Michigan Reports 43 Percent Increase in Canadian Waste Imports
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has reported that the state accepted 43 per cent more trash from Canada in 2003 than the year before. Canadian waste sent to Michigan rose to 9.4 million cubic yards in 2003 from 6.6 million cubic yards in 2002, the DEQ report said. Total solid waste from other states and Canada was 15.5 million cubic yards in 2003. Including in-state waste, Michigan landfills took in 62.6 million cubic yards of waste in 2003, up from 57.5 million the year before. Toronto shipped 3.25 million tons of waste to Michigan last year under a contract that extends through 2004. Several bills to address the out-of-state waste flow are pending in the state legislature, and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has urged the legislature to pass the bills...Read More »
Recyclenet Launches Equipfinder.Com
RecycleNet Corporation (OTC: GARM) has launched EquipFinder.com (www.equipfinder.com), a free online service that helps users find balers, compactors, lift trucks and other types of waste handling or recycling equipment. The new service gives prospective buyers access to OEM dealers on a worldwide basis, giving users access to more competitive quotes on both new and used equipment...Read More »
Denver Revamps Recycling Program
Denver officials are reworking the city's decade-old voluntary recycling program with new bins, new trucks and new materials accepted. The program will use only a single 65-gallon cart rather than two smaller ones, and new trucks will use automated lift arms. Denver plans to solicit bidders to handle the recyclables in a few weeks and select a winner in April. The recycling program diverts between 16,000 and 18,000 tons of waste from the landfill each year, and roughly 78,000 Denver households, half of those eligible, participate in the program...Read More »
Foster Wheeler Begins Oak Ridge Processing
Foster Wheeler Environmental Corporation (OTCBB:FWLRF) has begun processing low-level radioactive waste at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Initial operations have processed low-level waste, and the first shipment of waste is being transported to the Nevada Test Site for disposal. Foster Wheeler is in the midst of a long-term contract with the Department of Energy. When the processing phase is completed, Foster Wheeler will decontaminate and decommission the facility. Foster Wheeler expects to receive net cash of more than $40 million in 2004 during this phase of processing...Read More »
Bush Administration Rolls Out Proposed Environmental Budget
President Bush's new 2005 environmental budget includes the highest level of funding ever requested by a President for high-priority environment and natural resource programs. Major elements of the proposed budget include $46.9 billion for high-priority environment and natural resource programs, the highest level ever requested by a President; $7.4 billion, an increase of about $400 million over 2004, for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Environmental Management program to accelerate hazardous and radioactive waste cleanup projects at federal facilities; $210 million for brownfields cleanup; and $1.4 billion for the Superfund. The budget also calls for increased accountability for environmental investment and a stronger state voice in regulation...Read More »
Pennsylvania DEP Offers $7m In Recycling Grants
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is providing more than $7 million in Recycling Performance Grants to 147 Pennsylvania communities for their recycling efforts in 2002. The grants are awarded from the Recycling Fund, which is financed by a $2-a-ton fee on all materials disposed of in landfills in Pennsylvania. Recycling is a $23 billion industry in Pennsylvania, paying $2.9 billion in wages to 81,322 people employed in 3,247 recycling and reuse industries statewide...Read More »
Judge Orders Former Safety-Kleen Leaders To Pay Fines
A federal judge has ordered two former officers of Safety-Kleen Corp. to pay roughly $590,000 in penalties and ill-gotten gains for their role in allegedly taking part in a scheme to overstate the company's earnings by as much as $530 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission contends that Kenneth Winger, the company's former chief executive, and Paul Humphreys, the former chief financial officer, engaged in "massive accounting fraud" by overstating the company's revenue and earnings in reports filed with the SEC between 1998 and 2000. After restating its financial results for fiscal years 1997, 1998 and 1999, Safety-Kleen saw a reduction in its net income of $534 million. Under the judgment, Winger will pay about $440,000 in ill-gotten gains and fines, and Humphreys will pay more than $150,000 in penalties...Read More »
Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CWST) has negotiated a settlement to a dispute with officials from thirteen communities in York County, Maine. The communities had charged a breach of contract surrounding the company's Maine Energy Recovery Company facility when Casella Waste Systems merged with KTI, Inc. In mid-2002, the thirteen communities joined the cities of Biddeford and Saco in a lawsuit against MERC, alleging that MERC had breached payment obligations spelled out in a 1991 agreement. The agreement gives the towns the option of extending their disposal contracts with MERC after the original expiration date of June 2007...Read More »
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