Texas Campaign for the Environment: landfills
we have a problem

 

Texas landfill laws are among the weakest in the nation. Over the past 12 years the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has allowed the size and height of landfills to increase dramatically worsening problems such as water contamination, noxious gases that create terrible odors, erosion, and windblown trash which ruin community life and depreciate property values. Texas Campaign for the Environment (TCE) is working with Texans, in particular people who live near existing or proposed landfills to strengthen and enforce trash rules.

The long-term solution is to reduce trash by dramatically increasing recycling and making products more recyclable by making producers responsible for the end of life of their products, which creates the bottom line incentive for producers to design for recycling.

Trash to Treasure   (Dallas Advocate)

Landfill Will Top Mount Bonnell in Height   (Austin Chronicle)

BFI landfill to expand despite neighborhood opposition   (KVUE News Austin)

Links

  • Founded by Lois Gibbs who fought toxic contamination in her Love Canal community in the 1970s, CHEJ works with local groups to win environmental justice is from the bottom up through community organizing and empowerment.

    Center for Health Environment and Justice
  • Blog of the Fort Bend and Brazoria County group opposing the expansion of the BFI landfill in their area.

    Citizens Against the Blue Ridge Landfill Expansion
  • Environmental engineer Dr. Fred Lee has been working since the 1960's on landfills and has written extensively on many topics.

    Dr. Fred Lee's Scientific Research on Landfills
  • This manual, written by experienced organizers, is designed to assist communities that live near polluters to pressure for improvements.Good Neighbor Campaign Handbook
  • Order this book to have a step-by-step practical guide about how to organize people for direct action to fight powerful interests.Guide to Organizing
  • Health Care Without Harm is a national group working to improve the public health and environmental impacts of the health care sector. They have worked on medical waste issues since their inception.Health Care Without Harm - medical waste webpage
  • This site has information on how landfills leak and links to photos of landfillsInformation about Leaking Landfills
  • A treasure trove of practical information on how to reduce waste and recycle.National Waste Prevention Coalition
  • Informative analyses of how the North American trash system developed and how producer takeback and zero waste strategies are critical for the future. Good comparative studies of successful Canadian producer takeback programs.Product Policy Institute
  • Twenty year plan backed by dozens of groups in New York City to move towards Zero Waste.Reaching for Zero - New York City Citizens Plan for Zero Waste
  • Northeast Waste Management Officials' Association (NEWMOA) Summary of Research on Mercury Emissions from Municipal Landfills Summary of Research on Mercury Emissions from Municipal Landfills
  • Good resources on landfills including why landfill gas is NOT green energyThe Basics of Landfills from EJnet.org
  • Waste to Wealth Project - Institute for Local Self-RelianceWaste to Wealth Project - Institute for Local Self-Reliance
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