Discarded electronics (“e-waste”) is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the industrialized world. Electronic equipment is also one of the largest know sources of heavy metals, like lead and mercury, and toxic pollutants in the waste stream.  In Massachusetts hundreds of thousands of pounds of e-waste is discarded every year.  Much of it winds up in our cities and landfills and that that is recycled costs our cities and towns millions of dollars. Write to your Massachusetts State Representative and ask him/her to pass the Electronic Waste Takeback Bill to require manufacturers to be responsible for collecting and recycling or reusing the electronic waste that they produce.

The Safer Alternatives Bill will create a program in Massachusetts to replace toxic chemicals with Safer Alternatives wherever feasible. The bill is currently before the Massachusetts Legislature's Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. That committee held a public hearing on the bill on November 2nd, but the Environment Committee has not yet acted to give the bill a favorable report.

A favorable report is needed to move the bill to the next stage in the legislative process. Your legislators can help by urging the Chairs of the Environment Committee to act on the bill soon. Please write to them and ask them to help!

Clean Water Action and coalition partners call on our leaders and on all sectors of society to embark on an Energy Empowerment Revolution that will protect all the inhabitants of this state from the ravages of recession and cold winter winds and to secure the future for our children and our planet. Please take a moment to review the Declaration of Energy Empowerment's (Link to Declaration PDF) goals calling for $1 billion dollars to weatherize every building and home in Massachusetts. This initiative would create over 10,000 jobs, help pull people out of poverty with decent paying jobs, and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.