After decades of taxpayers bearing the cost of cleaning up toxic waste sites, a new tax on companies that produce chemicals will kick in Friday to pay for toxic waste clean up. The so-called “polluter pays” tax will give the EPA’s “Superfund” program, which is responsible for cleaning up the most hazardous waste sites in the country, a major boost and help to free many Coloradans from the threat of deadly toxic waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Thursday that it will add 12 new toxic waste sites for prioritized cleanup under its “Superfund” program.
U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and the Center for Health, Environment & Justice hosted a webinar panel discussion on Thursday to discuss the findings from U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s recently published “Superfund Underfunded: How taxpayers have been left with a toxic financial burden” report. The expert speakers highlighted the dangers posed by toxic waste “Superfund” sites, how climate change will make those sites more dangerous as well as U.S. PIRG’s new Make Polluters Pay campaign to speed up Superfund cleanups and alleviate costs for taxpayers.
A new analysis of the do-it-yourself repair website iFixit.com found a huge number of Coloradans are attempting to fix their cell phones, laptops, vacuums and cars, even as some manufacturers create unnecessary and unwarranted barriers to repair. In 2018 alone, 1.2 million unique users in Colorado accessed iFixit.com, just one of the many websites that offers guides, videos and tutorials to consumers and professional independent repairers on how to fix everything from vacuums to cars to cell phones. Cell phone repair guides were by far the most popular, receiving 21 percent of all the page views. Eight of the top ten things Coloradans were trying to fix were consumer electronics.
Since late yesterday afternoon, Target appears to have made the 33,000 ppm-lead containing Fidget Wild Premium Spinner Brass unavailable for sale on its website. U.S. PIRG Education Fund staff went to a Target store today and found the Fidget Wild Premium Spinner Brass was still available for sale in-store, despite the website saying it was unavailable there. Also yesterday, one of the CPSC’s Commissioners, Elliot F. Kaye, re-stated his opposition to the CPSC’s guidance and the acting chairman's statement when he tweeted, “Seems obvious fidget spinners are toys and should comply with all applicable federal safety standards.”
A report released today shows that Colorado’s websites designed to disseminate information about its share of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), are dramatically better than most other state’s websites.
Colorado is poised to pass its 3rd Right to Repair bill, extending the right to fix everything from blenders to computers. The bill must pass before May 8.
Plastic producers have promoted recycling as the solution for plastic waste. But it’s not working. So, what should we do?
