State and federal laws mandate that Maine test 100% of the toddlers covered by MaineCare for lead poisoning. The actual screening rates fall far short of that target, leaving our most vulnerable children at risk of lifelong harm. Maine needs to step up and follow the law.
East Boston residents overwhelmingly oppose a proposal to build a massive electrical substation in their neighborhood. In a case highlighting issues of language justice, many residents have been unable to participate fully in public proceedings because of inadequate translation services.
In general, plastic bag bans aren’t perfect, wrote policy analyst John Hite for the Conservation Law Foundation, but they’re a good start. Hite pointed out that, even in studies showing that plastic bag bans increased purchases of thicker trash bags and paper bags, the bans consistently decreased the overall use of single-use plastic bags.
Tom Irwin with the Conservation Law Foundation endorsed the idea. He noted the Legislature two decades ago set a goal of reducing solid waste by 40 percent and put landfills at the bottom of the waste “hierarchy.” “Twenty years later we have not achieved the solid waste reduction goal and we are still operating on a disposal model and relying heavily on landfills,” Irwin said.
“Plastic producers have been given a free pass to pollute our communities for far too long at taxpayer expense,” said John Hite, Zero Waste Policy Analyst at CLF. “Single-use packaging has upended recycling and filled our oceans, communities, and landfills with plastic pollution. LD2104 will require packaging companies to deal with the mess they’ve made and create products that don’t wreak havoc on our recycling systems and environment.”
Between the FMCB and the administration’s Commission on the Future of Transportation, Governor Baker has laid the groundwork for transforming the crisis-ridden MBTA into a system worthy of our world-class innovation economy and vibrant and diverse neighborhoods. Let’s empower the FMCB to get the job done.
“The last thing New Hampshire needs is another landfill,” said Tom Irwin, Vice President and Director of CLF New Hampshire. “The Department of Environmental Services came to the right conclusion: Casella’s proposed expansion would violate important state policy and is not in the public interest. Instead of expanding a polluting landfill, we must focus on reducing waste and ramping up recycling and compost efforts.”
CLF’s Healthy Neighborhoods Study is powered by resident researchers, who play a key role in designing and conducting the study and in sharing it with their neighbors. Cliff Bennett, JoAnn Diaz, and Mela Miles, part of the research team on the ground in Roxbury, discuss what the survey means for their community.
“Fossil fuel companies have created the plastic crisis at our expense,” said Brad Campbell, President of Conservation Law Foundation. “Beyond littering our streets and waters, plastic production harms human health, destroys our climate and hobbles the budgets of cities and towns. This groundbreaking federal legislation will hold these large corporations accountable in cleaning up the damage they’ve done.”
Maine legislators are working to shift soaring recycling costs back where they belong: onto the producers of unmanageable plastic packaging.
