In case you missed it: Thoughtful, newsworthy comments from industry professionals, consumers and legislators.
"Quite frankly, Rubicon's model will create more problems than it could ever hope to solve."
— Tim Oudman, market vice president for Republic Services, in an guest column published earlier this week on The Nevada Independent. Oudman addressed Rubicon Global's self-proclaimed position as the "Uber of the waste industry" and supported Republic's recent denouncement of waste brokers.
"While U.S. trade laws typically prevent exports that undermine our national security, we continue to allow the unregulated trade in materials that are coming back to undermine our security."
— Tom Sharpe, opinion contributor for The Hill, in a piece titled "E-waste export controls vital to safeguarding US tech against Russia, China" addressing security concerns. Sharpe suggests that congress passes the Secure E-waste Export and Recycling Act to require domestic recycling of e-waste.
"Michael Massey's tragic death was preventable. He was a loving husband and a father of two young children who lost his life because of a driver who chose to speed past a sanitation vehicle."
— New Jersey Sen. Jennifer Beck in a statement regarding a 39-year-old public works employee who was fatally struck by a car while loading a sanitation vehicle in 2013. This week, Gov. Chris Christie signed the Slow Down to Get Around law, making New Jersey the 15th state with legislation that requires drivers to slow down around sanitation vehicles.
"Once that ball is rolling and people are doing the right thing, I don't want them to stop. Now, granted, were we putting it all in the landfill? Yes, we were. I'm not going to deny that."
— Fort Smith, AR City Administrator Carl Geffken regarding the city's recyclables, as reported by the Times Record. Despite efforts to recycle, city residents recently discovered recyclables have been going to a landfill since a processing contract expired in October 2016.
"We tend to focus on the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law ... We try to work with residents to abate the problem."
— Eric Keselburg, a compliance supervisor in Fort Collins, CO, regarding a rule that says trash cans should not be visible from the street, as reported by Coloradoan. While the city is stepping up enforcement of the rule, Keselburg notes that inspectors can use their discretion when citing residents.
