Mar 11, 2020
My first day on the job as Connecticut River Conservancy’s newest River Steward was a whirlwind – literally. We got an early morning start with our friends at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for a windy trip up and down the Connecticut River on their airboat. As we came to our first stop and dismounted the boat, I was shocked and disappointed to see the amount of plastic bottles and nips littering Connecticut’s shoreline.
Mar 11, 2020
We all know the trash we throw away is a disaster for our environment and communities. From landfills growing into mountains of waste to incinerators spewing toxic pollutants to the pollution of our water and air (including climate-damaging emissions) – the impacts of waste disposal are not only disturbing, but they’re also avoidable. For decades… Continue reading Will New Hampshire Be A Dumping Ground for the Region? (Not If We Can Stop It)
Feb 26, 2020
“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.”
Feb 13, 2020
“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.”
Feb 11, 2020
“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.”
Feb 11, 2020
Maine legislators are working to shift soaring recycling costs back where they belong: onto the producers of unmanageable plastic packaging.
Feb 07, 2020
At the corner of Allens and Thurbers avenues in Providence, Rhode Island, sits a less-than-four-acre lot that could soon be home to a massive garbage depot. The proposal has nearby residents in South Providence and Washington Park worried and angry – and with good reason. These communities are already burdened by daily pollution from other nearby industrial facilities.
Jan 28, 2020
Despite many good intentions, curbside recycling has turned out to be a disaster. But that doesn’t mean recycling is dead. We have solutions. One of the best systems for recycling our plastic, glass, and aluminum containers is the bottle return program, also known as the “bottle bill” or deposit-return.
Jan 28, 2020
Although some New England states pioneered the bottle return system, they have since fallen behind. But New England can improve its recycling by updating or adopting bottle return systems in each state. This would help reduce litter in our neighborhoods, parks, and waterways; it would keep recyclable material out of landfills and incinerators; and it would lift some recycling costs off of communities.
Jan 24, 2020
“Single-use plastic bags are made from dirty fossil fuels and have no place in our daily lives,” said Amy Moses, Vice President and Director of CLF Rhode Island. “These bags wreck our climate and choke wildlife. More than half of Rhode Island’s population already lives in a community with a plastic bag ban. It’s time to pass a strong statewide law that stops this blight on our environment for good.”
