wastenews.com
Groups:
AT DEADLINE
Can these simply be
Los Angeles rail yard
invests $300 million
New car
Union Pacific Railroad is investing $300 million to upgrade
its intermodal container facility
in Los Angeles, a move the
company said will create the
most “environmentally modern”
rail port in North America.
The site, over a several-year
See At Deadline, Page 21
report
stinks
Center ranks vehicles
by interior chemicals
By Jim Johnson
IN THIS ISSUE
SOLID WASTE
thrown away?
Mercury worries creep into conversation about trendy fluorescent bulbs
Van Eck Global’s new exchange
traded fund includes holdings from
26 environmental services firms.
Page 3
By Joe Truini
Professor Stanley Shetka creates
counter tops, tables and plaques
from recycled paper. Page 16
Most agree more energy-effi-cient light bulbs can significantly
curb air pollution, but fewer people are talking about how to deal
with them at the end of their
lives.
Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs are, no doubt,
a bright idea. In fact, companies
including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
and Royal Philips Electronics,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental
groups are pushing for compact
fluorescent lights to replace less
efficient incandescent bulbs.
But there is no plan to address
air and water pollution concerns
that could develop if consumers
improperly dispose of the mercu-ry-containing devices.
The amount of mercury in a
compact fluorescent light bulb is
small enough to fit on the tip of a
ballpoint pen, said Kim Freeman, a spokeswoman with GE
Consumer & Industrial, a division of General Electric Co. But a
national policy to properly manage end-of-life compact fluorescent bulbs will be needed.
“As CFLs become more popular, this is something that needs
to be addressed,” she said. “The
benefit of CFLs and the amount
of emissions that they take out of
the environment far exceed the
implications from the mercury.”
Make the makers pay for it
One recycling coordinator believes manufacturers should
bear the burden.
“The ideal solution would be if
they sell it, that’s where they
take it back,” said Ann Moore,
recycling coordinator for
Burlington County, N.J. “If the
proper thing to do is to collect
these items separately, then the
industry that’s making them
should have a role in crafting col-
An environmental group is
calling for automobile manufacturers to replace what it alleges to be toxic chemicals
used in vehicle interiors.
But representatives of both
the automotive and chemical
industries blasted the work by
the Ecology
Center, which
tested more
than 200 vehicles from
2006 and
2007.
At issue
are chemicals, including bromine,
chlorine and
lead, that allegedly off-gas
from indoor
automobile parts, the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based environmental group said.
These releases help constitute what many people find to
be an attractive feature — the
new car smell.
But the Ecology Center said
the chemicals are cause for “a
variety of acute and long-term
See Bulbs, Page 14
See Car, Page 23
HAZARDOUS WASTE
Vermont beckons for green businesses
Parties in Utah settle out of court
in a legal dispute involving
radioactive waste. Page 6
By Elizabeth McGowan
AIR POLLUTION
Climate change is on the minds of
many on Capitol Hill. Page 12
GOV. JIM DOUGLAS: “[The Green
Valley initiative] captures our intellectual wealth and it fits with our
environmental ethic.”
plugging as the Green Valley.
“Marrying these two will help
us preserve our traditional way of life,”
Douglas, who moved
to the Green Mountain state from
Massachusetts in the late 1960s
to attend college, said in an in-
Vermont’s new energy sources. Page 4
$3.00 All rights reserved. ©Entire contents Copyright 2007 by Crain Communications Inc.
MONTPELIER, VT. — With maple
syrup, cheese and ice cream as
the traditional backbone of its
economy, it’s appropriate that
the Roman goddess of agriculture graces the Vermont Capitol’s gold dome.
And though state government
is now beckoning to companies
specializing in energy technology
and pollution cleanup, Gov. Jim
Douglas has no in-
tention of bumping
Ceres from her
pedestal. For him, it
seems logical to em-
brace both farmers and emerging
businesses. Just as California
touts its Silicon Valley, he wants
Vermont’s niche to be what he’s
See Vt., Page 23
President Bush and
U.S. automakers
link alternative
fuels to security.
Page 13
Passion for late
model trash
trucks drives
Va. man to
launch Web
site. Page 22
