May 25,2001 Issue

The Waste Age Wire is an e-mail newsletter from the Waste Age magazine staff, designed to provide you with a quick view of news, events and upcoming magazine topics. For in-depth news coverage, visit WasteAge.Com.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Opinion Poll

News:

-House Votes to Exempt Small Businesses from Cleanup Liabilities

-New Treaty Bans Twelve Toxic Chemicals

-Hewlett-Packard Expands Recycling Initiatives

-Residents Worry About Contaminated Land

-GM to Install Fuel-Efficient Engines

NewsBriefs: Acquisitions, Alliances, Awards, etc.

Events

Highlights from Waste Age’s June issue

OPINION POLL:

Will your 2001 capital expenditures be more or less than in 2000? a) more; b) less; c) the same

E-mail your comments to [email protected].

OPINION POLL RESULTS:

In our last opinion poll, we asked if the downturn in the economy has affected your business:

16 percent, slightly; 8 percent, moderately; 38 percent, significantly; 38 percent, not at all

Additional opinion poll comments included:

"I have not seen any effect of the ‘sluggish economy’ in my work discipline (waste-to-energy), as there seems to be a never ending supply of useless items and discards from a society hooked on conspicuous consumption."

— Paul Hauck, Kisinger Campo and Associates, Tampa, Fla.

NEWS:

House Votes to Exempt Small Businesses from Cleanup Liabilities

Washington, D.C. — The House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that exempts small businesses from paying for toxic cleanup operations required by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA), Washington, D.C., Superfund program. The bill, passed 419 to 0, states that companies with fewer than 100 employees, and companies that dump less than 110 gallons of nonhazardous liquid waste or less than 200 pounds of nonhazardous waste are not subject to cleanup lawsuits or responsible for cleanup costs.

New Treaty Bans Twelve Toxic Chemicals

Stockholm, Sweden — A new United Nations treaty bans or minimizes the use of the "dirty dozen," a group of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) known to cause cancer and birth defects in humans and animals. Among the 12 toxic chemicals to be banned are industrial waste products such as dioxins and furans. The treaty was to be signed Wednesday and must be ratified by 50 governments before enactment.

Hewlett-Packard Expands Recycling Initiatives

Palo Alto, Calif. — Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif., expanded its recycling program Monday to include a fee-based service that allows customers to recycle unwanted computers and related products, regardless of the manufacturer. HP will pick up electronics from individual customers who sign up on their website and will charge $13 to $34 for each item recycled. The program will accept equipment such as PCs, printers, monitors, scanners and routers. According to the company, fees charged to customers are used to pay for the recycling program. The company has been offering a similar service to businesses since 1997.

Residents Worry About Contaminated Land

Miami — Residents in the Broward neighborhood worry that they may be exposed to dioxin, a toxic chemical that can cause cancer and skin disease, and can harm the immune system. For 24 years, hundreds of tons of garbage were burned and buried daily by an incinerator in the neighborhood. The site, now a federal cleanup site after dangerous levels of dioxin were found and neighbors cited high rates of cancer, recently has measured elevated levels of the substance in the soil. Initially, these levels appeared to be low, but the state wants to look further into it. If the Department of Environmental Protection (EPA), Washington, D.C., finds that the soil is hazardous, it may have to be dug up and disposed.

GM to Install Fuel-Efficient Engines

Detroit — General Motors Corp., in an effort to increase gas mileage by an average of 2 miles per gallon, soon will use new "displacement on demand" technology on many of its large trucks and sport utility vehicles. Vortec V8 engines will be installed with the new technology beginning in the 2004 calendar year, spokesman David Roman said Monday. Using computer sensors, the technology automatically shuts off 4 of the 8 cylinders during normal driving conditions. All 8 cylinders are reactivated during acceleration. GM hopes to install about 1.5 million of the fuel-efficient engines by 2007.

NEWSBRIEFS: Acquisitions, Alliances, Awards, etc.

Acquisitions:

-Nortrax Equipment Co. South, a Baton Rouge, La.-based joint venture between John Deere Construction Equipment Co. and CSFB Private Equity, has acquired Furrow-Justice Machinery Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn., and East Texas Machinery Inc., Longview, Texas.

-Waste Industries Inc., Raleigh, N.C., has acquired some of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Allied Waste Industries Inc.’s commercial routes in Memphis, Tenn.; Nashville, Tenn.; Augusta, Ga., Pensacola, Fla.; and Norfolk, Va.

-Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions, San Diego, has purchased the assets of Eaton Corp.’s Trucking Information Services business unit, Cleveland, including Eaton’s FleetAdvisor transportation logistics management system.

Alliances:

-WoodFuel.com, Houston, has formed an alliance with IFCO Systems, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to establish a wood by-product management program.

-The Valvoline Co., Lexington, Ky., and Cummins Inc., Columbus, Ind., have renewed their sales and marketing alliance for an additional five years.

-SI Geosolutions, Chattanooga, Tenn., and ACF Environmental Inc., Richmond, Va., have formed an alliance to manufacture, market and distribute a line of construction site sediment discharge minimization products.

Awards:

-Newstech Recycling Partnership, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, has given its annual Supplier of the Year award to Crown Packaging’s Paper Recovery Division, British Columbia.

Call for Research

-The Chelsea Center for Recycling and Economic Development, Chelsea, Mass., is soliciting research focusing on the demand side of the recycling process. For more information, contact Jodie Siegel, director of technical programs. E-mail: [email protected].

EVENTS:

June 5-6, 2001

Sustaining the Environment, the Bay and You: The Maryland Recycler’s Coalition’s (MRC) Annual Conference, Training and Exposition Wye Mills, Md. Contact: Carrie Capuco, MRC, P.O. Box 1928, Annapolis, Md. 21404-1928. Phone: (410) 990-1181. Fax: (410) 990-0152. E-mail: [email protected].

June 18-20, 2001

SWANA 6th Annual Landfill Symposium San Diego. Contact Kent Drinker, program manager. Phone: (301) 585-2898 ext. 257. E-mail: [email protected].

June 11-13, 2001

Northeast Resource Recovery Association Recycling Conference &Exposition Hyannis, Mass. Contact: Kim Morrell. Phone: (603) 798-5777. E-mail: [email protected].

June 11-29, 2001

The Comprehensive Safety Professional Program Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. Contact: American Safety Training. Phone toll-free: (800) 896-8867. Fax: (888) 398-6245.

June 18-20, 2001

SWANA 6th Annual Landfill Symposium

San Diego. Contact: Kent Drinker, program manager. Phone: (301) 585-2898 ext. 257. Fax: (301) 589-7068.

June 18-22, 2001

Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pollution Prevention Conference: Continuing to

Move Toward a Pollution-Free DOE Albuquerque, N.M. Sponsored by the DOE, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Sandia National Laboratory and the Waste-management Education and Research Consortium. Contact: Alicia Hale. Phone: (505) 667-6711. E-mail: [email protected]. Website: http://p2.werc.net.

IN WASTE AGE’S JUNE ISSUE:

Features:

-Clicks and Mortar: Tips on building an e-commerce strategy.

-Leachate Flow Control: One landfill’s study of a bioreactor leachate collection and removal system.

-Ripping into It: The latest in shredder technology.

Business Trends:

-Congress May Get Tough on Busted-Small Firms

-Using Your Insurance to Close a Deal

-Have Your Ducks in a Row Before a Crisis

Business Briefs:

-New Japanese Recycling Law Takes Effect

-WMI and Sharps Create Safe Syringe Disposal Pilot

-Federal Brownfields Funding Focus Shifts

Columnists:

-Circular File: Recycling’s Mid-Life Crisis, by Chaz Miller

-Legal: Guilt Bars Federal Gelt, by Barry Shanoff

-Profiles in Garbage: Steel Cans, by Chaz Miller

Waste Age Product News:

-Uplifting Experiences: The latest in carts, arms and lifters.

-Keeping Tight: A sample of products to keep landfills from leaking and slopes from slipping.

-Product Specifications: Truck Chassis

-New Products: A look at new waste-industry products.