Walgreens pledges to launch long-awaited chemical policy

Written by

Chemical Watch
By Tammy Lovell
Original article here

US pharmacy chain Walgreens Boots Alliance has announced it will launch its long-awaited chemicals management programme this year. The retail chain had been criticised by NGOs for failing to publish the programme, first announced in 2014.

In its latest corporate social responsibility report, WBA pledges it will publish a list of high priority chemicals of concern in its products and create an action plan for their management in 2018.

The programme will initially focus on the company’s own brand baby, personal care and household products. However, WBA will also publish a roadmap to extend the scope of its chemical management to other products in its portfolio. It intends to report on progress annually.

The report says that WBA has been acquiring tools over the last twelve months to trace the ingredients in its products and supply chain.

It is using the UL PurView platform, a system which helps businesses collect data across the supply chain and compare ingredients against sustainability standards.

“Building traceability into our supply chain will help us continue to review the substances in our products, such as chemicals,” the report says.

WBA is also preparing for compliance with the EU’s May REACH deadline to register substances, particularly in relation to cosmetics and hard goods, such as candles and makeup brushes.

‘Notable steps’

Last year, the WBA-owned pharmacy Walgreens received a D- grade in the Mind the Store report card – an NGO campaign that rates US retailers on their actions to eliminate chemicals in consumer products. Walgreens came 18th out of 30 stores, scoring just 21.5 out of 135 possible points.

Mike Schade of the NGO Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families – which runs the Mind the Store campaign – told Chemical Watch he was pleased the pharmacy was making progress towards a safer chemicals policy.

“We congratulate Walgreens for taking these notable steps and look forward to reviewing their chemicals management roadmap. We are pleased that the company has also committed to reporting on progress annually,” he said.

Mr Schade added that he hoped the chemicals action programme would “set clear metrics and timeframes for reducing and eliminating chemicals of concern in these and other product categories, and report on those metrics annually.”

He urged Walgreens to follow other retailers such as Target and Walmart – which scored high marks in the NGO report – by expanding the policy over time to include brand name products they sell and becoming a signatory to the Chemical Footprint Project.

Who wins in the new recycling deal? Houston.

Written by

Houston Chronicle
Guest Op-Ed by Rosanne Barone, Texas Campaign for the Environment

A Waste Management employee sorts through paper at the Gasmer Recycling Center Friday, June 2, 2017 in Houston. ( Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff / Michael Ciaglo

HOUSTON — Mayor Sylvester Turner was right when he said the city’s newly approved recycling contract is a “win for Houstonians and the environment.”

After months of negotiations at City Hall, on Jan. 10, the City Council approved a 20-year single-stream recycling contract with Spanish resource management company FCC to replace the current Waste Management deal which is set to expire next year.

A new sorting facility will be built, and, when it’s completed in 2019, Houstonians will again be able to put glass in our green curbside bins, as well as single-use plastic bags, helping to keep them out of storm drains until we decide to live without them altogether.

But this decision is about more than just a new place to put our bottles, cans, cartons and paper. It’s about demonstrating that we are a society interested in healthier ways of existence. As a society, we can continue to remind each other, and the next generation, that there is no such thing as throwing trash “away.” Far too often, “away” ends up in our bayous, our rivers, our bays and our gulf.

And it’s about employing every option to decrease the amount of material going to landfills. That might be what we’ve always done, but in reality it is not a dependable solution for managing what we don’t use. Ask anyone who lives next to the McCarty Road landfill in northeast Houston, Greenhouse Road landfill near Katy or the Blue Ridge landfill in Fresno, who cite problems with windblown trash, noxious odors, methane gas releases and drainage ditches flowing with landfill “discharge.” Or ask someone who lives near one of more than 50 landfills in Texas that are leaking toxins into groundwater monitoring wells.

Landfills of today are the toxic dumps of tomorrow, contributing in the meantime to the illusion of “throw it away.”

It’s about becoming accustomed to the types of practices that are better for us in the long run, choosing reusable because it’s wiser and renewable because it’s safer.

It’s just something we have to do as we work towards to a more equitable city, where our exposure to air pollution, toxic-waste sites and roadside trash isn’t determined by our ZIP code. Recycling access remains a basic service for those of us who live in houses, so why not for those who live in multifamily buildings, 40 percent of Houston’s population? Not only should we have recycling wherever we live, but also where we work and go to school.

The new contract is both a tangible and symbolic commitment to the simple improvements that support a cleaner environment, while increasing our revenue and making the city more efficient. In Houston, the city is “the environment” — a paved, flood-prone, palm-treed, World Series-winning mix of distinctive, history-making innovation. Last year challenged us in many ways, and now in 2018 we are off to a running start on building a more sustainable future. I can’t wait to see what we will do next.

Rosanne Barone is the Houston Program Director for the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It never ends up in our bayous, our rivers, our bays or our gulf.

Health concerns swirl in Texas months after floods from Harvey spread toxic waste

Written by

PBS NewsHour


(Photo Courtesy of Greg Moss)

Three months after Hurricane Harvey struck the shores of Texas, some local environmental groups say they are in the dark about the safety of federal Superfund sites damaged during the storm.

In the days following the hurricane that made landfall there on Aug. 25, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said at least 13 of the 34 of federal Superfund sites in the path of the storm had been affected by widespread flooding and heavy rains. By Sept. 8, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said only two of those sites had incurred damages.

Since the hurricane, the EPA mandated that two companies deemed responsible parties spend at least $115 million cleaning up one: the San Jacinto River Waste Pits. The site is located in the middle of the San Jacinto River about 20 miles east of Houston, where “highly toxic dioxin contamination,” known to cause host of health problems including cancer and developmental and reproductive issues, leaked out after flood waters tore through it.

(Photo Courtesy of 1 Houston)

But some residents are questioning the methods used to test that site and surrounding communities, as well as the EPA’s designation of at least 12 other federal Superfund sites “cleared” from damages since Hurricane Harvey. These concerns come as officials said that the amount of dioxin released into the San Jacinto River may never be known.

The lack of information about how the Superfund sites might influence the river’s overall water quality and surrounding communities worries Jackie Young, founder of the environmental group Texas Health Environment Alliance.

“My biggest issue with the response to Hurricane Harvey was that for a month after we were pressing the EPA, we were pressing our local and state government on the safety of the local environment and the safety of these sites, and we were repeatedly told that everything was okay,” Young told the NewsHour Weekend.

The San Jacinto River Waste Pits date back to the 1960s when toxic waste from paper mills was routinely dumped. The pits were designated a Superfund site in 2008. Since 2011, the waste, which is made up of dangerous dioxins and furans, has been temporarily held in place by an “armored cap.” The site is located in proximity to some of Harris County’s more than 4.5 million residents, including the city of Houston.

(Photo courtesy of EPA)

Preliminary data from the EPA indicated that in sediment samples taken around the site, dioxins levels spiked 2,300 times above acceptable levels.

Part of the EPA’s recovery plan is to remove most of the nearly 212,000 cubic yards of toxic waste at the San Jacinto site in the coming years. But it’s difficult to establish how much of the waste escaped into the river and nearby bayou, Samuel Coleman, the EPA’s acting regional administrator, told NewsHour Weekend.

He told a Congressional subcommittee in November testimony that one of the tactics the EPA used in the aftermath was a mobile lab capable of evaluating water samples “that proved to be invaluable in an area this is devastated and lacking in basic infrastructure.”

But more than a week after Harvey bore down on Texas on Aug. 25, the flooded Superfund sites had received only aerial inspections, EPA officials said.

Federal and local officials contend that access to those sites in the wake of the late August storm was limited, and that they quickly determined some sites, including the San Jacinto River Waste Pits and another called the U.S. Oil Recovery, had released toxic waste into surrounding waterways.

Bob Allen, the director of the Harris County Pollution Control Services, cited the complications of observing possible breaches at Superfund sites as flooding continued to grip the Houston area.

“Yes, waste got out in the river but how much is difficult to determine,” Allen said. “I think that both the locals and the feds and the state, we’re doing as much as we can. It’s a difficult site. It’s probably the most challenging site I’ve ever seen and I’ve been here almost 40 years.”

What about the surrounding community?

Rosanne Barone, of the advocacy group Texas Campaign for the Environment, said she worries about the river and several downstream bays that are popular with fishermen and for recreational use, both of which help feed the local economy.

Barone added that while many of the Superfund sites have been deemed secure by federal officials, a dearth of public data also raises questions about the potential long-term health effects on residents of the community.
“As far as damage to the other sites and cleanup, still not much is known,” Barone said.

“These are people who can literally see the waste from their homes.”

Young said in some cases it took the EPA, and companies responsible for overseeing some of the Superfund sites, weeks to begin conducting thorough inspections after the flooding.

A NewsHour Weekend analysis of EPA documents showed that some soil and water sampling from those two Superfund sites began on Sept. 4. Sampling at 11 other sites that were flooded during the storm did not begin until at least Sept. 10.

Since then, Young’s office has been inundated with calls from concerned residents who live near the San Jacinto River, and other areas, some who live near the San Jacinto River Waste Pits.
“These are people who can literally see the waste from their homes,” Young said.

Greg Moss, 62, is a retired boat mechanic who lives just upriver from the San Jacinto River Waste Pits. His home and workshop are located adjacent to the river and two blocks from the Superfund site.

(Photo Courtesy of Greg Moss)

Moss said since the 1990s he has lived in the San Jacinto River Estates neighborhood known to locals as “River Bottom.” But he said he wasn’t aware of the toxic waste that was found nearby until 2011, long after he would ride his jet skis through the river’s murky waters or take joy-rides on his four-wheeler through the mud of the Superfund site.

Moss said when the “tide surge” from Hurricane Harvey caused water to rise 113 inches into the shop he uses to fix motor boats, and 8 inches into his elevated home next door, he was trapped for days along with his dog until rescue workers took them out by boat.

(Photo Courtesy of Greg Moss)

A week later, when he returned home, the stench of mud and foul water was overwhelming and the months-long cleanup process was just beginning.

Moss cut out the damaged floor of his house and a portion of his wall, and used vinegar and peroxide to scour his shop. All the while, he said, he worried about how many toxins were now in his home.

“What else do you do with it?” he said. “You’ve got to have a place to live.”

‘Historic contamination’ predates Hurricane Harvey

Allen said he doesn’t necessarily agree that the federal government was slow to release information to the public, citing a confluence of data from various governmental agencies and private companies in the months following the storm.

“As soon as Harvey happened, as soon as it was safe enough to look at these sites the EPA was down here,” Allen said.

And Coleman said federal employees conducted a “detailed inspection” of the San Jacinto site, using boats to survey at least two areas that were breached and putting divers in the water amid zero visibility to collect water and sediment samples.

“Where the cap was breached, we did find some exposed dioxin and we collected samples, along with the responsible parties, who collected samples, to confirm that it was dioxin and it was dioxin waste that was placed in the waste pit,” Coleman said. “That was repaired immediately.”

But Coleman said “historic contamination” predating Hurricane Harvey has also created problems in the nearby Houston Ship Channel and other local waterways including the San Jacinto River.

“The San Jacinto Waste Pits was a contributor to that, not the only contributor,” he said.
Coleman said after the hurricane, federal officials have left some of the testing and research on potential health effects up to state and county officials.

(An aerial view of INEOS Phenol (L) and the Sam Houston Ship Channel Bridge is seen in Pasadena, Texas, U.S. August 31, 2017. Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Scott Jones, of the Galveston Bay Foundation, said his group recently secured a $250,000 grant to test fish populations in the San Jacinto River and other nearby waterways after Harris County officials called for additional studies. But the results of those tests will be unavailable for at least a year.

“There’s just multiple sites unfortunately in this area with all of the petrochemical we’ve had in the past and we had a lot of you know past practices or lack of practices way back in the day,” Jones said. “So I hear from people mainly around the center of the waste pits that they’re definitely concerned about it.”

On Friday, the EPA announced it added the San Jacinto River Waste Pits to a list of 21 Superfund sites slated to receive “immediate and intense attention.” The list was created by the Superfund Task Force, formed in July by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who visited the site along the San Jacinto River in September.

But Coleman said the process to clean up the San Jacinto River Waste Pits would likely take more than four years. The first year or two would be spent in negotiations with the two companies — International Paper and McGinnis Industrial Maintenance Corporation — which would be responsible for the cleanup.

And in a region known for storms and hurricanes, some advocates say that timeline could make the situation even more tenuous.

“The whole Superfund process is just so screwed up for a number of reasons that these sites just sit there with these highly toxic materials just sitting there right in the open, right in the middle of people’s areas where they live,” Barone said. “They were causing problems anyway and then when a hurricane hits it just makes it a million times worse.”

As Austin concludes recycling phase-in, city preps for zero waste goal

Written by

Community Impact News


(Courtesy of City of Austin)

Is Austin’s goal of sustainability sustainable? The city aims to be zero-waste by 2040—meaning 90 percent of discarded materials will be either recycled or composted and not sent to landfills—yet 80 percent of the items at city landfills could have been recycled or composted, according to a 2015 study.

However, business community members and environmental advocates alike seem to agree that Austin is making strides toward a target that seemed high to some at the time of its adoption in 2009—when the city became the first in Texas to adopt such a strategy.

The four-year phase-in of the city’s ordinance requiring commercial properties—including schools, medical facilities, businesses, apartments and condominiums—to provide recycling services was complete Oct. 1.

Austin still has a long way to go to meet its zero-waste goal, but the general manager of Austin’s largest processor of recyclables said the doubling of its workforce and continued investment in its far East Austin facility stand as evidence of the progress made.


(Courtesy of City of Austin)

“This is not an easy task we set ourselves at, and it’s one that I think we are as a company very much in partnership with the city on,” Balcones Resources General Manager Joaquin Mariel said.

The last phase of the recycling ordinance that rolled out Oct. 1, required all multifamily and nonresidential commercial properties to provide tenants and employees with convenient access to recycling services.

The municipal law, which has been implemented gradually since 2013, mandates that affected properties provide the following: sufficient recycling capacity; convenient access to recycling services; recycling services for such items as paper, plastics Nos. 1 and 2, aluminum, glass and cardboard; bilingual recycling education and informational container signs; and online submission of an annual diversion plan.

Single-family homes, to which the ordinance does not apply, receive curbside recycling collection via the city.

Failure to abide by any of the five guidelines can result in a fine between $200 and $2,000 per deficiency, per day.

The Texas Campaign for the Environment completed independent monitoring of how Austin businesses and apartment complexes are complying with the universal recycling ordinance. Program Director Andrew Dobbs said from what his organization has seen the ordinance has been a success.

When the ordinance was introduced in 2013, Dobbs said hardly any of the businesses and multifamily complexes were filing an annual waste-diversion plan, as required by the ordinance. Dobbs said there has been a “big shift” since then, and a majority of properties are now reporting compliance.

“There are still big gaps that need to be filled and it will be an ongoing project, but we have the foundation and framework we need to make sure all businesses in the city of Austin are recycling and diverting materials through composting,” Dobbs said.

The next true measure of the city’s progress toward its zero-waste goal will come in 2019—when the latest diversion study is slated to be released.

Understanding waste behaviors

The city’s zero-waste advocates are not the average Austinite, however, and staff members at the city’s department overseeing recycling services, Austin Resource Recovery, have been working with innovation fellows—designers and developers hired to bring solutions used in the tech sector to the public sector—to explore locals’ behaviors when it comes to material waste.

ARR Waste Diversion Planner Ron Neumond said the project was aimed at drilling into the “why” behind Austin’s numbers, such as why residents sent to landfills more than a third of organic material that could be composted.

“We decided it would be best to understand people’s perceptions of recycling first-hand,” Neumond said.

ARR staff and innovation fellows spoke to residents about recycling and how they dispose of their food and other waste after eating. The team concluded four factors determine whether a resident recycles and composts: motivation, ability, knowledge and discovery.

“This research really did change our conversations with people,” Neumond said, adding those interactions now center on improving residents’ diversion efforts rather than quizzing them.

In response to these discoveries ARR changed its messaging. Any educational materials must now address one of the areas for understanding recycling behaviors. The team rolled out an interactive way to teach the recycling dos and don’ts—a board game in which players sort items for recycling, composting, hazardous waste and donations.

“We can already see that people are more excited about recycling—that they’re more comfortable with the topic,” he said.

Environmentalists protest EPA Chief Scott Pruitt’s planned speech in The Woodlands

Written by

Houston Chronicle
By Alex Stuckey

Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, speaks during CERWeek by IHS Markit Thursday, March 9, 2017, in Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle )

HOUSTON — About a dozen advocates called on Environmental Protection Agency Chief Scott Pruitt to take a “Toxic Tour” of contaminated areas in Houston during his visit Thursday for a planned speech at an oil and gas meeting in The Woodlands.

The protest over Pruitt’s planned speech to the Texas Oil and Gas Association’s annual meeting was held about 40 miles away, on Brady’s Landing, to prove a point: Pruitt should be there, where all the pollution is, instead of speaking to an industry event, advocates said.

“This is where the administrator of the EPA should be coming, especially in light of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey,” said Rosanne Barone, program director of the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

More than 4 million pounds of toxic airborne emissions, as well as contaminated floodwater from Harvey poured into the Houston area — a region that’s already fraught with problems.

The communities near Brady’s Landing, for example, are constantly inundated with toxic chemicals released into the air by oil refineries, said Juan Parras, with the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services.

“It’s an invisible flood” of carcinogens, Parras said. He said he believes the EPA is pro-industry and that officials don’t appear to be working to reduce the level of emissions.

Though the group is not protesting outside of Pruitt’s speech in The Woodlands Thursday night, they said they hope he hears their message and will take a tour of their neighborhoods.

And that tour, lucky for him, would be free, said Rev. James Caldwell with the Coalition of Community Organizations.

Pruitt has been scheduled to speak Thursday night at the TOGA Lone Star Energy Forum in The Woodlands. The speech initially was closed to the media.

As of Thursday morning, however, Pruitt’s name had been removed from the list of speakers during the Distinguished Service Awards dinner.

The association and the EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alex Stuckey covers science and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.

EPA Orders Cleanup at Texas Toxic Site Flooded by Harvey

Written by

Chicago Tribune
By Michael Biesecker, Associated Press

Members of the Texas Campaign for the Environment prepare to deliver over 2,300 letters from Texas families to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region VI office in Dallas, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. The letters are calling for saving federal cleanup programs under the Trump Administration. The EPA has approved a plan to remove sediments laced with highly toxic dioxin from a partially submerged Superfund site near Houston damaged during Hurricane Harvey. (AP Photo/LM Otero) The Associated Press

Trump administration orders two big corporations to pay for a $115 million cleanup at a Texas toxic waste site that may have spread dangerous levels of pollution during the flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has handed a rare victory to environmentalists, ordering two big corporations this week to pay $115 million to clean up a Texas toxic waste site that may have spread dangerous levels of pollution during flooding from Hurricane Harvey.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt signed a directive Wednesday requiring International Paper and McGinnis Industrial Maintenance Corp., a subsidiary of Waste Management Inc., to excavate 212,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments from the San Jacinto River Waste Pits.

Pruitt visited the Superfund site outside Houston last month following historic rains and flooding from the storm, meeting with local environmental activists who had campaigned for years for approval of a cleanup plan.

Pruitt has said cleaning Superfund sites is among his top priorities, even as he has worked to delay and rollback a wide array of environmental regulations that would reduce air and water pollution. Often Pruitt has done so directly at the behest of industries that petitioned him for relief from what they characterize as overly burdensome and costly regulations.

At the waste pits, both companies opposed the expensive cleanup, arguing that a fabric and stone cap covering the 16-acre site was sufficient. The former site of a demolished paper mill that operated in the 1960s, the island in the middle of the San Jacinto River is heavily contaminated with dioxins — chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects.

“International Paper respectfully disagrees with the decision by the EPA,” said Tom Ryan, a spokesman for International Paper. He said removing the existing protective cap “could result in significant damage to public health and the local environment.”

Pruitt’s decision triggers the beginning of what could be months of negotiations between EPA and the two companies to reach a final settlement. If the companies refuse to comply with Pruitt’s order, EPA could sue in federal court to require compliance.

The Associated Press reported Sept. 2 about the risks from flooding at Houston-area Superfund sites, highlighting six prior occasions where the cap at the waste pits required significant repairs. Journalists surveyed seven flooded Superfund sites in and around Houston by boat, vehicle and on foot, including San Jacinto.

The EPA said at the time it was too unsafe for its personnel to visit the sites, and accused the AP in a statement of engaging in “yellow journalism” and creating panic. Nearly one month later, however, the agency confirmed that contaminated sediments at San Jacinto had, in fact, been uncovered by the storm.

A sample collected by an agency dive team from an exposed area at the site showed dioxin levels at 70,000 nanograms per kilogram — more than 2,300 times the level set to trigger a cleanup. Dioxins do not dissolve easily in water but can be carried away with any contaminated sediments and deposited over a wider area.

The EPA says additional testing will now be needed to determine whether the contamination spread and to ensure that the exposed waste material is isolated. Those results should be known in about two weeks, the agency said Thursday.

Meanwhile, workers have temporarily covered the exposed sediments with stone until the final cleanup begins.

The San Jacinto River empties into Galveston Bay, where state health officials have long advised against regularly consuming fish and shellfish due to contamination from dioxins and PCBs. The cleanup plan EPA approved this week requires the construction of a temporary dam to hold back the river while workers use heavy machinery to dig up and remove enough contaminated soil and sentiment to fill about 16,000 dump truck loads.

One of the local environmental advocates who met with Pruitt during his visit last month, Jackie Young, said people living along the river still don’t know whether the floodwaters carried toxins to their yards and homes.

“This is a monumental victory and testament to what an engaged community can accomplish,” said Young, executive director of Texas Health and Environment Alliance. “We may never know the extent of damage from Hurricane Harvey or numerous other storms, but at least the EPA is putting their best foot forward and moving in the only direction that upholds their mission.”

 

Austin’s recycling ordinance enters next phase; city works toward zero waste goal

Written by

Community Impact News

Is Austin’s goal of sustainability sustainable? The city aims to be zero-waste by 2040—meaning 90 percent of discarded materials will be either recycled or composted and not sent to landfills—yet 80 percent of the items at city landfills could have been recycled or composted, according to a 2015 study.

Though, business community members and environmental advocates alike seem to agree that Austin is making strides toward a target that seemed high to some at the time of its adoption in 2009—when the city became the first in Texas to adopt such a strategy.

The four-year phase-in of the city’s ordinance requiring commercial properties—including schools, medical facilities and businesses, in addition to apartments and condominiums—to provide recycling services is set to be complete Oct. 1.

Although Austin still has a long way to go to meet its zero-waste goal, the general manager of Austin’s largest processor of recyclables said the doubling of its workforce and continued investment in its far East Austin facility stand as evidence of the progress made.

“This is not an easy task we set ourselves at, and it’s one that I think we are as a company very much in partnership with the city on,” Balcones Resources General Manager Joaquin Mariel said.

When the last phase of the recycling ordinance rolls out Oct. 1, all multifamily and nonresidential commercial properties will be required to provide tenants and employees with convenient access to recycling services.

The municipal law, which has been implemented gradually since 2013, mandates that affected properties provide the following: sufficient recycling capacity; convenient access to recycling services; recycling services for such items as paper, plastics Nos. 1 and 2, aluminum, glass and cardboard; bilingual recycling education and informational container signs; and online submission of an annual diversion plan.

 

Is Austin’s goal of sustainability sustainable? The city aims to be zero-waste by 2040—meaning 90 percent of discarded materials will…

Single-family homes, where the ordinance does not apply, receive curbside recycling collection through the city.

Failure to abide by any of the five guidelines can result in a fine between $200 and $2,000 per deficiency, per day.

Business community

On the flip side, commercial properties are offered rebates and other incentives to invest in recycling and composting equipment.

Melissa Vogt heads the diversion efforts at The Vortex, a complex on Manor Road that comprises a stage-production theater, The Butterfly Bar and Italian food truck Patrizi’s.

The Vortex has been recycling since it was incorporated in 1988, Vogt said. Back then she said the theater company’s artistic director used to load up The Vortex’s recyclables and take them to the facility.

Now the burden on recycling enthusiasts has eased with recycling pickup available through the city’s contractors, such as Texas Disposal Services.

Last year The Vortex began discussing composting materials. The company ended up receiving $1,000 go to toward setting up that service.

The business switched from plastic to compostable straws at its bar, and Patrizi’s now uses all compostable items, including napkins and utensils.

The Vortex is not 100 percent zero-waste—the theater company uses some materials in the construction of its sets that cannot be composted or recycled.

“We definitely downsized what’s going in the landfill,” Vogt said.

Mariel said early recycling adopters can be found throughout the small-business community in Austin.

“Many of our local small businesses have been engaged in the recycling process,” he said. “Because they believe in that—it’s part of their business mission—and because they understood the [return on investment]a long time ago.

“When you reduce the amount of space you’ve dedicated to landfill [waste]and offset that with space dedicated to recycling there is … a financial balance that happens there.”

Understanding waste behaviors

The city’s zero-waste advocates are not the average Austinite, however, and staff members at the city’s department overseeing recycling services—Austin Resource Recovery—have been working with so-called innovation fellows to explore locals’ behaviors when it comes to material waste. The fellows are designers and developers hired to bring tech sector-style solutions to the public sector.

Ron Neumond, waste diversion planner with ARR, said the project was aimed at drilling into the “why” behind Austin’s numbers—why, for example, did residents send to landfills more than a third of organics that could have been composted?

“We decided it would be best to understand people’s perceptions of recycling first-hand,” Neumond said.

ARR staff, along with the innovation fellows, hit the streets to have “casual conversations” with residents about recycling and were walked through mock dinners in which respondents showed the researchers how they dispose of their food and other waste after eating. The overall 50 conversations helped the team identify some common threads.

The team concluded there are four factors in determining whether and how a resident recycles and composts: motivation, ability, knowledge and discovery.

Further, the researchers broke down their respondents into five types: enthusiasts, lone recyclers in a household, people who struggle to make ends meet and cannot prioritize recycling, the well-intentioned—but perhaps not informed—group, and the analysts or skeptics who do not trust their recycling is going to the right place.

“This research really did change our conversations with people,” Neumond said, adding those interactions now center on improving residents’ diversion efforts rather than quizzing them.

In response to these discoveries, ARR has changed its messaging. Any educational materials must now address one of the areas of its new framework for understanding recycling behaviors. The team has also rolled out an interactive way to teach the recycling dos and don’ts—a board game in which players sort items for recycling, composting, hazardous waste and donations.

“We can already see that people are more excited about recycling—that they’re more comfortable with the topic,” he said.

Progress and future monitoring

The Texas Campaign for the Environment has done independent monitoring to see how Austin businesses and apartment complexes are complying with the universal recycling ordinance.

Program Director Andrew Dobbs said from what his organization has seen the ordinance has been a success.

When the ordinance was introduced in 2013, Dobbs said hardly any of the businesses and multifamily complexes were filing an annual diversion plan, as required by the ordinance, or they were self-reporting that they would not be complying with regulations. Also known as a recycling plan, the document details such things as the types of material—and how much of it—the property plans to divert.

Dobbs said there has been a “big shift” since then, and a majority of properties are now reporting compliance. Further, he said volunteers have dropped in on businesses and apartment complexes and found most are following the rules.

“There are still big gaps that need to be filled and it will be an ongoing project, but we have the foundation and framework we need to make sure all businesses in the city of Austin are recycling and diverting materials through composting,” Dobbs said.

The next true measure of the city’s progress toward its zero-waste goal will come in 2020—when the latest diversion study is slated to be released.

Houston Superfund site leaked toxic chemicals after Harvey: EPA

Written by

ABC News Houston

At least one Superfund site was damaged and leaked toxic chemicals in Texas, despite early information that the sites were secure, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed September 28.

New test results found very high levels of chemicals called dioxins around the San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site in Channelview. The EPA previously said that the site needed further investigation, which was ongoing, but an armored “cap” intended to contain the waste should have prevented any toxic material from leaking. Part of this site is always underwater but after Hurricane Harvey flooding was up to 12 to 14 feet.

Dioxins can cause cancer and reproductive problems, as well as damage the immune system, according to the EPA. Low levels of dioxin have detected in the river before and humans can be exposed to it by swimming or eating seafood from the water, according to the Galveston Bay Foundation.

Thursday’s testing results released by EPA found levels at 70,000 nanograms per kilogram, more than 2,000 times the recommended level of 30 ng/kg, according to an EPA press release. The toxic chemical that leaked does not dissolve in water and could continue to spread. The company responsible for the site will continue to conduct testing in the area.

The San Jacinto River Waste Pits Superfund site was contaminated with waste from paper manufacturing and was added to the Superfund list in 2008. The site was stabilized in 2011, according to the regional administrator, but it is still listed as one of the most contaminated sites in the country.

The companies considered potentially responsible for the pollution are also responsible for maintaining the site. On Sept. 9, EPA said they were using heavy equipment to cover the cap with rock and removed nine truckloads containing 45,000 gallons of stormwater from the area.

One of those companies, International Paper, said in a statement Friday that the materials were not released into the environment, saying that “this area represents roughly 0.00016 percent of the entire 16-acre armored cap.”

“The armored cap performed exceptionally well during the Hurricane Harvey storm event and remains fully intact,” communications director Tom Ryan said in a statement.

ABC News’ Kenneth Moton visited the San Jacinto site with EPA and local officials on Sept. 4 after some of the flooding receded. At that time the acting regional administrator for that area, Sam Coleman, said teams were working to inspect and repair the cap but they were pretty confident there were no leaks and that the San Jacinto site was secure before the storm hit.

After Hurricane Harvey, EPA reviewed aerial photos of the 41 Superfund sites in the Houston area and determined that 13 sites needed further testing. On Sept. 3 The Associated Press reported that the EPA was not on scene at the San Jacinto site, though EPA questioned the accuracy of that report. As of Sept. 9, some of the flooding had gone down and EPA and other officials were able to visit the sites and begin working at the sites.

An Enormous, Urgent Task: Hauling Away Harvey’s Debris

Written by

New York Times
By Jason Schwartz and Alan Blinder

HOUSTON — On Labor Day, Pireta Darby sat on the front porch of her house in the Kashmere Gardens neighborhood. The fruits of her labors were before her: the sodden objects lugged out of the home she shares with her mother and granddaughter. Here were two couches piled high with ripped-out carpet. A coffee table. A folding chair. And so much more, removed from the family home of about 60 years.

“I guess they’ll just come with the big truck with the claw thing” to haul it away, she said, gazing at the mess; at least the family has insurance.

Bryan Thomas for The New York Times

The piles up and down this street, and along many other nearby streets — shards of wallboard and mildewing carpet, artificial flowers and computer monitors — stand taller than some people. There are sofas and desk chairs, ironing boards and drum sets — discrete items all destroyed by a storm and the floodwaters that followed. And across this city, there are more than 100,000 such piles, many of them even larger.

Of all the challenges that southeast Texas faces after Hurricane Harvey, few will linger longer or more visibly than the millions of pounds of debris already crowding curbs and edging onto streets. The cleanup, needed from northeast Houston’s neighborhoods to the wealthy suburbs southwest of the city, will take months and cost billions of dollars.

Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston has identified two priorities for his city’s recovery: housing and debris removal.

“We’re going to pick it up, and we’re going to operate with the highest degree of urgency,” Mr. Turner said.

At the same time, Houston officials are asking residents to separate their Harvey-related waste into five piles: appliances; electronics; construction and demolition debris; household hazardous waste; and vegetative debris. A look at these streets suggested that few people seemed to be heeding the city’s pleas.

Other cities have been through this battle with a storm’s leavings. After floodwaters inundated East Baton Rouge Parish, La., last year, crews collected about two million cubic yards of debris. Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, led to about six million cubic yards of debris in New York State — the equivalent of four Empire State Buildings, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Katrina left behind 38 million cubic yards. Getting the stuff gone is a long process. It was only last month that Baton Rouge finished the debris removal process it organized in the wake of last year’s flooding there.

In Houston, where city officials say that some eight million cubic yards of debris will need to be hauled away, collection is farther along in some neighborhoods than in others. In Ms. Darby’s neighborhood, only a handful of volunteers were around to help in the disaster zone. In Bellaire, a wealthy city southwest of downtown, dozens of trucks were parked on the streets, their owners helping people bring their belongings outside. Poachers picked through the refuse for items that could potentially be sold, leading residents to spray-paint warning signs telling people to stay away from their debris.

Bryan Thomas for The New York Times

The job of deciding how to move these mountains has been left to county and local officials, who hire debris removal companies to help them dig out. FEMA will reimburse the local governments for 90 percent of the cost. One major removal company, AshBritt, already has “dozens of operations” going on in Texas from Harvey, said Jared Moskowitz, the general counsel for the company. He said he expects more to come.

Judith Enck, a former regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency whose territory included New York and New Jersey, said that environmental considerations have to be part of the process, even after a disaster. Ms. Enck, who calls herself a “solid waste geek,” was heavily involved in debris removal after Sandy hit the Northeast. Figuring out what to do with debris is one of the most challenging aspects of any storm, and because decisions are generally made at the local level, she said, “every community has to kind of reinvent the wheel.”

Setting aside appliances like refrigerators for recycling, chipping downed trees for mulch instead of burning them, prevents pollution and extends the life of landfills. Leaking landfills can pollute groundwater. “The victims of these storms are already in environmentally compromised situations,” she said, “and the way debris is handled should not make it worse.”

She said that separating waste by type is anything but fussy, especially in the age of climate change, when scientists have shown that global warming is producing wetter storms and contributing to more destructive storm surges, and could also be making some storms more powerful.

“I fully understand people saying, ‘This is an emergency — let’s suspend the norms,’ ” Ms. Enck said. “But these hurricanes and floods are becoming the norm.”

Historically, Texas has not shown deep concern over environmental issues, and in the current crisis, its stance on debris removal has been similar. Governor Greg Abbott has temporarily suspended 19 environmental rules that the state said would “prevent, hinder or delay” Harvey disaster response.

After reviewing the changes, Andrew Dobbs, a program director with the Texas Campaign of the Environment, a nonprofit advocacy group, said, “They have suspended more or less every meaningful environmental protection.”

The communities hit by the storm “were already some of the most polluted in our country,” Mr. Dobbs said, “and the regulations in place were already insufficient to protect their health and well-being.” Relaxing the rules now, he said, will “escalate this problem in a dramatic way.”

At Ms. Darby’s house, the process of tossing and salvaging continued. With the help of some family members and their friends, the Darbys were packing some items into plastic containers for safekeeping at self-storage facility while they stay at a hotel. Flooding is not new to them: Tropical Storm Allison caused substantial damage in 2001, and the Darbys lived in a FEMA trailer while they fixed the house up that time.

As Ms. Darby decided what to toss and what to try to save, she reflected on how she had told herself a while back that she really should get rid of some things. “The Lord has a way of making you clean up and clean out,” she said with a laugh.

Her mother, Mary Darby, 84, was less sanguine, even after telling herself that the family had lost only possessions, not loved ones. Standing in her home, mold already visible on the walls, she began to cry.

“It’s material,” she said a few moments later. “But it hurts.”

Annie Correal and Manny Fernandez contributed reporting.