NYC Signs 20-Year Recycling Deal With Hugo Neu
New York City has signed a 20-year contract with the Hugo Neu Corporation to handle the city's recycling. The contract includes the construction of a $45 million plant in Brooklyn to recycle all the city's residential metal, glass, and plastic. The city had cut back much of its recycling efforts two years ago, but has been gradually reintroducing them in recent months. The plant is scheduled to be completed by 2007, and once the contract expires, the city will retain most of the rights over its operation...Read More »
Illinois Seeks Shutdown Of Medical Waste Incinerators
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has called on 11 hospitals to voluntarily shut down their medical waste incinerators. This fall, he plans to seek legislation to ban the incinerators entirely. This summer, protesters demanded the closure of a medical waste incinerator in Evanston...Read More »
Michigan Recycling Ranks Lowest Among Great Lakes States
Michigan is recycling only 20 percent of its waste, the lowest percentage of any Great Lakes state. It's a particular irony given that state officials have complained about Canadian waste taking up Michigan landfill space. Bay and Saginaw counties are the only ones that provide curbside recycling to more than 80 percent of their residents; Wayne County, which includes Detroit, provides curbside recycling to less than 20 percent of its customers. A $3 surcharge on waste to fund recycling programs is currently under consideration in the state Legislature...Read More »
San Diego Landfill Measure Back On Ballot
A controversial ballot measure designed to block a San Diego County, Calif. landfill is back on the ballot just a week after being bumped. The landfill's developers asked for the measure's removal, contending that the measure included an incorrect description of the landfill. Proponents countered that the mistakes were typographical and not misleading. The landfill would be built on 320 acres of a 1,770-acre parcel and is being developed by Gregory Canyon, Ltd...Read More »
Allied Waste Reduces 2004 Outlook Again
Allied Waste Industries has again reduced its 2004 outlook for operating income by 3 to 4 percent, following a July announcement in which it also reduced its estimates of 2004 income by 3 to 4 percent from its original $1.6 billion estimate. Company Chairman Tom Van Weelden said in a statement that "general economic activity continues to offer only modest growth opportunities." Van Weelden said that maintenance costs are expected to ease by 2005, and that the company will produce 2 percent revenue growth through 2004, with growth coming primarily in lower-margin areas rather than landfill operations...Read More »
Class-Action Suit Filed Over WTC Cleanup Harm
Worby, Groner, Edelman, & Napoli, Bern, LLP has filed the first major class action lawsuit on behalf of cleanup workers and others at the site of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. The suit charges that toxins at the site potentially affected not only workers, but others in the area, and seeks compensation and the establishment of decades-long testing. There are currently more than 800 plaintiffs in the suit. Defendants include various government entities, including New York City, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the federal EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration...Read More »
Casella Waste Reports Large Drop In Q1 Profits
Casella Waste Systems has reported that its first-quarter profit fell 54 percent. Net income fell to $2.8 million, or 8 cents per share, from $6.2 million, or 22 cents per share, last year. Company officials noted that last year's earnings were significantly boosted by a change in accounting. Sales rose by 9 percent, from $113.9 million to $124.2 million, aided by the fact that the company more than doubled its total disposal capacity in fiscal 2004...Read More »
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