Talking Trash Tuesday, Sept. 21: Bottle Bill

Beacon Hill: Are you listening?

During the DEP Hearing, many of the speakers protested the failure of Beacon Hill to pass an expanded bottle bill.

It seems that lobbyists for the beverage industry have kept the bill bottled up in committee [pardon the pun].

Not one person in the room opposed an expansion of the bottle deposit and quite the contrary, protested the waste and rubbish caused by the failure of Beacon Hill to do what's right for consumers and taxpayers.

If we can't get this sensible legislation passed, maybe it's time for new leadership that stops genuflecting before lobbyists.

Talking Trash Tuesday, Sept. 21

The DEP Hearing was awesome!

I'll post additional information as time allows, but would note that listening to such informed and knowledgeable residents of this wonderful area was inspiring.

Not only did they understand the issues, they knew about the loopholes that require correction.

Just as we witnessed the "Casino Vultures" circling Beacon Hill, so too are the "Trash Vultures." [Hint: you can tell them by the suits they wear.]

Below is inspiring testimony offered at the hearing:

My name is marty driggs. I'm a Community Mobilization Leader with the New Bedford POWER project - People Organizing for Wealth and Ecological Restoration. We are local New Bedford residents who are dedicated to helping our fellow community members restore the equity, economy, and ecology of our area and our Nation.

Let me start by saying, combustion of any kind is a foolish band-aid of a non-solution. We have no way to capture the carbon dioxide that will inevitably be dumped into our common atmosphere. What about greenhouse gases?! We are in a state of climate emergency! Carbon dioxide levels are higher than they've been in the past 900,000 years! Leading NASA scientist, James Hansen told us in a peer-reviewed journal in January 2008 that [in order to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted we must maintain atmospheric carbon dioxide below 350 ppm.] We are currently at 392 ppm. So clearly, any proposed solution that includes combustion is not only a false solution, but a big problem.

Further, the introduction of plasma gassification into the mix of proposed solutions for our waste problems provides a cracked door for Dirty old King Coal to insert his dirty foot. Plasma gassification of trash is just one step away from coal plasma gassification, bringing with it the dirty Death Cycle of coal; mountaintop removal coal mining and other forms of strip mining which are sacrificing communities and ecosystems across Southern Appalachia and many areas of the global South.

Now, if I may expand our level of perception just a bit: As a world, as a species, we've found ourselves in quite a sticky situation. Our habits, and most significantly, our economic model, has systematically destabilized and dismantled the very life support systems of our planet which allow us to live here in the first place.

I would like to offer my vision, or rather my prediction for the future: If, in 10 years, there is even a global economy to speak of, we will have eliminated the very idea of waste. Like Julia Butterfly Hill says, "There is no away." Further, the concept of "waste" is purely a human construct. In Nature, there is no such thing as waste. "Waste" is simply a resource out of place (and I'm not talking about a resource for combustion).

If we are going to rely on market forces, that is, if capitalism has any hope of evolving from a life-destroying construct to one which honors and enriches our lives, then we have to talk about extending producer responsibilities. The DEP master plan makes mention of "extended producer responsibilities" but lacks any teeth and is clearly not a priority. If we are going to have the kind of systemic change we need in order to avoid GLOBAL SUICIDE, we must make this a legislative priority. We must internalize the true cost of products (including recycling). We have to create market incentives to eliminate the production of toxins and make products more easily recyclable.

Massachusetts has the opportunity to lead the way in this effort, and we should cooperate with other states to codify the law to create cradle-to-cradle production and UPcycling streams. We have the opportunity to transform this economy from one dependent upon ever increasing amounts of energy, dependent upon high consumption and throughput, and implicitly, high waste, to one which is life-honoring and sustainable. Finally, we have the timely opportunity to create good, green jobs for the people of the commonwealth.

In conclusion, we need a more holistic perspective if we're going to solve this problem. We must address the root causes of our global conundrum. As Einstein put it, "the solution will not be created by the same frame of mind which created the problem in the first place."

To bring it back to tangible demands. We need stronger legislative provisions, with sharper teeth, and less loopholes, which serve the people and NOT the corporate interests and their predatory agendas. We must create an economy that is not only waste-free, but free of the very idea of "waste."

The Brothers Koch

Big Dirty Oil and Wealthy Folks like the Koch Brothers continue to dictate sensible policies and responsible legislation that benefits consumers and the environment.

It has been widely acknowledged by many scientists that we have delayed too long addressing attempts to reduce our carbon production and the best we can expect is to reduce or delay the worst effects.

Pity!

Editorial
The Brothers Koch and AB 32
Published: September 20, 2010

Four years ago, bipartisan majorities in the California Legislature approved a landmark clean energy bill that many hoped would serve as a template for a national effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil and mitigate the threat of climate change.

Now a well-financed coalition of right-wing ideologues, out-of-state oil and gas companies and climate-change skeptics is seeking to effectively kill that law with an initiative on the November state ballot. The money men include Charles and David Koch, the Kansas oil and gas billionaires who have played a prominent role in financing the Tea Party movement.

The 2006 law, known as AB 32, is aimed at reducing California’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent at midcentury. To reach these targets, state agencies are drawing up regulations that would affect businesses and consumers across the board — requiring even cleaner cars, more energy-efficient buildings and appliances, and power plants that use alternative energy sources like wind instead of older fossil fuels.

The prospect that these rules could reduce gasoline consumption strikes terror into some energy companies. A large chunk of the $8.2 million raised in support of the ballot proposition has come from just two Texas-based oil and gas companies, Valero and Tesoro, which have extensive operations in California. The Koch brothers have contributed about $1 million, partly because they worry about damage to the bottom line at Koch Industries, and also because they believe that climate change is a left-wing hoax.

They have argued that the law will lead to higher energy costs and job losses, arguments that resonate with many voters in a state with a 12.4 percent unemployment rate. But this overlooks the enormous increase in investments in clean energy technologies — and the jobs associated with them — since the law was passed.

It's curious to note that states with legalized SLOTS seem to have unemployment higher than Massachusetts and deficits that are larger than Massachusetts, something that appears to be more than coincidence.

Overturning AB 32 would be another setback in the effort to fight climate change. The United States Senate has already scuttled President Obama’s goal of putting a price on carbon. The Environmental Protection Agency, while important, can only do so much. This leaves state and regional efforts as crucially important drivers — and if California pulls back, other states like New York that are trying to reduce emissions may do so as well.

The Kochs and their allies are disastrously wrong about the science, which shows that man-made emissions are largely responsible for global warming, and wrong about the economics. AB 32’s many friends — led by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California — have therefore mounted a spirited counterattack in defense of the law.

Another respected Republican, George Shultz — a cabinet member in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations — has signed on as a co-chairman of this effort. Mr. Shultz credits AB 32 for an unprecedented “outburst” of technological creativity and investment.

Who wins if this law is repudiated? The Koch brothers, maybe, but the biggest winners will be the Chinese, who are already moving briskly ahead in the clean technology race. And the losers? The people of California, surely. But the biggest loser will be the planet.

Great book!

Sometimes we forget to share great ideas and great books with others. At a time when politics has become inflammatory and sometimes downright silly, Alan presents great ideas about making things better and making government work across the aisle. Sorely needed at this time!

From Alan Khazei --


I apologize in advance for this mass email, but I wanted to thank you for your incredible support of my book launch. Thanks to so many of you, my book, Big Citizenship has made the "Boston Globe Best Sellers List"! I was skimming through the IDEAS section of the Globe yesterday and couldn't believe it when I saw Big Citizenship listed. After spending so much time on the book, it is still a little surreal for me to walk into bookstores and see it and realize that people are buying it and reading it.

I also want to thank everyone who has helped to make the launch of the book in just the past three weeks get off to such a great start. Here are just a few of the highlights.

*Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Barry Stein graciously hosted my very first book event on Martha's Vineyard with help from Phyllis Segal and others. PlumTV video'd the party and Bunch of Grapes sold the books.

*Brookline Booksmith hosted a book event and had C-Span there filming.

*Arianna Huffington and I did a joint book event at Suffolk Law School.

*City Year hosted an event with Boston's non-profit leaders that was a huge success.

*David and Katherine Bradley and Steve and Jean Case hosted a terrific book event in DC. They even had an orange drink called, "The Big Citizen".

*John Podesta at the Center for American Progress hosted a lunch discussion with me to talk about Big Citizenship. Click here to see the video of the discussion.

*This upcoming week I will be at Brandeis, with Kennedy School Alumni and then the Big Citizenship book tour heads to NYC and the West Coast for a series of events.

Check out the website at www.bigcitizenship.us to find out more about future events and press the book has gotten.

Again, thank you so much for all of your support. I am deeply grateful.

Warmly,


Alan



P.S. Don't forget you can tell someone they are a Big Citizen by sending them an e-card. Go to http://www.bigcitizenship.us/ to send.
It is wonderful to see the stories of so many terrific people who are making a difference.

Now you've done it, Charlie!

The rest of the world is marching ahead and making provisions for Peak Oil, alternative energy, and doing all those things that Cape Wind heralds.

Not so the U.S.!

Wealthy Dirty Energy Folks have funded campaigns, spread misinformation and opposed change.


Koch, among others, has opposed Cape Wind.

The articles below provide interesting insight:

How billionaires bagged the tea party

The Brothers Koch: Rich, Political And Playing To Win

Covert Operations
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.

Of Nuclear:

Alexander criticized Democrats' for proposing billions of dollars in subsidies for renewable energy -- but he failed to note that nuclear power is already

the most heavily subsidized industry in the energy sector.

In 2005, Congress handed the

nuclear power industry $13 billion in federal aid,

and two years later went on to approve

an additional $20.5 billion in loan guarantees,

making U.S. taxpayers the cosigners on loans for new nuclear projects --

half of which are expected to end in defaults.

Taxpayers and ratepayers have also forked over

$11 billion for the Yucca Mountain high-level waste disposal dump,

which the Obama administration recently scrapped over concerns about long-term safety.

And:

In October 2007, Moody’s Investor Services piled on with a report projecting that new reactors would cost $5,000 to $6,000 per kilowatt to build, or up to $12 billion per unit.

...Moody’s, ... now predicts

new nuclear power plants will cost $7,500 per kilowatt to build.

That’s more than double the capital costs for solar power and three and a half times the cost for wind.

So, in other words, Charlie Baker is just another Reactionary Republican who supports Big Dirty Business. Screw the taxpayers and ratepayers. Pity!

Baker blasts Cape Wind, pushes pension reform

By George Brennan
gbrennan@capecodonline.com
September 18, 2010

HYANNIS — Gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker said yesterday he would do everything in his power to block Cape Wind if he is elected.

In a meeting with the Times editorial board, the Swampscott Republican became animated talking about the cost of the wind turbine project planned for Nantucket Sound.

Related Links
More Times coverage of the proposed Cape wind farmSee more political coverageCape Wind is "unaffordable, inappropriate and the wrong way to go," Baker said. "I don't think the project is a good idea, and I will use whatever means I have to continue my opposition to it."

Gov. Deval Patrick has been a strong supporter of Cape Wind.

A proposal by National Grid to purchase some of the electricity generated by the wind power project is before the state Department of Public Utilities. Under the deal, Cape Wind would sell half the power from the 130-turbine project to National Grid for 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour in the first year of the 15-year contract, with a 3.5-percent annual escalation rate.

When spread over all of the utility's customers, the additional cost for the average residential customer in the first year would be about $1.50 per month, according to National Grid's calculations. The DPU could make a decision on the deal sometime in November.

"If the Patrick administration had spent half the time on Hydro Quebec and working with the other New England governors as he did on Cape Wind, we'd be in a better place," Baker said.

A spokesman for Cape Wind called Baker's comments "irresponsible."

"Charlie Baker's stated preference is to buy far away wind power that creates no jobs here, that doesn't stimulate the local economy, and that to fully build out would require billions of dollars of electric transmission, which doesn't make it cheaper," Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said.

Baker also criticized the cost to dismantle the wind turbines if the project went defunct. He referenced the hulking, rusting obsolete structures in Mel Gibson's "Mad Max" movies as an image he could envision in the Sound.

The Boston Herald has reported that it would cost $66 million to dismantle the turbines.

Did the same article balk that Entergy lacks adequate funds for decommissioning?

Cape Wind will set aside money for decommissioning, Rodgers said. "For years, project opponents have irresponsibly complained that there is no decommissioning plan," he said. "Cape Wind will be required to pay the money."

After the official Times editorial board meeting with Baker ended, he again brought the discussion back to Cape Wind, saying he's not sure the DPU will finish its review of the project before the election in November.

But even if it does, there are enough lawsuits in place to give him a chance to block the project, he said.

At one point, Baker pointed his finger like a gun at his temple in response to a question about green energy and whether that's where new job growth can come from in the Bay State.

Instead, he said, Cape Wind will only serve to further hurt small business owners who will see their electric rates rise. "Let's do what we can to help the small businesses that are here to see if we can help them expand," he said.

In his hour-plus interview with the editorial board, Baker also touched on the need for state pension reform. The former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO said he would require state employees with less than 10 years service to cover the cost of their retirements, cap pensions at $90,000 and stop the practice of state employees moving from one union to another to beef up their pension checks.

"People feel like there are two sets of rules, one for regular people and one for people on Beacon Hill or in government," Baker said.

He also pledged support for Republican Jeffrey Perry in the 10th Congressional District race, despite illegal strip searches conducted by an officer under Perry's command when he was a Wareham police sergeant.

"I support the ticket," he said. "The voters here in this district are going to make the call on who the next congressman will be."

Other issues touched on during the hour-plus session included taxes, ways to improve the state's health care system by giving individuals more options, making the costs of health care more transparent to patients, and reforming the distribution of state education aid.

"I've taken a no new taxes pledge, and I mean it," he said.

As a nation, who are we?

Articles such as the one below make one wonder what we are willing to tolerate as a nation.

Global Horizons Indicted for Human Trafficking

Largest Case in US History
by Pratap Chatterjee
September 15th, 2010

In what federal officials described as the largest human-trafficking case ever brought by the government, Mordechai Orian, president and chief operating officer of Global Horizons, was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for "engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor and document servitude."

The alleged victims of the Los Angeles-based labor recruiter are some 400 Thai citizens who were brought to work on farms in the U.S. between May 2004 through September 2005. They were hired under H-2A visas which allow farm workers into the country for seasonal work.



In late 2006, after CorpWatch published an article and a cartoon about the recruitment and abuse of Thai farm workers, Orian sued the non-profit. Orian stated that our reporter, Kari Lydersen was "part of (a) campaign against the H-2A program and [was trying] to protect illegal immigrant and the legal groups who stand to profit from the representation of illegal aliens." CorpWatch refused to retract the article or the cartoon but the two parties came to an out-of-court settlement in April 2007 to correct a few disputed facts in the story. No money was paid by either side.

Orian, himself an immigrant from Israel, was formally charged on September 1st along with five others -- Pranee Tubchumpol, Shane Germann and Sam Wongsesanit of Global Horizons Manpower Inc. as well as Thai labor recruiters Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai. Federal agents raided Orian's Malibu home at dawn the next day only to discover that he was in Texas.

On September 2nd, Orian "deceived and evaded federal FBI agents for approximately 24 hours by providing sporadic, misleading, and conflicting information concerning his location, willingness to surrender in Dallas, and failing to report," government lawyers stated in documents filed with the federal court. They further charged that Orian "flew to Hawaii on another flight to avoid contact with federal agents at the airport."

Today Orian is sitting in a Honolulu jail awaiting Judge Leslie Kobayashi's decision on a government request to deny Orian's release on $1 million bail secured on his exclusive West Moonshadows Drive home in Malibu. Susan Cushman, assistant U.S. Attorney for Hawaii, has filed documents stating that Orian is a flight risk, noting that he had used 26 different aliases and four different Social Security numbers in the past. "The Pretrial Services' report found the defendant posed a risk of danger to the community because of the nature of the offense and similar allegations in Israel and Canada," wrote Cushman.

Multiple Court Cases

Cushman's request to keep Orian locked up until trial also described numerous violations of the law, according to a filing delivered to the Honolulu court on September 9.

The documents show that in 2000, Orian attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico even though his visa had been revoked "based on false representations the Defendant made about his employment in Israel and the United States."

Cushman provided the court with a copy of a 2003 report, "Migrant Workers in Israel -- A Contemporary Form of Slavery," published the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and the International Federation for Human Rights. It states that Orian took $3,000 from each of 19 Chinese workers for the "privilege" of working in Israel for two years.

"By the end of February Mr. Orian owed each of the workers between 2-3 months wages," the report concluded. "Instead of paying the workers, he sent ten armed guards to surprise the workers in their sleep, beat them and drive them to the airport, where they were forcibly deported."

In another document filed by Cushman, U.S. Department of Labor Judge William Dorsey concluded on November 30, 2006, that Global Horizons Manpower, Inc. had "willfully and fraudulently represented it had contracts with Taft Farms" [in Bakersfield, California] to obtain visas for more than 200 workers between August 1, 2003 and April 30, 2004 under the H-2A program. The non-immigrant visas, granted to more than 50,000 temporary farm laborers in 2007, are a mainstay -- along with undocumented labor -- of the U.S. agricultural system.

Dorsey found that the company had neither a contract nor jobs for the 200 workers. Unable to find them paid employment, Global Horizons fired the workers "for poor performance, when in fact, they were terminated for lack of work," Dorsey wrote in his final decision. He ordered that Orian be barred for three years from bringing guest workers into the U.S.

On September 7, 2007, Philipda Modrakee, a U.S. Department of Labor investigator, filed a report on 156 Global Horizons workers employed at the Maui Pineapple Farm in Hawaii. Modrakee estimated that Global Horizons owed $459,256 in fines for failure to pay wages at the minimum rate and on time, for illegally deducting money from the workers' pay checks for housing, and for failing to provide them with transportation to their work sites.

Immigration attorney Melissa Vincenty of Honolulu, who is representing 80 clients with claims against Global Horizon, told the Maui News last week that the company had confiscated the workers' passports and visas. "It is called document servitude," Vincenty told the newspaper, noting that passports are required for travel between the islands that make up the state of Hawaii.

Orian bought a twin-engine aircraft for inter-island transport of the Thai workers, thereby avoiding the necessity of presenting identification/passport to government officials, according to the documents filed before the court. Cushman noted that the airplane was recently seized as evidence.

Orian has drawn legal scrutiny in other states and nations. On July 2, 2008, Judge James Hutton in the Eastern District Court, ordered Orian to appear before his court in Spokane, Washington to explain why Global Horizons had failed to pay multiple court fines running into thousands of dollars. At the hearing Orian testified that the company was insolvent, although the court found that seven employees, including Orian, were still being paid salaries.

On July 29, 2009, immigration judge Christine Bither ordered Orian, who is an Israeli citizen, deported from the U.S. for falsely claiming five times to be a U.S. citizen when signing documents to hire farm workers under the H-2A visa program. Finally, Cushman provided the court with a March 26, 2010 ruling by Judge John Madden IV in Denver, Colorado, ordering Global Horizons to pay a Nepali man named Rajan Gurung $108,257 to settle a dispute over the hiring of 24 workers from Nepal. In 2008, Gurung said he paid Global Horizons Canada $72,000 to arrange work visas for the 24 people in Canada, but that the company was unable to produce any evidence that it had actually applied for the visas.


Instead, Orian appeared before the court and claimed that he had not applied for the visas because all the workers had the same last name, Gurung, which indicated a potential violation of Canadian immigration law that does not allow family members to be employed in temporary jobs. (Gurung is one of the most common family names in Nepal.) Madden found Orian's claim to be without merit and ordered him to repay Gurung with interest as well as pay his court costs.

Responding to the Government

It was against this history of questionable dealings that Orian's attorney Mark Werksman, asked for his client to be released on bail. Werksman's September 10 filing presented a series of arguments and documents to prove that his client was not a flight risk.

For example, Werksman says that the 2009 deportation order was being appealed and that his client, "a busy business owner" had inadvertently checked boxes claiming to be a citizen. Werksman also noted that since Orian was "vigorously" contesting the deportation order, he was not a flight risk. Rather, he had a "desperate yearning to remain in the United States."

The 26 alleged aliases (such as O'Ryan and Moty) were "insignificant misspellings or typographical errors," Werksman said,

"The government appears to be asking the court to detain Mr. Orian because it thinks he is a bad employer and a chronic lawbreaker and deserves to be punished," wrote Werksman. "There is no evidence of this outside of the government's cherry-picked examples of adverse administrative rulings." And the government's immigration and labor bureaucracies are bound to have "disagreements, legal snafus and paperwork hassles."

Orian never intended to deceive the FBI, but simply took a lower-priced flight to Hawaii Werksman says. "What Mr. Orian did not know, is that the FBI intended to make a high-profile arrest at the airport," he charges in the court documents.

This claim is backed up by Kara Lujan, a public relations executive who represents musicians including soul artist Kelly Price and the rhythm & blues band "Heads of State" who told CorpWatch that she negotiated Orian's "surrender with the FBI agent Tom Simon."

"He is not a flight risk, he is not a danger to society," Lujan told Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. "He pleaded not guilty on Friday, denying the charges. He never threatened Thai workers, never took their passports, and there is no evidence of that."


Werksman also submitted documents from Orian's friends. Lisa Machenberg, who lists herself as a certified hypotherapist, says that her son went to the same pre-school as Orian's son Dillon, and that she believes that Orian is a "fair and good man."

Thai Workers Stand Up

But while Cushman and Werksman were filing competing documents in Honolulu, some of Orian's former employees were playing out a parallel drama in Los Angeles.

There, on September 8, in front of the Wat Thai Buddhist temple some 25 Thai farm workers lined up wearing sunglasses, baseball caps, and traditional Thai scarves to disguise themselves for fear of retaliation, they said. One-by-one they told media assembled at a press conference organized by the Thai Community Development Center about their treatment at the hands of Global Horizons.

One 42-year-old man told reporters that recruiters promised him a fulltime job for $1,000 a month -- ten times more than he made as a rice farmer. The recruiters told that him that Global Horizons could find him work picking apples in Washington and pineapples in Hawaii. Lee, a pseudonym, arrived in Seattle on July 4, 2004 to discover that he would have to pay $18,000 to the recruiters.

"I thought I would find freedom and jobs here," Lee said at the news conference. "I thought the United States was a civilized nation, the highest in the world. I never imagined this kind of thing could happen here."

Like the Thai workers that CorpWatch reported on in our 2006 article who were housed in trailers and crowded motel rooms, Lee says he was housed in a wooden shack. Lee says he was also threatened with violence and deportation if he tried to escape or to speak to any outsiders. In September 2005, Lee says he escaped one night by running through pineapple fields.

Lee's story was confirmed by Chanchanit Martorell, Executive Director of the Thai Community Development Center. Martorell and her staff say they have interviewed more than 200 farmworkers and filed civil charges against Global Horizons. She noted that some of the farm workers were so badly treated that they had to survive on eating leaves from plants or fish they caught in a nearby river.

Damrong Kraikruan, the consul general of Thailand in Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles Times newspaper that Thailand had revoked Global Horizons' license to work there in 2005, and convicted one of the firm's Thai associates of operating a job procurement business without a license.

Jorge Guzman, of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also appeared at the Thai Community Development Center news conference to praise the organization for raising awareness about the problem. "Awareness is crucial to making this shameful practice a thing of the past," Guzman said, urging the public to report any suspicions about human trafficking.
The FBI says it is taking the Global Horizons case very seriously. "In the old days, they used to keep slaves in their place with whips and chains," FBI Special Agent Tom Simon told the Beverly Hills Courier. "Today, it is done with economic threats and intimidation."

* This article was produced in partnership with Inter Press Service News Agency. Pratap Chatterjee may be reached at “pchatterjee@igc.org.”

Talking Trash Tuesday, Sept. 21

The cost of trash is hidden in municipal budgets with few options available in yet another lobbying scheme to the detriment of taxpayers. Please attend if you can and support this important endeavor.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is holding one more public hearing on their proposed Solid Waste Master Plan. [1]

It's no coincidence that we are still sending more than half our waste to landfills and incinerators. The Big Waste industry lobbyists are trying hard to uphold the status quo: burning and burying more than half the waste we generate in Massachusetts every year.

But now we have the opportunity to call for our state to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Next Tuesday, Sept. 21, DEP is holding a public hearing in Lakeville, for the sole purpose of letting the public speak about the 10-year Master Plan -- the blueprint for dealing with waste in Massachusetts.

Please come to DEP's public hearing in Lakeville and tell them you want the Master Plan to prioritize reduce/reuse/recycle, with a goal of zero waste.

As you may know, every year in Massachusetts, millions of tons of garbage are burned in incinerators or buried in landfills -- polluting our air and water, and wasting resources. We can do so much better.

The DEP has released the draft plan for 2010-2020. We know that the DEP needs to get much more ambitious about reduce/reuse/recycle, and now is our opportunity to raise our voices above the powerful special interests standing in the way.

Click below to find out more details about the hearing and RSVP if you can attend.

http://www.masspirg.org/action/sept-master-plan-hearings3?id4=es


Sincerely,

Janet S. Domenitz
MASSPIRG Executive Director
action@masspirg.org
http://www.MASSPIRG.org

P.S. Thanks for your support. Please feel free to share this e-mail with your friends and family.

[1] You can read a draft of DEP's Solid Waste Master Plan here.