Waste Management of Alameda County in Showdown with Union
Waste Management of Alameda County, CA is in a showdown with its workers represented by the Teamsters Local 70 which represents some 481 workers. The company recently locked out these employees for their unwillingness to negotiate two issues: tougher workplace safety policies and a proposed "no strike, no lockout" clause in its new contract. That clause disturbs the Local 70 which sees it as an attempt to eliminate its right to honor picket lines. To WM however the clause would still allow workers to honor locally sanctioned picket lines but would prevent collusion with other unions. The union is not fond of the new proposed safety policies either. It sees this as a thinly veiled guise for firing employees at will. Company officials however have been trying to address workplace dangers having faced ever increasing insurance expenses...Read More »
Senate Panel Passes Amendment to Regulate Rail Waste Sites
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) to abolish a loophole whereby solid waste facilities on rail property are exempt from state and local waste handling regulations. The amendment directs the Surface Transportation Board, which regulates the railroads, to subject these facilities to the same laws that govern everyone else. There has been wide criticism of "sham" railways, formed for the sole purpose of benefiting from federal preemption to avoid more costly and stringent safety and environmental regulations...Read More »
Kettleman Hills Landfill in Kings County CA Proposes Bioreactor
The owners of Kettleman Hills landfill in Kings County California hope to develop a bioreactor there. Chemical Waste Management, Inc. (CWM), a division of Waste Management, Inc. which owns and operates the 500-acre landfill, plans to develop an 18-acre parcel of its 30-acre B-19 landfill on the same site. A bioreactor works to increase both the extent and rate of internal decomposition by recirculating its leachate. The advantages are several and include increasing the ultimate capacity of the landfill while increasing and accelerating the production of clean energy capable methane gas. CWM already manages ten such projects around the country. Critics worry that the Kettleman project's proximity to an adjacent hazardous waste cell poses environmental risks...Read More »
Seattle Makes Food Waste Recycling Mandatory
The Seattle City Council has decreed that recycling of food waste will become mandatory for residents by April 2009. Seattle City Council Member Richard Conlin said food waste is one of the biggest components of garbage coming out of Seattle and going to a landfill in Arlington. According to the US EPA, more than a quarter of America's food, or about 48 million tons per year, goes to waste in fields, commercial kitchens, manufacturing plants, markets, schools, and restaurants. Currently, less than 3 percent of it is recycled through composting...Read More »
Key Operative in Hauling Conspiracy Sentenced to Prison
In the ongoing racketeering probe of various northeast waste firms, previously convicted Richard Caccavale, operations manager for James Galante's Automated Waste Disposal of Danbury, CT was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Caccavale admitted to participating in a so-called "property rights scheme," colluding with other haulers to raise prices while agreeing not to poach customers. Unwilling participants were given rough treatment. So far, 32 individuals and 10 businesses have been charged with offences relating to the FBI's investigation of the hauling business in upstate New York and Western Connecticut...Read More »
Ze-gen, Inc. Secures $4.5 million to Help Build Demonstration Facility
A pioneering new clean energy firm Ze-gen, Inc. has won an important endorsement for its technology to convert municipal waste streams into synthetic natural gas. This week the firm secured $4.5 million in funding from Flagship Ventures and VantagePoint Venture Partners. Ze-gen which raised its initial $2.25 million of financing in 2006 from a syndicate led by Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation (MTDC) is set to premier its initial large-scale demonstration facility in New Bedford, MA on July 23, 2007...Read More »
American Ecology Plans to Announce 2Q Earnings on July 24
Radioactive and hazardous waste services provider, American Ecology Corp. plans to announce second quarter financial results after the markets close on Tuesday, July 24. Management will conduct an investor conference call the following day. The company also announced that its shares now qualify for inclusion on the NASDAQ Global Select Market which evidently has the highest initial listing standards of any exchange in the world based on financial and liquidity requirements...Read More »
Global Energy Garners $4 Million Financing
Waste-to-energy Company Global Energy announced a $4 million financing that it will use to construct two or three demonstration facilities to convert waste to diesel fuel. The facilities will employ proprietary KDV technology, licensed from AlphaKat for which Global Energy has secured worldwide distribution rights. The funding was provided by Cornell Capital Partners, which serves small and mid-cap companies...Read More »
MHF Logistical Solutions Opens New Transload Facility in Parker, AZ
Waste transportation and technical services provider MHF Logistical Solutions has opened a new transload facility in Parker, Arizona. The rail-served site is ideally suited to service the Nevada Test Site as well as to serve customers in Arizona, Southern Nevada and Southern California markets...Read More »
Clean Energy Hires Waste Industry Veteran Raymond Burke
Seal Beach, CA-based Clean Energy, which transports natural gas for customers in the refuse, and transportation industries recently lured waste industry veteran Raymond Burke to head its strategic development. Burke has spent the last 30 years of his life in the waste industry, 25 of them with industry giant Waste Management, where he had been an area vice president for Southern California...Read More »
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