A Rotten Waste Merger
An environmental lawyer and activist calls bigness the most pressing issue in the waste industry. … Read More
A Vision for Landfills that Challenges the Status Quo — Episode 116 of Building Local Power
Host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by Neil Seldman and Captain Charles Moore, author of Plastic Ocean, to discuss Moore’s his vision for turning landfills into “resource recovery parks.”… Read More
Recycling Is the Enemy of Wasting
Recycling has long been known to be the enemy to waste management companies as it diverts materials that could be going to landfills, threatening profits and political influence. It makes sense. Landfilling waste is highly profitable, while recycling materials is marginally profitable and can also lose money. Flat recycling rates allow for companies to require more for processing recyclables while more waste flows to landfills. Profits from hauling and landfill operations supports high stock prices for consolidated national monopolies, which in turn allow them to use stocks to further consolidate hauling, landfilling, and most recently recycling processing capacity at centralized plants, or Materials Processing Facilities (MRFs).… Read More
Monopoly and the U.S. Waste Knot
Big Waste dominates every aspect of solid waste and recycling practice and policy. The top four consolidated companies earn $30 billion of the $70 billion economic sector. Big Waste companies own or control 75% of the permitted landfill capacity in major metropolitan areas, and control an estimated 50% of the national hauling market, with increased levels of domination in regional markets.… Read More
The True Value of Recycling and the Waste Stream (Episode 2)
In this episode, Chris Mitchell, the director of our Community Broadband Networks initiative, interviews Neil Seldman, ILSR co-founder and senior staff member of the Waste to Wealth initiative about the hidden value in our waste stream and, specifically, some recent comments made by the CEO of Waste Management, Inc. disparaging the value of recycling.… Read More
Destiny Watford Wins Recognition for Work Fighting Curtis Bay Incinerator
Destiny Watford of the Curtis Bay community in Baltimore, MD, just became the second anti-garbage incinerator activist to win The Goldman Environmental Prize, a prestigious award given annually to one leader from each continent. Rossano Ercolini, a school teacher from the town of Capannori in Tuscany, Italy, won the prize for Europe in 2013 for his efforts … Read More
Book Review: Garbology – Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash
ILSR president, Neil Seldman, reviews a recent book by Pulitzer Prize-wining writer, Edward Humes, titled “Garbology.” Humes wisely observes, recycling is America’s last line of defense against waste, when it should be the last. His book contains an excellent concise history of how the US became addicted to garbage and the socioeconomic and environmental dilemmas of today. It also introduces us to extraordinary individual activists and entrepreneurs attempting to solve problems, and provides useful summary charts and tables to further inform readers.… Read More