Dump ramp pamphlet says sisters are "thrilled" with trash discount

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According to a recent pamphlet (below) circulated locally by some of the so-called "RAMP" leaders, a discount deal was struck with "Countywide Recycling and Dispose" [sic], as was previously revealed in a Times-Reporter article, "Group earns refuse discount for some."

The pro-dump ramp pamphlet touted a "new positive relationship with Countywide," and urged residents to contact sisters Alice Banta or Nancy Parker for details about the cheaper trash hauling, but made no mention of the corporate affiliation of the "leader" who controlled the group's January 6, 2006 meeting, apparently designed to "bring a ramp off if I-77" [sic]. Read more

Solicitors are fake, landfill watchdog warns

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Akron Beacon Journal
Sat, Jan. 21, 2006

BOLIVAR: Club 3000 is not conducting a door-to-door campaign, and any residents of southern Stark or northern Tuscarawas counties who encounter aggressive solicitors are encouraged to contact local sheriff's departments, the group said.

The advisory was issued on Tuesday by the Bolivar-based grass-roots environmental group.

Complaints have been received of people posing as Club 3000 members and seeking signatures and money to fight a proposed highway ramp off Interstate 77 near Countywide Landfill in Stark County's Pike Township, said club president Tom O'Dell.

The club is not conducting any campaign, and the club does not condone or endorse such tactics, he said.

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NOTICE: Pike Twp. annual zoning re-organizational meeting Feb. 1st 7pm

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PUBLIC MEETING NOTICE

The Pike Township Zoning Commission will hold their annual Re-organizational Meeting, Wednesday, February 1, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the Township Office at 7134 East Sparta Avenue S.E., East Sparta, Ohio.

The Board will also meet with the Township Attorney in [sic] to discuss zoning text [sic] any other zoning business that may be presented.

The Pike Township
ZONING COMMISSION
Joe Mezquita, Chairman

Republic Services driver charged in off-ramp death

Woman, 19, killed in truck rollover more than five months ago

By Christina Littlefield
Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS, NV - More than five months after a rollover left a young woman dead, the driver of the Republic Services garbage truck that crushed her is facing felony charges of reckless driving and involuntary manslaughter.

The district attorney's office charged Richard Charles Hall, 34, on Monday in connection with the Dec. 26 [2004] death of 19-year-old Ashley Jean Swain of North Las Vegas.

Hall's 2001 Volvo garbage truck was 20,000 pounds overweight and he was going too fast on the curving off-ramp at Cheyenne Avenue and Interstate 15 when the truck rolled over and crushed Swain's Chevrolet Suburban, alleged Trooper Angie Chavera, a Highway Patrol spokeswoman.

She said the excess weight and speed caused Hall to lose control of the truck.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger said Hall is being charged in Swain's death because there is "sufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing." . . Read more

Something stinks

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"I feel sorry for the people in the Bolivar area. I drive every day from New Phila[delphia] to Canton to work. On warmer days this past week, the smell from the landfill is awful. Something must be done."

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Unlucky for Kentucky: AWD hopes to move more East Coast trash by rail

Automated Waste Disposal in Danbury has applied to expand a building at the transfer station to handle more trash.

By Mark Langlois
The News-Times
2006-01-19

DANBURY, Conn. — More trash, fewer trucks.

That's the argument Automated Waste Disposal is making as it tries to win permission to handle more waste at its White Street transfer station.

When plans were first announced last year, some neighbors of the AWD transfer station worried that more trash would mean more big trucks on local roads.

But as the city Zoning Board of Appeals reviews AWD's application to expand a building at the transfer station, the trash company says its plan should reduce truck traffic because more garbage will be shipped out by railroad. . . Read more

Warren Council talks trash and how they should get it to the dump

Let's put first things first, council members said.

By Peter H. Milliken
Youngstown Vindicator - Trumbull Staff

WARREN — The city needs to address the immediate problem of handling its garbage before it considers construction of a transfer station, city council members said.

"To me, talking about building anything is so premature," said Councilwoman Helen Rucker, D-at large, at the Thursday meeting of council's health and welfare committee.

"If Warren Recycling's license is in jeopardy, and we need to be transferring our trash somewhere, that's what we need to have on the table," she said, referring to the Warren Recycling Inc. transfer station the city now uses. . . Read more

Waste Management driver pressed wrong switch

Probe: He was killed when the top of his garbage truck hit a pedestrian overpass

Chad Skelton
Vancouver Sun
Published: Weds., Jan. 18, 2006

COQUITLAM, Canada - An investigation by WorkSafe BC into the death of a garbage truck driver who was crushed when the top of his truck hit a pedestrian overpass in Coquitlam has concluded the accident occurred because the driver pressed the wrong switch.

The initial investigation into Ralston Vassell's death July 19 focused on whether a problem with the truck's hydraulic system may have caused the garbage box to tilt up high enough for it to hit a walkway over Lougheed Highway.

But an inspection of the Waste Management of Canada Ltd. truck by WorkSafe investigators found no evidence of mechanical problems -- meaning Vassell himself must have tilted the box.

Since the garbage box is only tilted when a driver wants to dump a load, there's no reason for Vassell to have done so. . . Read more

Post-Katrina trash left at the curb, St. John Parish officials railed against Waste Management

Firm may be hired to oversee garbage pickup - St. John residents complain about trash collector's work
New Orleans Times-Picayune
By Allen Powell II
River Parishes bureau
Fri., Jan. 13, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Seeking to avoid the problems that have risen under the parish's current garbage-collection contract with Waste Management Inc., St. John the Baptist Parish officials are considering hiring a company to help develop and manage the parish's next waste-collection contract. . . Read more

Waste Management workers threaten strike

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Maryland Gazette
by Marcus Moore
Staff Writer
Thurs., Jan. 19, 2006

Nearly 100 Waste Management employees claim that the $13 billion Texas company wants to reduce their wages and eliminate their pension plan.

Union officials said this week that if Waste Management does not back off its stance and submit a new contract proposal, then the employees, working from the Temple Hills branch, could go on strike. . . Read more

Proposed landfill settlement eyed warily

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BETHLEHEM, N.H. -- Reaction has been mixed to an offer to settle longstanding legal disputes between the town and the company that owns a landfill in town.

In an offer published in area newspapers Wednesday, Casella Waste Systems Inc. said it would limit expansion of the North Country Environmental Services landfill to 11 acres behond the current 51 acres and pay the town a $10.3 million fee while the landfill operates. . . Read more

Dilbert on landfills

Fire ignites twice for trailer hauling trash to Countywide landfill

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GARBAGE TRUCK FIRE Canton Township and East Sparta firefighters battle a blaze atop a tractor-trailer headed for the Countywide Recycling & Disposal Facility in Pike Township. It was the second time the trailer caught fire Wednesday, investigators said. Repository Photo - Richard C. Bixler

By Lori Monsewicz
Canton Repository Staff Writer
Thursday, January 19, 2006

PIKE TWP. - Smoke continued to rise from a load of burning trash as firefighters allowed a truck driver to reconnect to the burning tractor-trailer and drive to a nearby landfill Wednesday.

The trailer fire outside East Sparta Fire Station No. 2 was the second fire Wednesday on that same truck. . . Read more

Waste Management sponsors NASCAR team

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Who's where -- and why -- after a truly Silly Season

By Marty Smith, NASCAR.COM
January 19, 2006
02:05 PM EST (19:05 GMT)

No. 14 Waste Management Chevrolet

After eight respectable seasons at SABCO/Chip Ganassi, Sterling Marlin was kicked in the pants, front-side, by the marketing machine, sent packing with logic that your daddy doesn't drink beer. . . . Read more

Ohio Legislative Committee meeting report - landfill hearings

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Hannah News Service
Committee Meeting Reports
House Economic Development & Environment
Rep. Collier: 466-1431
Wed., 3 pm 01/18/06, Rm. 017

January 18, 2006

HB417 SOLID WASTE LANDFILLS
(OELSLAGER W) Regarding solid waste landfills-demolition debris facilities. Second hearing.

Kerry Metzger, Tuscarawas County commissioner; Freida Schott and Jill VanVoorhis, Tuscarawas River Buried Valley Watershed Council; and Richard Sahli, environmental attorney for two Tuscarawas basin citizen groups and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) chief counsel from 1987 to 1991, testified in support of HB417.

Metzger said that HB417 is needed to provide time to collect valuable hydro-geologic data from which local policy makers can make informed decisions regarding land and water use issues for the region. . . Read more

Pedestrian killed by Waste Management truck

South Jersey Courier-Post
Weds., Jan. 18, 2006

MT. LAUREL, N.J. -- A pedestrian in the parking lot of an office complex area was struck and killed early Tuesday morning by a Waste Management truck, police said. The person was struck about 4:10 a.m. in the parking lot at 100 Gaither Drive. The person was deceased when the police arrived. The victim's name has not been released, pending notification of next of kin. The driver of the truck was identified as Kenneth Markiewicz, 43, of Deptford. Further details were not immediately available from police.

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Read "When Garbage Trucks Fly"

a disturbing blog-tale told by a former garbage

collector about one driver's recklessness

(rated PG-13, at least)

Landfill bill backers testify to Ohio Legislature

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By Paul E. Kostyu
Copley Newspapers Columbus Bureau Chief
The Times Reporter
January 19, 2006

COLUMBUS – Four witnesses at a legislative hearing Wednesday tried to stress how important clean water can be for 600,000 people who depend on the Tuscarawas River Valley Watershed.

Whether the handful of lawmakers who attended the hearing soaked up anything is unclear.

House Bill 417, which was introduced by state Rep. Scott Oelslager, R-North Canton, would put a moratorium in place on the siting of new solid waste and construction, demolition debris landfills as well as expansion of existing facilities. The moratorium would end within five years. This was the second hearing for the bill. . . Read more

Morehead: Residents need to call Ohio EPA about landfill complaints

By Mary Ann Greier / Review Staff Writer

LISBON - Residents calling the Columbiana County Health Department to complain about the smell and road conditions near a Lisbon landfill are being told they have the wrong number. .Read more

Republic Services gives dump ramp proponents discounted trash hauling

Group earns refuse discount for some

EAST SPARTA – A community group called Ramp Access Means Progress and Safety has negotiated a service discount with Countywide Recycling and Disposal Facility for some residents of southern Stark County. . . Read more

Votes Are In - Residents Agree - No Tax Dollars Should Go to I-77 Ramp

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WTUZ 99.9FM
1/18/06

NEW PHILADELPHIA - A number of area residents seem to agree that tax dollars should not go to fund a ramp at the Countywide Landfill. . . Read more

Ohio EPA Schedules Meeting Concerning American Landfill Expansion

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OhioEPA
PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER
P.O. Box 1049, 122 S. Front St.
Columbus, OH 43216-1049
Tele: (614) 644-2160 Fax: (614) 644-2737

NEWS RELEASE
For Release: January 18, 2006
Media Contact: Mike Settles, (614) 644-2160
Citizen Contact: Andrea Zacharias, (614) 644-2160

Ohio EPA Schedules Meeting Concerning American Landfill Expansion

A proposal to expand the American Landfill in Stark County will be the focus of a February 2, 2006, public meeting. [emphasis added].

Ohio EPA has issued draft solid waste and air permits-to-install to American Landfill, Inc. (7916 Chapel Street SE, Waynesburg), for a lateral and vertical expansion of its landfill located on State Route 44, approximately 2.75 miles north of Waynesburg.

The information session and public hearing will begin at 7 p.m. in the Sandy Valley High School auditorium, 5362 State Route 183 NE, Magnolia. [emphasis added]. . . Read more

Picketers oppose restrictions, landfill

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By Bill Koch
Ocala Star-Banner Reporter
Jan. 18, 2006

Villages resident Larry Paser (left) walks in front of the Laurel Manor Recreational Center protesting the new landfill location with other concerned residents and members of the Citizens for Clean Air and Water on Tuesday. Doug Engle / Star-Banner

OCALA, Fla. - In a test of The Villages' new policy restricting public demonstrations and to air their opposition to a proposed landfill, nearly two dozen people picketed in front of Laurel Manor Recreation Center late Tuesday afternoon. . . Read more

Garbage trucks face operating restrictions

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Council gives initial OK to new noise rule

By Patrick Wilson
Winston-Salem Journal Reporter
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - People in Winston-Salem who have awoken to the loud crashes of trucks emptying garbage bins may soon get some more sleep, at least before 6 a.m. . . Read more

Agency complaints not trash talk

Allied Waste performance review hearing today

By Laura Ernde
San Mateo County Times Staff Writer
01/18/2006 08:51:03 AM

Garbage and recylables (right) wait to be collected in a Burlingame neighborhood Tuesday. (Ron Lewis - Staff Photo)

SAN CARLOS, Calif. — Residents will get a chance to weigh in today on complaints of missed pickups and poor customer service by San Mateo County's largest trash hauler. . . Read more

Landfill death to be investigated

The New Zealand Herald
18.01.06 5.00am

AUCKLAND, NZ - A man died after a tractor rolled at the Whitford landfill in east Auckland yesterday. He was an employee of Waste Management, which operates the landfill in a joint venture with the Manukau City Council. Police and the Department of Labour are investigating.
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View related: Holiday job ends in death at landfill

Residents condemn trash firm's wetland deal

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Waste Management agreed to buy 445 acres of wetland on Lake St. Clair for the state in exchange for 30 acres south of its landfill. Residents want Michigan to conserve area in the same watershed as land bought by Waste Management.

Dorothy Bourdet / The Detroit News
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2006

VAN BUREN TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Steve Pryslak and his dog, Snoopy, take in the sights and smells of Woodland Meadows Landfill daily on their walks along Hannan Road.

But the view is likely to change now that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has granted a permit to Waste Management that will allow the company to use 30 acres of wetland on the south side of the site for its landfill. .Read more

Waste Management founder, former top officers settled SEC fraud charges for nearly $31M

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South Florida Business Journal
First published Aug. 29, 2005
By John T. Fakler

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday [August 26th] final judgments of $30.86 million [we]re entered against the founder of Waste Management and three former top officers.

Dean L. Buntrock, Philip B. Rooney, Thomas C. Hau and Herbert A. Getz are the settling defendants. They consented to the judgments without admitting or denying the allegations in the agency's complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The complaint charged the former officers with perpetuating a massive financial fraud lasting more than five years. . . . Read more

Tests confirm cancer killed K-9s

Five police dogs died in 2005 at K-9 unit located above Baltimore-area landfill

January 17, 2006

PARKVILLE, Md. -- Test results indicate a police K-9 died from two forms of cancer.

The WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reported late last month that five police dogs have died in 2005 -- three in December alone. . . . Read more

Ohio landfills are magnets for other states' trash

WLWT NBC-TV5 Cincinnati
Jan. 17, 2006

COLUMBUS - Ohio is becoming a bigger magnet for trash from other states.

The state Environmental Protection Agency said in 2004, almost 15 percent of the garbage going into Ohio landfills was from out of state. About 3.2 million tons of solid waste flowed in from outside Ohio's borders, compared with 1.1 million in 1996.

That's almost as much trash as the state was importing in the late 1980s, when the issue sparked outrage.

Jack Shaner with the Ohio Environmental Council in Columbus said now it seems that most people just don't care.

Not that the state can do much about the traveling trash anyway: It can't be banned or limited, because it's protected by the Constitution as interstate commerce.

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Club 3000 impostors reportedly solicit door-to-door, harass residents

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2006 – 7:00PM

BOLIVAR, OHIO – It was brought to Club 3000’s attention yesterday that certain individuals have reportedly posed as Club 3000 representatives recently in an alleged door-to-door campaign regarding the controversial $17.4M dump ramp proposed by Republic Services of Ohio II, LLC to service the Countywide landfill located in Pike Township (East Sparta), Ohio. Read more

Boston area landfill odors still causing concern

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By Jennifer Kovalich
Enterprise staff writer
Jan. 17, 2006

BROCKTON, Mass. — Odors from the Thatcher Street landfill continue to pose a problem for residents who live in that neighborhood.Read more

Garbage keeps on pouring into state

Almost as much trash entering Ohio as in '80s

By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer

The volume of trash coming into Ohio landfills from other states has been steadily growing -- to the point that it is now nearly as great as it was in the late 1980s, when such waste created a major furor.

Garbage from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania continues to flow into Ohio, and trash from as far away as Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island is increasingly being shipped here.

That's because Ohio has landfill space and low tipping fees, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. . . . Read more

NAACP and others demand investigation of landfill pollution

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By Jennifer Tlumak
Tenn. Independent Media Center
16 Jan 2006

DICKSON, Tenn. - The long running controversy in Dickson Tennessee concerning pollution of ground water by illegal disposal of hazardous waste is escalating. A culturally diverse group of citizens, environmental, and human rights groups – Tennesseans for Environmental Justice – gathered at the Dickson Landfill on January 16, Martin Luther King Day, to demand an investigation by State and Federal prosecutors. . . . Read more

What's that smell?

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"Regarding the [Countywide] landfill expansion: Hooray for Judge Sinclair. I drove down from Cleveland on Tuesday night and the stench was unbearable."

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Proposed "American" landfill expansion fills agenda

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OEPA to discuss company's request at Stark hearing Feb. 2

By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Posted on Mon, Jan. 16, 2006

MAGNOLIA - The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will conduct a public meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 2 on expanding American Landfill in Stark County.

The hearing will be in the auditorium of Sandy Valley High School, 5362 State Route 183.

The expansion request, filed in 1999, has been strongly opposed by a grass-roots group, Citizens Against American Landfill Expansion. The landfill is already one of the biggest in Ohio.

The upcoming meeting "is huge for our group... and it's definitely a big deal,'' said [CAALE] President Jill Van Voorhis. "The people have a real voice now and we see it as beginning.... And we feel this site has problems.'' . . . Read more

Andover dump site to be tested for dangerous runoff

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January 16, 2006
By Anita Fritz
Eagle Tribune Staff Writer

ANDOVER, Mass. — Soil and water tests will be done to determine whether dangerous chemicals may have been buried in a former municipal dump more than 50 years ago.

The town has been investigating its 3.1-acre snow dump at 134 High St. since last summer, when at least three residents reported a high incidence of cancer in neighborhoods around the site. . . . Read more

Lancaster native runs worldwide gifting group

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By Tamaria L. Kulemeka
The Eagle-Gazette Staff
January 15, 2006

LANCASTER - A Lancaster native is empowering more than 1.8 million people around the world to take their trash and make it someone else's treasure.

Deron Beal, founder of The Freecycle Network, has created the world's largest nonprofit "gifting" organization.

Freecycle members post items they want to get rid of on the Internet, and others respond based on their needs. There's absolutely no money involved. Think of it as a free version e-Bay. Members make arrangements to pick up items rather than mailing then. The concept of reusing items kept 100 million pounds - or nearly 8 million items - out of the nation's landfills in 2005, Beal said. . . . Read more

Let the recycler beware

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Issue #0502 of The Hook

Published January 12, 2006
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By Lisa Provence

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Harvey and Marty Chaplin had dutifully been recycling their newspapers, putting them out for pickup every other Wednesday.

Early last summer, the Ivy couple realized they hadn't been seeing the recycling truck that their trash hauler, BFI, had sent out in the past, but their papers were gone. One day in August, Harvey Chaplin happened to see his recycling get picked up-- and tossed in with their garbage. . . . Read more

Landfill permit rejected after Teamsters, others raised concerns

BFI sought to merge its L.A. county and city sections, $60M traffic and environmental infrastructure offer rejected

Teamsters.org
November 23, 2005

Citing traffic congestion and other concerns, the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission voted Monday to deny a permit for Sunshine Canyon Landfill to combine its county and city operations.

The landfill, operated by Browning-Ferris Industries, currently has separate permits from the city and county. The city permit allows BFI to dump 5,500 tons per day in the portion of the landfill in Granada Hills, and the county permit allows the firm to dispose of 6,600 tons per day in the county portion. . . . Read more

Landfills cause stink with residents

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A bulldozer flattens waste Wednesday afternoon at Oakwood Landfill in Jasper County (South Carolina).

Gazette photo by Megan Lovett
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By Michael R. Shea
The Beaufort Gazette
Published Thursday, January 12, 2006

RIDGELAND, S.C. -- At 74 years old, Oswell Malphrus still likes to spend time outside his S.C. 462 home. While cutting tree limbs in February, he smashed his ankle, and two months later his wife of 52 years suffered a stroke.

Now the couple don't get outside as much as they'd like to, but these days the air isn't exactly fresh either.

Residents on S.C. 462 -- the main east-west artery between northern Beaufort and Jasper counties -- are neighbors with two Waste Management-owned landfills.

With heavy winter rains and cold, calm nights, the neighborhood is starting to stink. . . . Read more

Florida landfill fire threatens power lines

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Canadian firefighters battle a recent landfill blaze

Florida Sun-Sentinel
January 15 2006

WESTON, Fla. - A large fire broke out in a landfill Saturday afternoon near the corner of U.S. 27 and Stirling Road at the western edge of Broward County, officials said.

Dozens of firefighters from Broward County Fire-Rescue responded to the blaze, which was near a residential neighborhood in Weston.

Firefighters planned to let the fire burn itself out and formed a line to protect nearby power lines, according to Dave Erdman of fire-rescue.

The same landfill ignited last week, Erdman said. No cause has been identified.

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View related article

State's top watchdog gets a whiff of landfill

By Stephanie Chelf,
Staff Writer
The Daily News

NEWBURYPORT, Mass. — Residents appealed to the state's top environmental chief yesterday to seek relief from constant odors coming from the Crow Lane Landfill.

Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Golledge spent about three hours yesterday in Newburyport talking with neighbors, touring the landfill and meeting with city officials. . . . Read more