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News Release | CoPIRG Foundation and Eco-Cycle | Solid Waste

Report Finds Colorado Generated Record Amount of Trash in 2017

On the eve of America Recycles Day, Eco-Cycle and CoPIRG, released their second annual State of Recycling in Colorado report, which found that Colorado generated a record 9.3 million tons of waste in 2017, while the state’s recycling rate remained stagnant at 12 percent, well below the national average of 35 percent. The report’s city-by-city breakdown found that Loveland (61 percent), Boulder (52 percent), and Louisville (44 percent) continue to have the best residential recycling rates. Fort Collins has the best overall recycling rate for residential, commercial, and industrial waste (55 percent), and Aspen’s residential recycling rate of 40 percent is the best outside of the Front Range.

Report | CoPIRG Foundation | Solid Waste

The State of Recycling in Colorado 2018

On the eve of America Recycles Day, Eco-Cycle and CoPIRG, released their second annual State of Recycling in Colorado report, which found that Colorado generated a record 9.3 million tons of waste in 2017, while the state’s recycling rate remained stagnant at 12 percent, well below the national average of 35 percent. The report’s city-by-city breakdown found that Loveland (61 percent), Boulder (52 percent), and Louisville (44 percent) continue to have the best residential recycling rates.

News Release | CoPIRG Foundation | Transportation

Over 7,600 Coloradans Call for Clean Car Standards Ahead of Vote This Week

On Tuesday, CoPIRG Foundation organized an event with clean car advocates to announce that over 7,600 Coloradans have called on Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to adopt state emission standards for gas-powered vehicles. The AQCC will be voting on whether to adopt the standards on either Thursday, November 15th or Friday, November 16th, depending on when the hearing on the rule concludes.

Blog Post | Financial Reform

2019 Fight Over Data Privacy Rights Heating Up Already | Ed Mierzwinski

Next year, a highly-anticipated privacy and data rights battle will occur in Congress. Powerful special interests from Google to Facebook are responding to the new European General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) by seeking to quash any similar effort to protect U.S. consumers while simultaneously seeking to preempt a new California privacy law before it takes effect in 2020. Will we continue as data collector products, not their customers, or will we gain control over our own financial DNA? The state PIRGs are in this one; guess which side we're on. Today we joined 34 leading groups in issuing shared Privacy Principles.

Blog Post

In reversal, judge rejects Monsanto's request to overturn landmark case linking man's cancer to Roundup

The high-profile legal case linking a man’s terminal cancer to Roundup has taken another twist.

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News Release | CoPIRG Foundation and Eco-Cycle | Solid Waste

Report Finds Colorado Generated Record Amount of Trash in 2017

On the eve of America Recycles Day, Eco-Cycle and CoPIRG, released their second annual State of Recycling in Colorado report, which found that Colorado generated a record 9.3 million tons of waste in 2017, while the state’s recycling rate remained stagnant at 12 percent, well below the national average of 35 percent. The report’s city-by-city breakdown found that Loveland (61 percent), Boulder (52 percent), and Louisville (44 percent) continue to have the best residential recycling rates. Fort Collins has the best overall recycling rate for residential, commercial, and industrial waste (55 percent), and Aspen’s residential recycling rate of 40 percent is the best outside of the Front Range.

News Release | CoPIRG Foundation | Transportation

Over 7,600 Coloradans Call for Clean Car Standards Ahead of Vote This Week

On Tuesday, CoPIRG Foundation organized an event with clean car advocates to announce that over 7,600 Coloradans have called on Colorado’s Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) to adopt state emission standards for gas-powered vehicles. The AQCC will be voting on whether to adopt the standards on either Thursday, November 15th or Friday, November 16th, depending on when the hearing on the rule concludes.

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

Chain Reaction report urges burger restaurants to beef up policies to eliminate routine use of antibiotics

Two growing burger chains, Shake Shack and BurgerFi, stand out from the herd when it comes to serving beef raised without the routine use of antibiotics in the burger industry. They were the only restaurants to earn an “A” on the fourth annual Chain Reaction scorecard released today by six major consumer and environmental organizations. The vast majority of hamburger chains — 22 of the top 25, including giants such as McDonald’s — got an “F” grade because they lack established policies restricting antibiotic use in their beef supply chains.

News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

U.S. PIRG response to reports of Facebook security breach

Facebook announced today that earlier this week, "attackers exploited a vulnerability in Facebook’s code that impacted “View As”, a feature that lets people see what their own profile looks like to someone else. This allowed them to steal Facebook access tokens which they could then use to take over people’s accounts."

News Release | CoPIRG | Consumer Protection

Legislators, Consumer Advocates Encourage Coloradans to Freeze Their Credit Reports

On the day that a new federal law eliminates consumer fees to freeze and thaw credit reports, a group of Colorado legislators and consumer advocates gathered at the Capitol to encourage Coloradans to take advantage of free credit freezes and protect themselves against identity thieves. According to CoPIRG, credit freezes are one of the best ways to stop an identity thief from using your information to set up a new credit card or cell phone account in your name, run up big bills, and leave you to pick up the pieces.

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Result | Consumer Protection

Defending Colorado’s Consumer Advocate

For 30 years, Colorado’s consumer advocate, the Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC), has gone to bat for Colorado consumers on gas, electric and telephone matters. All told, it has saved Coloradans more than $1.7 billion on their bills. Despite this track record of success, in 2015 the state legislature came close to eliminating it. CoPIRG helped mobilize public support and generate media attention to save the OCC.

Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Report | CoPIRG Foundation | Solid Waste

The State of Recycling in Colorado 2018

On the eve of America Recycles Day, Eco-Cycle and CoPIRG, released their second annual State of Recycling in Colorado report, which found that Colorado generated a record 9.3 million tons of waste in 2017, while the state’s recycling rate remained stagnant at 12 percent, well below the national average of 35 percent. The report’s city-by-city breakdown found that Loveland (61 percent), Boulder (52 percent), and Louisville (44 percent) continue to have the best residential recycling rates.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

A Citizen's Guide to Reducing Energy Waste

The future is here—but we’re living in the past.

Clean energy from the sun and wind can provide for our energy needs without the global consequences of pollution, yet we’re still producing and consuming virtually all of our energy in ways that do lasting damage to our environment, our health and our climate. To make matters worse, much of the dirty energy we produce goes to waste.

Report | CoPIRG | Consumer Protection

A Guide for Protecting Yourself from Identity Theft

On September 21st, all fees to place and remove credit freezes at the major credit bureaus will be eliminated. CoPIRG recommends all Colorado consumers take advantage of this opportunity and place a credit freeze at the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) as well as the National Consumer Telecommunications & Utilities Exchange (NCTUE). Here's how.

Report | CoPIRG Foundation | Public Health

Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide

With this Safer School Supplies: Shopping Guide, parents, teachers, and students can make more informed decisions while shopping for school supplies this Back to School season. We want to give parents and teachers the option to choose school supplies that do not contain toxic chemicals. This Shopping Guide should serve as a handy tool for finding products free of several types of toxic chemicals.

Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Financial Reform

Debt Collectors

Report: Our latest report based on the CFPB's public Consumer Complaint database reviews the most-complained about debt collectors. Funny, a new CFPB complaint "snapshot" does not. The report comes as the CFPB's acting director threatens to make the database non-public. If the CFPB both shuts down the public database and continues to issue industry-friendly reports that don’t give out any real information, the public and marketplace harm is even greater.

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Blog Post | Financial Reform

2019 Fight Over Data Privacy Rights Heating Up Already | Ed Mierzwinski

Next year, a highly-anticipated privacy and data rights battle will occur in Congress. Powerful special interests from Google to Facebook are responding to the new European General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) by seeking to quash any similar effort to protect U.S. consumers while simultaneously seeking to preempt a new California privacy law before it takes effect in 2020. Will we continue as data collector products, not their customers, or will we gain control over our own financial DNA? The state PIRGs are in this one; guess which side we're on. Today we joined 34 leading groups in issuing shared Privacy Principles.

Blog Post

In reversal, judge rejects Monsanto's request to overturn landmark case linking man's cancer to Roundup

The high-profile legal case linking a man’s terminal cancer to Roundup has taken another twist.

Blog Post | Solid Waste

Fixing your device just got easier: Right to repair movement scores major win

Repairing your electronic device just got a little easier thanks to a seemingly unexpected source: The Library of Congress.

Blog Post

Electric buses are the future. Here's how to pay for them.

Dirty, unhealthy and expensive, diesel buses embody transportation's past. Electric buses are the future.

Blog Post

'There is absolutely no excuse for this': Your Experian credit freeze could have been unfrozen by anyone

Imagine locking your front door only to discover that your security company dropped by moments later and left your key on top of your welcome mat.

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Blog Post

In reversal, judge rejects Monsanto's request to overturn landmark case linking man's cancer to Roundup

The high-profile legal case linking a man’s terminal cancer to Roundup has taken another twist.

Blog Post | Solid Waste

Fixing your device just got easier: Right to repair movement scores major win

Repairing your electronic device just got a little easier thanks to a seemingly unexpected source: The Library of Congress.

Blog Post

Electric buses are the future. Here's how to pay for them.

Dirty, unhealthy and expensive, diesel buses embody transportation's past. Electric buses are the future.

Blog Post

'There is absolutely no excuse for this': Your Experian credit freeze could have been unfrozen by anyone

Imagine locking your front door only to discover that your security company dropped by moments later and left your key on top of your welcome mat.

Blog Post

Walmart To Phase Out Paint Strippers Linked To Dozens Of Deaths

In the absence of government action on deadly paint strippers, retailers are stepping up to protect consumers.

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HELP SAVE LIVES BY SAVING ANTIBIOTICS

Effective antibiotics are critical tools in live-saving procedures, from cancer treatment to caring for premature babies. Sign up to help stop the overuse of antibiotics.

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How Is This Even Possible?

One year after Equifax announced the worst data breach in history, a U.S. House committee has recommended weakening data breach laws. Tell Congress to protect Americans, not Equifax.

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Tell L’Oréal: Make It Toxic-Free

Products we use on our bodies shouldn’t contain toxic ingredients that put our health at risk. Tell L’Oréal: It’s time to make toxic-free products.

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JOIN THE CALL FOR CLEANER BUSES

All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and often cheaper in the long run. Tell our governor to invest in clean, all-electric buses.

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