Caution: Waste Can Be Hazardous to Company Health

When does an everyday product like bleach become hazardous waste that requires special handling when disposed of by stores? This is not an academic question; companies that lack policies to adequately address it could face large fines or even criminal charges.

Case in point: On May 28 Bentonville, Arkansas–based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. agreed to pay more than $80 million after pleading guilty to six counts of violating the Clean Water Act in California and one count of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) in Missouri.

The six Clean Water Act charges were filed by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles and San Francisco and consolidated in the Northern District of California. According to documents filed in the U.S. district court in San Francisco, before January 2006 Wal-Mart did not have a program in place and failed to train employees on proper hazardous waste management and disposal. As a result, products like cleaners and aerosols were placed in municipal trash bins or poured into the local sewer. Hazardous waste products were also transported without proper safety documentation to return centers.

In the western district of Missouri, the retailer admitted that between 2006 and 2008, it trucked more than 2 million pounds of pesticides and household products from return centers to a recycling facility, where the pesticides were mixed and processed for reuse without the required registration, ingredients, or use information.

The company was slapped with civil and criminal penalties—the first time a case of this type resulted in criminal charges. Combined with the civil penalties it paid earlier in California and Missouri for the same acts detailed in the federal cases, the total financial penalty Wal-Mart racked up was more than $100 million.

And it could have been worse. Clean Water Act violations require an automatic suspension and debarment from federal contracts. But in this instance, according to Michael Jacob Steel, a partner at Morrison & Foerster, Wal-Mart was able to get assurances that there would be no impact on its government contracts. Joseph Johns, chief of the environmental crimes section of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California and lead prosecutor of the federal case, would not comment on the criminal charges or penalties. He did say this: "Federal laws apply to every company in the nation without regard to the size of the company. It is simply unacceptable for any business to manage its hazardous waste by dumping it down the drain or dumping it in the trash."

Environmental law can be a difficult area for companies to navigate. "Environmental regulations can be very complex and expensive to comply with," says Johns. "While a bottle of nail polish may be harmless sitting on a shelf, if broken in the store or returned after being opened, it becomes a hazardous waste that must be properly stored, managed, transported, and disposed of."

Wal-Mart is not the first major retailer to face penalties related to waste disposal. Morrison & Foerster's Steel, who specializes in environmental compliance and enforcement defense, says that one of his first cases settled in August 2007, when The Home Depot agreed to pay almost $10 million in a civil case over its failure to properly store and transport hazardous waste.

Since then, other companies have entered into similar agreements, including Costco ($3.6 million), CVS ($14.6 million), Kmart ($8.7 million), Save Mart ($2.6 million), Target ($22.5 million), and Walgreens ($16.6 million). (Asked to comment, only CVS responded, saying that it has taken steps to "bolster" its program by establishing reporting requirements and revising employee training for handling hazardous materials in its retail stores.)The numbers alone should get the attention of retailers. "When you add the recent fines in the Wal-Mart case," says Steel, "these are big numbers that are only going to generate the increased interest of regulators."

Until the federal case against Wal-Mart, Steel says that all the cases were civil actions, mainly involving California. There are reasons the bulk of the cases came from there, he says. One is the long-standing partnership between local prosecutors and county health departments, which share information and coordinate environmental compliance investigations.

"California also has a special test for toxicity called the 'Fish Kill' test," says Steel. "Investigators will pour the product into a fish tank to see how long they will survive. If the fish die, it's a hazardous waste, even if federal law says it is not."

 
The best way that companies can avoid problems is by creating rules and training employees. Steel works with in-house attorneys, including those at Kmart and Costco, to develop and implement compliance policies. "Many companies already have policies and programs in place; those that don't are putting themselves at risk," says Steel. "Creating a plan takes time, costs money, and is complex and should not be done in crisis mode after receiving a call from a prosecutor." David Rieser, special counsel at Much Shelist, says compliance programs should include two components: one on storing damaged goods and another on handling customer returns. "Everyone in the stores must be trained, from managers to those stocking the shelves," says Rieser. Codes must be created to identify the materials, and bins set aside for disposal, he adds.

Wal-Mart created a program to address these issues in 2006. According to a press release, it includes employee training and a compliance office made up of, among others, former officials with the Environmental Protection Agency. "We continue to run the same program in every store and club that was deployed years ago," Phyllis Harris, chief compliance officer at Wal-Mart U.S., said in a statement.  Johns says simply having a policy isn't enough. "Corporate counsel must take extra steps to conduct rigorous internal audits, correct any violations identified, discipline employees responsible for the violations, and then disclose the shortcomings to federal regulators," he says.

"There are safe harbor provisions in place to shield a company from charges identified during an internal audit," he adds. "But for a company to avail itself of the shield, regulators must be notified."

 

Sherry Karabin

Corporate Counsel

2013-08-12 00:00:00.0

China's Green Fence

China’s Green Fence

What is China’s Green Fence and how does it impact you?

 

As the U.S. became a consumer economy with a shrinking manufacturing base, Chinese manufacturing was growing. The U.S. generates more scrap than it is able to consume domestically. Meanwhile Chinese demand for raw materials grew and recyclables are a lower cost raw material compared to virgin raw materials.

 

          The United States has been exporting its raw materials such as metal, paper, plastic and more, instead of recycling the materials here in the U.S. While this is good for the trade deficit with China – scrap is our largest export to that country – the quality of recyclables is becoming a problem. China is implementing higher standards on imports of recycled material via Operation Green Fence. This could have quite an impact on the recycling industry and the U.S. in a broader context, forcing the U.S. to have higher standards for what they export worldwide.

 

          One reason the United States began exporting to China is because, as a result of the large amount of goods we import from them, the shipping containers that carried those goods were being sent back to the country empty. It made sense to send them back filled with bales of empty cardboard boxes which those goods had been packed in because China does not have the forest resources that the U.S. does. Most of China’s packaging was previously made from recycled fibers which proved quite flimsy. China wanted to import our high quality cardboard to mix in with their low quality fibers to make better packaging. This win-win situation began the exporting of our recyclables.

 

          Beginning in February of 2013 China launched what they’re calling “Operation Green Fence“, a 10-month long initiative that kicked off in February to prevent the importation of solid waste-contaminated shipments. Operation Green Fence has set a limit of 1.5 percent prohibitive, or allowable contaminant, in each bale, in an effort to keep trash out of China. Headed by Wang Jiwei, vice president and secretary-general of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metal Branch (CMRA), the new initiative will include random inspection of all forms of “imported waste,” meaning metal, plastic, textiles, rubber and recovered paper materials.

         

Therefore all recyclable material must be separated thoroughly before being placed into the recycling bin. Food waste left on a container can contaminate the whole bin. To maximize your recycling efforts it is important to make sure that no food waste gets into the recycling receptacle.

 

Community Garden

As many of you know Action works a lot with the Lou Gehrig Middle school in the Bronx. Over this past year we formed an environmental club with the school called N.E.A.T. There are 15 students in the club that felt inspired to join this club because they want to make a change in their local communities. On June 18th a few members of the Action team went to go re cultivate a local community garden. Thanks to the help and donations of Downes Tree Service we were able to turn an almost abandoned garden into a lively and colorful place in front of the local community center.

It was a really fun morning and the kids put in a ton of work! We all were astounished by the transformation!

Before and After photos

Global Green Tours Our New MRF

 

Laura Merli an intern of Global Green recently took a tour of our new Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in the Bronx with Lily Kelly, the director of the Coalition for Resource Recovery. We love working with Global Green and are proud to be recognized by this global organization. Watch the video below for Laura and Lily's coverage of the Optical Sorter tour and please be sure to check out Global Green's blog as well http://globalgreen.org/blog

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES MORE THAN 100 RESTAURANTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THE “FOOD WASTE CHALLENGE,” NEW CITY PROGRAM TO REDUCE AMOUNT OF WASTE SENT TO LANDFILLS

 

Initiative Will Help Meet PlaNYC Goal to Divert 75 Percent of Solid Waste from Landfills by 2030

 

City Also Launches Gardens for Healthy Communities Making Nine Acres of Outdoor Space Open for Community Gardens

 

            Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced that more than 100 restaurants will participate in the first-ever Food Waste Challenge, a new City program to reduce the amount of organic waste sent to landfills and the greenhouse gases that waste produces. The program will help meet the City’s PlaNYC goals to divert 75 percent of all solid waste from landfills by 2030 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste comprises one-third of the city’s more than 20,000 tons of daily refuse and restaurants account for 70 percent of commercial food waste. Participating restaurants have pledged to reduce 50 percent of the food waste they send to landfills through compositing and other waste prevention strategies. The restaurants and restaurant groups include: Batali and Bastianich Hospitality Group, Blue Hill, Chipotle, Cleaver Co., Juice Generation, Le Bernardin, Momofuku, Pret-a-Manger, Union Square Hospitality Group and ‘WichCraft. The initiative builds on the organic waste programs that the City has developed, including a pilot in some Brooklyn and Manhattan public schools that has cut the amount of garbage participating schools send to landfills by 38 percent, and a residential organics recycling program that will begin in Staten Island next month. The Mayor also announced the launch of Gardens for Healthy Communities, which will open nine acres of under-utilized City-owned outdoor space for 20 local gardening projects. The Mayor made the announcements at the New York Times “Building Sustainable Cities” Conference at the Times Center in Manhattan.

             “From franchises to farm-to-table restaurants, New York’s food industry is joining our efforts to cut waste and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to build a greener, greater New York,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Restaurants are a vital part of our economy and culture, and their participation in the Food Waste Challenge will help inform New Yorkers about sustainable practices and encourage their adoption.”
 

            “Yesterday we launched the largest expansion of the City’s household recycling program in decades and today we're working with the restaurant industry to tackle food waste – most of which is still going to landfills today,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Cas Holloway. “Restaurants are an engine of the City’s economy and by accepting the Food Waste challenge, these business owners will make that engine run much cleaner – which is great for New Yorkers and the environment.”

      “As part of the obesity task force, New York City is working to ensure that more New Yorkers have access to healthy fruits and vegetables and community gardens are a critical component to meeting that commitment,” said Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs. “The additional acres will promote urban agriculture and help transform our communities by re-allocating underutilized land.”

     “By diverting our food waste from landfills, New York City is taking an important step towards a reducing harmful greenhouse gases and helping achieve the city’s PlaNYC goals,” said City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn. “The additional 20 community garden sites, on the other hand, will give New Yorkers the opportunity to enjoy increased access to open, green space, environmental learning opportunities and healthy, fresh food.”

     “Community gardens create places to gather and foster awareness of healthy food options and benefits of fresh foods” said Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Veronica M. White. “We are proud of the fact that these sites will be managed by our GreenThumb program, the oldest and largest community garden program in the nation.”

    “We know community gardens are often hubs for healthy activity –hosting weekly farmers markets, working with school groups, or donating produce to pantries,” said City Food Policy Coordinator Kim Kessler.  “Many also compost – making their contribution to reducing food waste. I’m thrilled that today’s announcements advance both sustainability and health goals by addressing both the production and disposal stages of the food cycle.”

 “This initiative builds upon the strong tradition of community gardening in New York City, and by identifying 20 new available sites we will enable many more New Yorkers to be a part of creating sustainable community managed spaces,” saidExecutive Director of the GreenThumb Program Edie Stone.

 “Recovering the value of food waste is a goal that all New Yorkers can get behind,” said Judith Enck, Regional Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency. “There are enormous environmental and community benefits associated with diverting food waste from landfill and restaurants can help lead the way. I applaud Mayor Bloomberg for this visionary and enterprising initiative.”

  “The Mayor’s Food Waste Challenge offers restaurants the opportunity to voluntarily implement positive changes that will benefit the community, the environment and the bottom line,” said Rick Sampson, New York State Restaurant Association President and CEO. “NYSRA is pleased to support the mayor on this initiative, and its recognition of the valuable contributions to sustainability that NYC restaurants are making.”

   “Restaurants can play a crucial role in helping to reduce our city’s food waste,” said Danny Meyer, CEO and Founder of Union Square Hospitality Group. “We eagerly accept the Mayor’s challenge and our restaurants are excited to help the city reach its goal of diverting 50 percent of food waste, thereby helping to clean up the atmosphere.”

  “Diverting food waste from landfill is a critical step towards achieving more efficient and sustainable food systems,” said Peter Lehner, Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “With 40 percent of food in the U.S. going uneaten, it’s also important to start reducing the waste in the first place, which the measurement part of the Challenge helps restaurants to achieve. We congratulate the Mayor and the participating restaurants for taking the initiative in reducing and recycling food waste in NYC.”

    “We are committed to supporting Food Waste Challenge participants in their efforts to divert organic waste from landfills,” said Ron Bergamini, CEO of Action Environmental Group, parent company of New York City’s largest recycler of commercial waste. “Providing transparent and high quality waste collection solutions will make New York City a sustainable waste champion and a model for the country.”

            “We applaud the Mayor’s office for launching the Food Waste Challenge,” said Lily Kelly, Interim Director of Global Green USA’s Coalition for Resource Recovery. “When more businesses recover their food waste it benefits all New Yorkers by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and encouraging investment in local processing infrastructure. We are delighted to be working with the Mayor's office to support this program.”

   “The City’s initiative to increase composting in the restaurants and cafeterias is an extremely important component of increasing recycling rates in New York City,” said Helena Durst of The Durst Organization. “We have been composting our organic matter in nine of our commercial buildings and increased our landfill diversion rate to over 80 percent of the waste we produce.  Introducing a composting stream to our restaurant tenants and the corporate cafeterias in our portfolio has been instrumental in our high landfill diversion rate.”

  Participants in the Food Waste Challenge will conduct a waste audit to determine how much waste they generate. The restaurants will use this baseline to track their progress in diverting 50 percent of food waste from landfill.  The City will work with participants to share best practices and develop a toolkit of resources to help all participating restaurants meet their targets efficiently. The toolkit will address topics including staff training, how to measure waste, and composting. Food Waste Challenge participants will also have access to local experts and organizations that will provide assistance in meeting the diversion targets.

            The Food Waste Challenge builds on other public-private partnerships the City has launched to generate sustainable practices and help meet the PlaNYC goals to decrease waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. Last week, Mayor Bloomberg announced that 10 global corporations had joined the Carbon Challenge, pledging to reduce up to 40 percent of their greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years. City colleges, universities and hospitals have also pledged to participate in the Carbon Challenge. According the Carbon Challenge Progress Report, universities have measured an overall reduction of nearly 13 percent, and the hospitals have measured an average reduction of 6 percent of emissions in the last three years. Since the launch of PlaNYC in 2007, citywide emissions have fallen by 17 percent – more than halfway to reduction target of 30 percent by 2017.

            The mayor also announced the Gardens for Healthy Communities initiative, which will convert 9 acres of vacant City land into up to 20 new community garden sites across the five boroughs. The initiative is a part of the Mayor’s Obesity Task Force Plan and is an expansion of the Parks Department’s GreenThumb program. Non-profit and community groups will be encouraged to apply, and projects will be evaluated for their ability to promote fresh food access and awareness as well as sustainability initiatives such as rainwater harvesting and neighborhood composting activities.  The initiative advances PlaNYC goals to promote urban agriculture and create new opportunities to transform underutilized land, including by identifying vacant city-owned sites suitable for urban agriculture and increasing the number of community garden volunteers.

Sustaible South Bronx and Action team up for post Sandy cleanup

The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is unfortunately still an issue for many New Yorkers and many New York businesses. Even though we consider ourselves lucky our largest facility on 132^nd St in the Bronx was hit by Sandy. Our transfer station is located right on the East River so the building was flooded by water and debris. We were able to get our transfer station up and running almost immediately but there was still a major clean up needed.

We contacted the Sustainable South Bronx, an organization that began out of a desire to advocate for parks and green development in the South Bronx and to promote environmental justice within the neighborhood, to help us restore the East River coast line at 132^nd St.

“SSBx’s work has evolved over the past decade and now reflects the belief that the environmental challenges facing the South Bronx cannot be separated from the neighborhood’s economic and social concerns. The South Bronx is part of New York’s 16th Congressional District, the poorest urban congressional district in the nation. Forty-seven percent of South Bronx residents live at or below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 27 percent and many individuals work in the informal sector. Only thirty percent of the neighborhood’s adults have a high school diploma.

Today, the mission of SSBx is to address economic and environmental issues in the South Bronx – and throughout New York City – through a combination of green job training, community greening programs, and social enterprise. Over the last ten years, SSBx has broadened its focus by linking environmental restoration to the economic needs of low-income New Yorkers who are seeking a fresh start.”

Six individuals who are alumni of the B.E.S.T Academy (The Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training), a program dedicated to preparing low-income New York City residents for jobs in the growing green collar sector came to our facilities for the cleanup. For a total of seven days they cleaned the shore line removing debris from newspaper to wreckage.

We are not only proud to work with the Sustainable South Bronx but delighted by what a wonderful job they have done. We thank the organization in general and those individuals who came for the clean-up.

Manhattan Chamber of Commerce 2012's Awards Breakfast

My day started out like most New York commuters, waiting in line to go over the George Washington Bridge, sipping my morning coffee in bumper to bumper traffic. As I made my way down the West Side Highway the sun started to come out and the feeling of spring dawned upon me. The cold and bitter winter is almost over! I couldn’t help but think of how alive New York becomes in the spring. The energy of the New Yorker is revitalized; ready to create from the inspiration conjured up during the winter.  Despite being in traffic, it was a great day to be in New York.

Walking down 14^th street, I was delighted to find the Con Edison building where the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Award Breakfast was being held very easily. As I rode in the elevator up to the ceremony, I listened to the conversations around me. A young woman wearing imprinted lace tights and rocking this amazing shabby coat was talking to another well dressed man, both so intimidatingly fashionable that I started to doubt my outfit of the day. To their right was another engaged couple discussing another Manhattan Chamber of Commerce event that they had met at previously. Later, I found out that the fashionable couple was Katia Beauchamp co-founder of BirchBox and her husband. The other couple was a presenter and Manhattan Chamber of Commerce’s New York of the Year Danny Meyer. You can imagine my excitement during the ceremony as I pieced together who I rode the elevator with.

As I walked into the room filled with people networking, I search for my table observing the beautiful décor and pastries. After finding my table, I sat down next to one of the friendliest people I meet that morning Marcus and his co-worker Andrew. We chatted as I waiting for Action’s CEO Ron Bergamini to arrive. (Ron and I are both from New Jersey and commute to either Newark or the Bronx everyday so I think rush hour in Manhattan was something neither of us are quite used to.)

The award ceremony was wonderful. It was informative as well as entertaining. Some of the winners included Jane Rosenthal, a famous Hollywood producer from New York who co-founded Tribeca Film Festival with Robert De Niro after September 11^th to get people back downtown to restore the New York spirit that we all love.  And before I stray from the subject of traffic, Sam Schwartz of Sam Schwartz Engineering was presented with the Mid- Sized Business of the Year Award for his company’s effort in transportation planning and engineering. And remember Marcus who was so friendly? He won the award for Restaurant of the Year- Red Rooster!

Then came Action’s big moment of the morning, Ron Beragmini was presented with the Green Business of the Year Award. Ron accepted the award and explained why a garbage company was receiving a Green award. Action’s innovative project of building an Optical Sorter that will use optic lens to identify different grades of paper by their composition will make recycling more efficient for New York. The goal is landfill less and recycle more. I am so proud to be a part of Action, not only for the recognition Ron and the company received today but rather because Action is trying to make a change taking one step at a time. Changing our ways in the consumerist society we grew up in and live in is hard! Action’s practical method of getting New York to recycle makes it easy for the customers. I am so happy that Ron and Action were recognized.

 

The final award New Yorker of the Year went to Danny Meyer he created Shake Shack! One of my personal favorites since my freshman year of college. I remember having to travel all the way from downtown to the Upper West Side to get one of their delicious burgers. Now they have international locations and a new location about to open in CitiFeild (one of our customers!).

 

Every event that I have been to for the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce has always gone above my expectations and today was no different. Not only am I inspired by the great leaders that were present but honored to have been able to be there today.

 

-Jenna DiBella

Marketing Analyst

Action Environmental Group