Free Republic

Hazardous Waste Day: the Saga Continues. This story should have been dead yesterday but it is not.Let me explain.Raj and I left for Hazardous Household Waste (HHW) collection day, which ran from 8:00 am till 2:00 pm,  at 7:55 am. The rear hatch of the Jeep was filled with toxic, hazardous waste materials: mostly stains, strippers and other oil based paint products, some half full 5 gallon pails of latex paint (I know, it can be dried and dumped but do you know how long it takes to dry a half-full pail?), old gasoline, toxic yard chemicals an old monitor...

Since Trump took office in January 2017, EPA officials have cleaned up all or part of 13 listed sites, compared with nine sites cleaned up by the Obama administration in 2015 and 2016.

NOVATO — Northern California authorities arrested a man suspected of tossing a bag full of feces, urine, paint and rubbing alcohol at a grocery store's meat counter. Police said Monday that officers arrested 45-year-old Charles Nishi at a homeless encampment in Novato, which is about 30 miles north of San Francisco. Novato police said a hazardous material crew responded to the Harvest Market at about 5 p.m. Sunday to clean up the mess, which prompted the store to close earlier than usual. Police are investigating whether Nishi is the same person who got into a dispute with store workers Saturday....

For the all the praise solar power gets for being “cleaner” than traditional energy resources, there sure are a lot of hazardous materials involved in the process. When a solar panel manufacturer goes out of business – like the bankrupt Abound Solar in northern Colorado – a costly cleanup of toxic materials must ensue. So what happens when no one jumps to cleanup all that cancer-causing cadmium? Environmental protests? Rep. Jared Polis funded ballot initiatives banning solar plants from Colorado? Actually, none of the above. Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway and Rep. Cory Gardner seem to be the only voices...

Abound made national headlines last year when the solar firm collapsed after receiving a $400 million taxpayer loan guarantee. But that failure could potentially stick taxpayers with an estimated $2.2 million more in cleanup costs ... ... Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment had informally ordered Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste at four Front Range locations, where concerns were raised about contamination. The CDPHE found 2,500 pallets of “unsellable” solar panels and over 6,000 gallons of hazardous liquids. The panels and liquids contain cadmium, considered a toxic substance by federal health agencies

The Colorado health department is ordering bankrupt Abound Solar to clean up hazardous waste and thousands of solar panels that it says are unsellable at four Front Range facilities.

Homeowners on the hunt for sparkling solar panels are lured by ads filled with images of pristine landscapes and bright sunshine, and words about the technology's benefits for the environment — and the wallet. What customers may not know is that there's a dirtier side. While solar is a far less polluting energy source than coal or natural gas, many panel makers are nevertheless grappling with a hazardous waste problem. Fueled partly by billions in government incentives, the industry is creating millions of solar panels each year and, in the process, millions of pounds of polluted sludge and contaminated water....

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Los Alamos National Laboratory is increasing its use of a machine to crush fluorescent bulbs. The machine known as the Bulb Eater attaches to the top of a 55-gallon drum and works like a large food processor. Fluorescent bulbs contain small amounts of mercury vapor. That means they must be labeled, boxed and disposed of as a type of hazardous waste.