Teamsters Help Win Moratorium on New Mega-Dumps

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.