United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Communications, Education, and Public Affairs William K. Reilly Lew Crampton Associate Administrator Charles Osolin Director of Editorial Services John Heritage Karen Flagstad Teresa Opheim Gregg Sekscienski Ruth Barker Nancy Starnes Assistant Editor Marilyn Rogers Circulation Manager Editorial Assistance Leighton Price Design Credits Ron Farrah James R. Ingram Robert Flanagan Front cover: Making the recycling process complete and effective is a contemporary environmental challenge. Illustration by Robert Flanagan. EPA JOURNAL A Magazine on National and Global Environmental Perspectives July/August 1992 Volume 18, Number 3 From the Editor Re 175 N-92-006 ecycling. Millions of Americans are demonstrating their environmental concern by cooperating in recycling initiatives. Clearly, recycling has popular appeal as something real and relatively simple that individuals can do to help protect the environment. But as is made clear in this issue of EPA Journal, recycling is a several-step process. It begins, of course, when a citizen separates out old newspapers for curbside pickup, takes bottles and plastic milk jugs to a community recycling bin, or puts empty soda cans into receptacles at work. But that is just the beginning. True recycling continues through processing collected items, finding markets, and reusing the materials in new products. "Closing the loop," so to speak-proceeding full circle from collection to finding new, marketable uses for recyclables-is proving to be quite a challenge, and government agencies, legislatures, and companies are focusing a lot of attention on the matter. There are situations around the country where collected material has piled up, unprocessed, unused, because the recycling system has not yet fully developed-perhaps the plant is not there to process the material to the standards required; the market may not have developed for the product containing a certain recycled material; the price may not be right.... Adding to the complexity is the question, Why is the United States relying so heavily on recycling when there is another approach that might alleviate a hefty portion of the municipal solid waste problem? The approach is source reduction, which means, for example, using reusable rather than throwaway cups, so that waste isn't produced in the first place. It used to be said that the environment is a "mom and apple pie" issue, easy to support. But with recycling as an example, bridging the distance between great public concern and enthusiasm and actual, meaningful change in place for the long run-takes some time and ingenuity. EPA JOURNAL Subscriptions The annual rate for subscribers in the U.S. for EPA Journal is $10. The charge to subscribers in foreign countries is $12.50 a year. The price of a single copy of EPA Journal is $3.50 in this country and $4.38 if sent to a foreign country. Prices include mail costs. Subscriptions to EPA Journal as well as to other federal government magazines are handled only by the U.S. Government Printing Office. To subscribe to EPA Journal, send a check or money order payable to the Superintendent of Documents. The requests should be mailed to: P.O. Box 371954 Pittsburgh PA 15250-7954 EPA JOURNAL is Printed on recycled paper. John Heritage EPA is charged by Congress to protect the nation's land, air, and water systems. Under a mandate of national environmental laws, the Agency strives to formulate and implement actions which lead to a compatible balance between human activities and the ability of natural systems to support and nurture life. EPA JOURNAL is published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Administrator of EPA has determined that the publication of this periodical is necessary in the transaction of the public business required by law of this agency. Use of funds for printing this periodical has been approved by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Views expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect EPA policy. No permission necessary to reproduce contents except copyrighted photos and other materials. Contributions and inquiries should be addressed to the Editor, EPA JOURNAL (A-107), Waterside Mall, 401 M Street, SW., Washington, D.C. 20460 ! and we're building on that,' said Eileen Claussen, directo of EPA's Office of Atmospheric Programs. If that isn't leverage enough, the EPA is hoping that the federal government, one of the nation's largest buyers of personal computers, will require that most of the machines it buys have the energy-saving feature, she said.... The 'power management' technology called for by the EPA consists of special computer chips and the software to control them and is used widely in portable notebook computers to conserve their batteries. But the technology is used little in standard when they're not being used desktop machines that run .... Starting next year, computers that automatically power down, or 'sleep' when unused for a period, could have an EPA 'Energy Star' logo affixed to them, and companies would be allowed to use the logo in their advertising. 'A lot of companies these days are interested in being "green," off wall current . . . . It is not technology would add to the Ongoing Enforcement Actions Mack Trucks Penalty for Diesel Engine Mack Trucks, Inc., will pay a can be sold. The manufacturer submits test data to EPA to apply for a certificate of conformity for the model or models in question. In this case, models were sold that didn't match those listed on the application. EPA discovered the violations during an audit of Mack's assembly plant in Hagerstown, Maryland. Mack will pay a $174,863 cash penalty and will carry out an engine rebuild test program valued at $149,009. Chevron to Pay $8 Million for Chevron U.S.A., Inc., has Seven Indicted in Hazardous Waste Export wxic to marine life, were A grand jury in Charleston, South Carolina, has indicted four companies and three executives for conspiring to illegally treat, then export, more than 3,000 tons of hazardous waste to Bangladesh and Australia. According to the indictment, Gaston Copper Recycling of Gaston, South Carolina, paid Hy-Tex Marketing, located in Beaufort, South Carolina, to process baghouse dust from its smelting furnaces. The dust contained cadmium and lead. The processed dust was then shipped to a Stoller Chemical plant in Jericho, South Carolina, where it was mixed with other materials to make fertilizer. Stoller exported the fertilizer to Bangladesh and Australia without obtaining the consent of the governments of those countries. Gaston Copper's parent, Southwire Corp., of Carrollton, Georgia, was also named in the indictment, as were three individuals: Bruce Bettenton, who participated in the management of baghouse dust at Gaston; Arthur Heinel, president of Hy-Tex; and Robert Weaver, general manager at the Stoller plant in Jericho during the period of the indictment. All defendants were charged with conspiring to violate the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as well as with the actual transportation of hazardous waste without a manifest. Stoller Chemical and Robert Weaver were also charged with treating hazardous waste without a permit and exporting it without consent of the receiving country. Weaver could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $1.75 million; Heinel and Betterton could face seven years in prison and $500,000 in fines. The corporations could face up to $500,000 in fines on each count of the indictment. The case was investigated by agents of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the U.S. Customs Service, the Ninth Circuit Solicitor's Office, and the Charleston County Sheriff's Office, as well as by agents from EPA. shown to exceed the permit expensive, inadequate treatment method. The company then diluted samples of wastewater taken for testing, concealed test results, and, in certain instances, bypassed treatment altogether, allowing raw wastewater to discharge to the ocean. Additionally, Chevron admitted to dumping sandblast waste directly into the ocean on numerous occasions, rather than barging it to shore, as required. The waste contained old paint and rust removed from the platform prior to repainting. The four-year investigation was overseen by the Department of Justice and carried out by special agents of EPA and the Inspector General's Office of the Department of Interior. Cold Temperature Limits on Carbon Monoxide Set for Cars and Trucks A new rule issued by EPA requires that car and truck prototypes tested for compliance with federal emissions standards for carbon monoxide (CO) be subjected to startup temperatures of 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Currently, CO is measured at temperatures between 68 and 86 °F. The new rule goes into effect with 1994 model year vehicles. It is common knowledge that cars and trucks use more fuel and produce more CO during engine warm up. Further, a car started at 20 °F may emit more than 10 times as much CO as the same car started at 75 °F. In winter, when temperature inversions push cold air down and trap pollutants at the ground, levels of CO in the air increase dramatically. Currently, 39 metropolitan areas in the United States experience CO levels that exceed the federal health standard. More than half the violations occur at temperatures below 45 °F. When the new EPA rule is completely phased in, startup emissions of CO measured at 20 °F will be reduced 20 to 29 percent. In addition, the nation will conserve 43,000 barrels of oil each day by way of improved fuel combustion. 3 |