Editors Focus

Readers of Sunil Kapoor’s article on the Clean Air Act in this issue may think the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency again has it in for the C&D recycling industry. Indeed, one C&D recycler who has already gone through a Clean Air Act (CAA) audit found his company barely made it under the limit of emissions allowed from a site like his. This means the act could affect many recyclers. Since the act’s passage in the last decade, regulators have focused on big-time polluters, such as the utilities and the chemical companies. But now their focus is shifting to industries such as ours.

On its surface, the act has a great goal-cleaning up America’s air. And America has done a good job of cleaning up its air, and cleaning up its environment in general. One recent study placed the United States 11th in the world in environmental effectiveness, despite the fact that we here in the U.S. produce 25% of the carbon dioxide pollution in the world. But reading Kapoor’s article, it is obvious that the way we get that efficiency is with some tight regulations, such as the Clean Air Act. Don’t think for a minute that George W. Bush is going to save us from regulations, as the Clean Air Act was signed into law by his father when he was president.

Actually, the Clean Air Act is a good step toward controlling air pollution in the United States. It will bring regulatory burden down on everybody, which will mean a level playing field for all recyclers if the enforcement agencies apply it across the board. Unfortunately, most local enforcement agencies have not done that. Let’s hope the feds are a little more even-handed.

The CAA also may make some businesses seriously consider more energy conservation measures in order to reduce their emissions, which is a double win, both for the company’s bottom line and for the environment. Yes, America needs more energy sources, which means more exploration and careful drilling. But the other side of that coin is that we need to find ways to conserve what we use. Even if we have all the fossil fuels we could ever want, dumping the emissions in the atmosphere will only reduce quality of life for us and for our children.