Teamsters Help Win Moratorium on New Mega-Dumps in North Carolina5 August 2006
Prior to the General Assembly's adjournment for the year, the Teamsters and a coalition of environmental groups succeeded in passing a one-year moratorium on new mega-landfills in North Carolina. The legislation puts a freeze on the controversial mega-dumps, including four landfills in rural, mostly poor communities in the state that were in the midst of the permitting process.
The new landfills would have made North Carolina the fourth largest, waste-importing state in the nation and would have left North Carolina taxpayers facing a massive potential burden in landfill clean-up costs. The Teamsters and numerous environmental allies, including the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League (BREDL), the North Carolina Sierra Club, the North Carolina Coastal Federation and the North Carolina Conservation Network, worked together for the moratorium's passage. The effort involved a "No Mega- Dumps" campaign, launched by the Teamsters and BREDL, to persuade voters and legislators that Waste Management, Inc., and other huge waste haulers should not be allowed to dump New York and other states' garbage in North Carolina.
"This was a fight we felt we had to join and had to win, for the sake of North Carolina and communities across the country," said Jack Cipriani, President of Teamsters Local 391 in Greensboro, North Carolina and International Vice President of the Eastern Region. "This is a quality of life issue for our members and their communities, who have been hurt by irresponsible waste hauling and dumping schemes. Studies show that working people and people of color are disproportionately hurt by waste facilities. The short-term financial gains pale in comparison to the potential pollution, traffic, and costs these facilities create. We applaud the Assembly for refusing to mortgage North Carolina's future in return for pennies from the waste industry. Now decision-makers can step back and consider the real pitfalls of dumping New York trash in our beautiful state."
Cipriani said, "The Teamsters will continue to raise awareness in state legislatures and municipal bodies of the need for better regulation and oversight of landfills, transfer stations, and other waste facilities."
The "No Mega-Dumps" campaign included a billboard bearing the message, "I Don't Love New York Garbage" and a web site where voters could contact their state legislators to demand the temporary moratorium.
Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States and Canada. The Teamsters represent 31,000 private sector sanitation workers in 105 different companies.
Source: prnewswire
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