news & announcements
These designers turn trash into treasure
KXAN News Austin: Competitors walked the runway Sep. 14 covered head to toe in “trash” for the 9th Annual Trash Makeover Challenge.
Plastic bags are killing horses and cows across the state. What’s Texas to do?
Texas Tribune: A year after the Texas Supreme Court dealt a death blow to municipal bans on plastic bags, legislative efforts to revive them have fallen flat, and ranchers, city leaders and environmental groups say plastic bag litter is as big a problem as ever.
Recycling trashed: City audit confirms 1,300 tons of recyclables were sent to a landfill
KHOU News Houston: The 12-page report identified a total of 532 mishandled incidents across every sector of the city from January to June.
Commissioners Pass Resolution for Dallas County Environmental Protection
NBC News DFW: The resolution received unanimous support from all five Dallas County Commissioners. Republican J.J. Koch joined the four Democrats in voting for the measure.
TCE Statement on Dumping of Houston Residents’ Recycling
Press release: TCE calls for full disclosure and accountability from Houston’s solid waste department.
ExxonMobil’s Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project gets TCEQ approval
Corpus Christi Caller Times: Environmental groups warned of toxic emissions coming from the plant and had hoped the TCEQ would have required more air-quality monitoring at the facility’s fence line.
Texas legislature passes two waste permitting laws
Waste Dive: Texas is known for being less restrictive than some states when it comes to solid waste permitting — especially for landfills — so the passage of these seemingly minor laws is notable.
Lawmakers passed Hurricane Harvey aid, but ignored its cause, environmental advocates say
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: As lawmakers talked this session about the damage and destruction their communities suffered when Hurricane Harvey struck in 2017, environmental advocates said two words were missing from the conversation: climate change.
Slow Gains for the Environment at the Capitol
Austin Chronicle: While the 86th was not a halcyon session for environmental progress – no surprise, alas, in Texas – there was indeed some limited improvement.
2019 Legislature Wraps up with Wins and Losses
From our blog: Texas Campaign for the Environment worked with neighbors of waste facilities or proposed waste facilities to get two good bills passed into law. We also helped defeat some legislation that would have made it more difficult to oppose pollution permits and pre-empt local governments when it came to waste facilities and tree ordinances, for instance.