The founder of the Baltimore Compost Collective wants Baltimore to ditch trash incineration, fight climate change and grow healthier food.

Marvin Hayes began composting in Baltimore more than a decade ago and has grown the operation into a collection service picking up around 1,500 pounds of food waste each week. Hayes operates a composting facility at the nonprofit Filbert Street Garden, where the organic material is turned into rich soil for use at the urban garden.

Hayes sees a revolution, a better way of life for Baltimore's Black community to help fight what he calls "food apartheid" and end the city's reliance on a giant, polluting waste-to-energy incinerator and fight climate change.

"People didn't know that the incinerator was causing $55 million in health damages, or they didn't know what the incinerator was," Hayes recounted. "People didn't know that Baltimore County trash gets brought here and burned. Howard County's trash gets brought here and burned."

In September the Environmental Protection Agency announced a $4 million grant as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill to build a solar-powered composting facility in south Baltimore to accept food scraps and other organic material. The agency estimates the facility will keep 12,000 tons of waste out of the city's incinerator.

Incinerators release large quantities of lead, mercury and other harmful pollutants into the air. In late 2020 Baltimore signed a 10-year contract to continue incineration, much to the chagrin of environmental advocates such as Hayes, who have long advocated for composting as a viable alternative to toxic trash incineration.

A 2018 study by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability noted compost-amended soil can reduce contamination of urban pollutants by 60% to 95%, and protects against the danger associated with lead in urban soils.

Hayes' composting facility has a limited capacity. When it is full, he transports the rest of his food scraps to a bigger organic compost facility in Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County.

"If PG County is doing it, why shouldn't Baltimore be following the same practices?" Hayes asked. "Make a large scale composting facility, so when the residents put their recycling out, they'll put their composting out, it'll go to a large-scale composting facility, create four times more jobs than incinerators, two times more jobs than the landfill."

This story is part of the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration and was produced based on original reporting by Aman Azhar for Inside Climate News.



reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration





get more stories like this via email

The new Buffalo Bills stadium may not be the best environmentally but it has some green qualities.

The steel for the stadium is being made locally and climate-consciously, using an electric-arc furnace. Studies show the process emits 75% less carbon than traditional steel manufacturing.

Brian Raff, vice president of sustainability and government relations for the American Institute of Steel Construction, said there are outside benefits to using electric-arc furnace steel.

"The supply chain for EAF steel is just a circular economy," Raff pointed out. "Everything that is waste, considered waste at one point, gets put back into the supply stream, gets shredded, melted down, and then made into new steel over and over and over."

Some downsides to electric-arc furnace steel are higher impurities and inclusions, and uneven heat distribution.

Other environmental benefits of the new stadium include reduced water usage, better stormwater flow, and a modern electrical system. The stadium will have 14% fewer spectators, also reducing other environmental impacts. Highmark Stadium will be completed in 2026.

Beyond the environmental impacts, the new stadium's construction creates 10,000 union labor jobs for western New York, and 60% of the 25,000 tons of the steel used for the stadium will be developed in New York.

Raff emphasized making the steel locally will have an economic ripple effect.

"25,000 tons of steel means millions of man-hours, and so that means it's going to keep those fabrication companies moving," Raff explained. "Cash is coming in the door, which means they're able to pay their employees. All of that money will be saved and spent in the local economies."

The project also creates greater opportunities for minority, women and veteran-owned businesses. An important part of the labor agreement negotiations was having local workers involved in the new stadium's construction.


get more stories like this via email

Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge.

A court granted a temporary restraining order against Austin Master Services, a fracking waste-storage facility in Martin's Ferry, at the request of Ohio Attorney General David Yost.

Ohio has some of the least-restrictive rules on fracking waste, said Jill Hunkler, director of the local advocacy group Ohio Valley Allies. She said this makes communities "dumping grounds" for the byproducts of fracking, and residents are often left to educate themselves on the risks of living near fracking operations and waste sites.

"We can see firsthand how dangerous these facilities were and how poorly they were operating," she said, "and right within 500 feet of the drinking water supply for 5 million people, which is the Ohio River."

At a city council meeting, residents voiced their concerns about water-supply safety and ongoing health risks for neighboring communities.

In a legal complaint, the AG's office said the Martin's Ferry facility has exceeded the amount of waste it's permitted to store by thousands of tons.

Austin Master Services could not be reached for comment. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources maintains there's no evidence the waste has affected public health.

Hunkler said a judge ordered Austin Master Services to clean up the excess waste at a recent hearing, but the company said it didn't have the money to do so.

"It's just a very good example of the failure here to adequately regulate and enforce and protect the communities from this toxic industry," she added.

According to Food and Water Watch, fracking waste contains a mixture of heavy metals, brines, volatile organic compounds, carcinogens and naturally occurring radioactive contaminants. Yale University research has linked exposure to some of these substances to reproductive and developmental problems.


get more stories like this via email

Residents of East Palestine, Ohio, say they continue to live with health problems, including rashes, nosebleeds and respiratory issues following last year's massive train derailment and chemical spill.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 177 tons of solid waste of solid waste and 68 million gallons of water have been transported out of East Palestine for disposal.

Jess Conard, Appalachia director for the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, said vinyl chloride is a key ingredient in making PVC plastic. She argued the disaster highlighted the need to reduce production of industrial plastic and better regulate all stages of the plastic life cycle. She added residents still do not have the resources needed to stay safe.

"We are also in desperate need of residential indoor and outdoor air monitoring and air assessments for our homes," Conard contended. "There are residents within the past month that have reported detections of vinyl chloride outside of their home."

Norfolk Southern recently agreed to a $600 million settlement in an attempt to resolve a string of lawsuits involving thousands of people.

If it gets approval from all parties, it would resolve all class-action claims by people and businesses who were within a 20-mile radius of the derailment site, and personal injury claims within 10 miles. In a statement on the company's website, the company stressed the settlement does not constitute any admission of liability, wrongdoing or fault.

Conard pointed out the settlement will not prevent another train-related environmental disaster from happening. She noted the amount of money in the proposed settlement will hardly leave a dent in the pockets of a company whose profits topped $8 billion last year.

"If the court accepts this settlement, it sets the precedent that there is a corporate price tag for poisoning communities," Conard asserted. "The court must uphold justice for the people."

Congress has stalled on passage of legislation to boost regulations around inspections and fines for railroad companies violating safety standards. Earlier this month, the Biden administration passed a new rule requiring freight operators to have at least two people on board, in an attempt to increase safety.