by Calif. Gov. Gray Davis in 2000. But neither event has stopped the opposition. With the certification of the EIR, the Gregory Canyon only needs three permits, solid, air and water, before excavation can begin...Read More »
Census: Americans Double Recycling Rate Over Last Decade
Americans nearly doubled their recycling of trash over the past decade, according to the new edition of the government's annual statistical compendium released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. Thirty percent of the residential and commercial waste generated in municipal collections was recovered in 2000, compared to 16 percent 10 years earlier, as noted in the Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2002. The Abstract, published every year since 1878, has more than 1,400 tables and charts with statistics from the most recent year or period available...Read More »
Gundle/SLT Announces Fourth Quarter and 2002 Results
Gundle/SLT Environmental, Inc. (NYSE: GSE) has announced a net loss of $1.5 million, or $.13 per diluted share, for its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2002. This compares to net income of $550,000, or $.05 per diluted share, for the same period in 2001. The year 2001 figures do not include any of the results of Serrot International, Inc., acquired February 4, 2002. For the year ended Dec. 31, 2002, the company recorded net income of $38.9 million, or $3.34 per diluted share, compared to $1.4 million, or $.12 per diluted share for the 2001 year...Read More »
Moody's Announces Possible Upgrade For Waste Management
Moody's Investors Service placed the ratings of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WMI) on review for a possible upgrade. The review is prompted by the strength and stability of the company's cash generation despite an economic downturn, the improvement in liquidity as a result of a recent relaxation of a financial covenant under its bank agreement, and Moody's perception of prudent management of Waste Management's large share repurchase program...Read More »
Kerry Criticizes Bush on Environmental Record
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts has criticized President George W. Bush's environmental policies in a speech at the John F. Kennedy presidential library in Boston. Kerry, one of six declared Democratic candidates who plan to seek their party's nomination to challenge Bush in the 2004 presidential election, said the United States cannot drill its way to oil independence along the lines favored by Bush in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Instead, he urged development of technology to make homes, businesses and transportation more efficient while creating a national market for biofuels from crops, wood and waste. Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri and former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont each have criticized Bush in recent weeks for his environmental record...Read More »
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