Turn Off The Bus & Zero Waste

Turn off the darn engine in those school buses!

This is the Environment Report, I'm Lester Graham.

Diesel exhaust has been linked to a bunch of health problems – asthma, heart disease, and cancer. The risks are increased for little kids hanging around yellow school buses. That's why so many states and cities across the country have anti-idling laws. Mark Brush found some bus companies are being caught with their engines running:

Yeah, for instance New York City has had an anti-idling law for 30 years. But enforcement of the law has been ramping up in the last several. That's because more people are becoming aware of the health affects of diesel exhaust.

And in Connecticut and Rhode Island - The Environmental Protection Agency caught a bus company called First Student breaking anti-idling laws. In some cases, they found bus drivers idling their engines for up to two and a half hours.

The EPA just reached a settlement with First Student. I spoke with Tim Conway. He's an enforcement lawyer for the EPA.

"First Student really stepped up to the plate once we'd identified the violations. And they helped us look for solutions that would protect children's health and protect the health of people around the diesel vehicle."

First Student is now retraining their drivers and cleaning up their emissions.

But that's just one company – and there are still a lot of states that don't have any restrictions on idling. So on any given day you can find long lines of these buses idling as they wait for kids.

THANX

(((STING)))


This is The Environment Report.
This month San Francisco begins its mandatory recycling law. Residents who fail to recycle and compost will face warnings and eventually fines…. All part of the city’s goal to eliminate waste altogether. But, really, just how far can recycling and composting take us? Amy Standen looks at that…
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Ambi: Chinese conversation.

Janis Peng is a foot soldier in San Francisco’s war against garbage.

Ambi: Chinese conversation.

Today, she’s going door to door in a San Francisco Chinatown apartment complex, trying to convince the mostly elderly residents to make better use of their city-provided compost bin…

AMBI: OK, ok.. (Conversation ends, fade down background talking)

In fact, Peng is part of a city-wide effort to eliminate waste altogether. The city aims to divert 100 percent its waste from local landfills. Here’s Jared Blumenthal. He’s head of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment.

BLUMENTHAL So in 2003, we set the goal of 75% by 2010 and to zero waste by 2020.

But how far can recycling take you?

AMBI: bring up trucks beeping/brakes ambi.. (combine with loud background machinery?)

Here at San Francisco Recycle on Pier 96, the trucks are coming back with the morning haul. Robert Reed is a spokesman here.

REED: All these materials go to different places, the glass goes to a glass plant, the paper goes to a paper mill…

The problem is that some products – like many plastics – cost far more to recycle than they’re worth. Mark Murray is executive director of Californians Against Waste, a Sacramento non-profit group.

MURRAY We have seven different types of plastic resins and manufacturers invent new ones every day. And I know it might make us feel good to put those number sevens into the recycling bin ,the scrap value is insufficient. It’s not sustainable recycling.

Murray says he hears all the time from residents who want to eliminate waste all together.

MURRAY [[They’re telling us how]]They recycle everything, but they can’t get their city to take a certain type of number 6 or 7 plastic in their program. And they’re mad at the city. But it’s not just about recycling everything we get. That’s not gonna solve the problem.

Murray say that maybe if the costs for products included what cities pay to take them apart for recycling, or to dump them in the landfill... Maybe people would use less of them, bringing us a little closer to the holy grail of zero waste.

Hmmm…. That’s the Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.