In a world where our resources are finite, it’s important we recycle whenever we can. Recycling involves the process of gathering and processing materials (such as bottles and cans) that would be otherwise discarded and converting them into something new and useful. 

Recycling is vital for cleaning up the environment and keeping our communities clean. By reusing recycled items to produce new products we reduce the impact we have on mother nature. Also, it doesn’t hurt that you can also make a little bit of extra money by recycling the right types of items.
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The more the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality looks for groundwater contaminated with PFAS in the state, the more it finds it

 

Twenty-eight locations across Michigan, and rising, have been found contaminated with potentially health-harming chemicals once used in nonstick surfaces and firefighting foam.

 

Gov. Rick Snyder last month launched a coordinated, statewide effort to find and begin addressing polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which includes a group of man-made chemicals that were commonly used since the 1950s in stain-resistant carpeting, nonstick pots and pans, waterproof shoes and other household products. PFAS was also used in firefighting foam, particularly at military bases. Use of the chemicals was largely phased out by 2015.

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Twenty members of Florida’s congressional delegation sent a letter Tuesday to the Trump Administration opposing any rollback of safety regulations adopted after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

 

The letter was released by delegation co-chairmen U.S. Reps. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, and Alcee Hastings.

 

In a letter to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the Florida representatives warned that “an oil spill can devastate a regional economy and inflict long-term environmental damage” and asked the secretary to “reject any proposals to roll back regulations that were specifically adopted to address systemic safety failures that led to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.”

 

A division of the Interior Department, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, recently said some of the regulations adopted in response to the tragedy created “potentially unduly burdensome requirements” on oil and gas operators, Buchanan’s office said in a news release. The proposal to roll back safety rules was published in the Federal Register at the end of 2017.

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Environmental Protection Agency Scott Pruitt said that his agency will formulate the Clean Power Plan’s future in early 2018. And while Pruitt said that the agency would “replace” the proposal and not “repeal” it altogether, others are questioning his true intent.

 

That is because Pruitt also told lawmakers last week that he disagrees with the Endangerment Finding, which gets to the heart of EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 as an emission under the Clean Power Plan. The US Supreme Court has affirmed that right under the Endangerment Finding, although Pruitt said he intends to lead a national discussion on the data that the Obama EPA used to arrive at its conclusion that CO2 was a danger human health and the environment.

 

“They took work from the U.N. IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] … and adopted that as the core of the finding,” Pruitt told the House Energy and Commerce Committe. That, he continued, was a “breach of process.”

 

“I think one of the most important things we can do for the American people is provide that discussion, and it hasn’t happened,” Pruitt added. “As I indicated, the agency borrowed the work product of a third party. We have to ensure that discussion occurs.”