This Week in Waste: Top Stories October 10 - 14

1. Landfill Heavy Equipment Operator Terminated for Chronic Pain Sues Idaho County

Barry Shanoff

Between the years of 2012 and 2017, a man named William Hartman was employed as a heavy equipment operator by the Pickles Butte Landfill in Idaho. At the end of his five years working there, Hartman was terminated after a hearing concerning his use of narcotics to treat chronic pain. In 2018, Hartman began the legal process of suing the landfill alleging (a) disability-based discrimination in violation of the Idaho Human Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") and (b) unlawful retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (“Title VII”).

Read more here.

2. Developing an Emissions Inventory Can Help Companies Tackle Scope 3 Targets

Anne Germain

Earlier this year Larry Fink, Chairman, and CEO of BlackRock proposed rules that would require publicly traded companies to disclose Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The rules also involved the disclosure of scope 3 GHG emissions if targets or materials have been established for such. Being CEO of the largest money-management fund in the world, Fink's opinions matter to publicly traded companies.

Read the full story here.

3. Episode 168: Multifamily Recycling: Ordinances, Pilot Projects, Challenges and Opportunities

Liz Bothwell

In this episode of the NothingWasted! podcast the topic is multifamily recycling. You'll hear a popular WasteExpo session where panelists discuss the possibilities and challenges of multifamily recycling. Panelists come from all over to discuss their experiences working in this sector of the field.

Listen here.

4. Study: Pyrolysis Could Fill The Gaps of Our Recycling System

Jonathan Pierron

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste is a nonprofit multi-organizational group consisting of and founded by several large companies such as Chevron Phillips Chemical, ExxonMobil, and Dow Chemical. The Alliance, as it is referred to, recently released a study in coordination with research by Eunomia Research & Consulting about the use of pyrolysis, or chemical recycling. The study dives into the specific requirements necessary to make this method of recycling a beneficial addition to our current recycling systems.

Read more here.

5. Fellowship Program Aims to Boost Capacity to Tackle Food Waste

Arlene Karidis

The Environmental Defense Fund and ReFed have put together their resources to establish a fellowship program for corporations in the food industry and professionals working in "green" professions. The fellowship program matches these graduate students with companies to help them develop strategies to eliminate food waste. The program has trained 11 fellows through their 10- to 12- week-long projects with different food corporations.

Read the story here.