Most citizens set their recycle bin on the curb, and don’t give a second thought to the dangers and toxic exposures recycling workers face. Recycling is filthy, dirty, and often times dangerous work. Cheers for, and hats off to all the citizens who take their recycling to a drop off center and sort it into separate bins.
https://www.powers-santola.com/blog/study-recycling-workers-face-high-injury-risks/
“ALBANY – Investigators believe that a worker at a South Pearl Street recycling plant was killed trying to remove a piece of plastic that got stuck on a conveyor belt.”
-Times Union
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Man-killed-in-Albany-recycling-plant-13471882.php
The article about the settlement of this lawsuit seems to have evaporated. As I recall the settlement was for less than $30,000. If anyone has information please let us know. Thank you.
This class action lawsuit is headed to court in June 2022. The collected single stream recycling ended up in the landfill.
The class members are all Fort Smith residential sanitation customers who paid sanitation fees between July 1, 2015 and May 1, 2017. Once again we see a community where the mixed/single stream recycling was being land filled for nearly two years and no one knew?
“Attorney General T.J. Donovan today announced that Chittenden Solid Waste District (CSWD) has agreed to pay over $400,000 for its disposal of recyclable processed glass at three locations on its Williston, Vermont property. CSWD will also post information on its website and publications to ensure that it is being transparent with the public about what happens to glass sent to CSWD for recycling.”
https://ago.vermont.gov/blog/2020/12/29/cswd-to-pay-400k-to-settle-glass-disposal-enforcement-case/
From the Wall Street Journal, 15 Nov. 2021 by Dieter Holger “Some of the world’s biggest consumer-goods companies agreed to change their U.S. recycling labels for some products after reaching a settlement with an anti-plastic group that said they misled shoppers about the scope of a recycling initiative. Earlier this year, Last Beach Cleanup, a nonprofit that criticizes companies for plastic waste and poor recycling practices, filed a lawsuit in California against recycling startup TerraCycle Inc. and eight companies it works with, including Procter & Gamble Co. and Coca-Cola Co., alleging that consumers weren’t told about limits on TerraCycle programs that meant their waste might not get recycled.”
14 Jan 2022
Keurig Dr. Pepper Canada has been forced to pay a CA $3 million (US $2.3 million) penalty to the country’s Competition Bureau, as well an unspecified amount in a US class-action lawsuit, following misleading claims made about the recyclability of its single-use K-Cup coffee pods. Canada’s Competition Bureau determined the company was making false statements in its advertising campaigns via its website, social media and on text and logos on the K-Cup pods and packaging. “Portraying products or services as having more environmental benefits than they truly have is an illegal practice in Canada,” says Matthew Boswell, the Bureau’s commissioner of competition.
“California consumers and the Sierra Club have sued the Coca-Cola Company and other companies that sell leading bottled-water brands in San Francisco federal court, accusing them in separate lawsuits of deceiving consumers in the state by claiming their bottles are “100% recyclable” while they are not.”
“After the first amended complaint was dismissed, Greenpeace filed a second amended complaint, abandoning claims based on Walmart’s alleged misrepresentations to consumers and focusing on the claim that Greenpeace was forced to expend and divert resources to combat Walmart’s alleged failure to substantiate its recyclability representations, and Walmart filed a second motion to dismiss.”
https://www.law360.com/articles/1448717/greenpeace-fights-bid-to-dismiss-walmart-recycling-suit
.. settlement in water pollution suit brought on by Texas residents. “A judge ruled that the company illegally dumped billions of plastic pellets and other pollutants into Lavaca Bay and other water ways.” …”In addition to the financial settlement, the company agreed to comply with “zero discharge” of all plastics in the future and to clean up existing pollution.”
Hopefully this is not a sign of future behavior…
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