The U.S. EPA’s top environmental justice official has a message for recycling operators: Don’t wait for a conflict to arise to start engaging with the community that surrounds you.

Matthew Tejada, who since 2013 has been director of the U.S. EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, addressed the recycling sector on April 29 during the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ ISRI2021 online conference.

Though recycling businesses often have large numbers of people of color at lower levels of the workforce, racial disparities are wide at the upper ranks.

Read full story at Resource Recycling

Correcting environmental inequities is listed as a top priority for President-elect Joe Biden. Among other measures, he has called for the establishment of EJ offices at the Department of Justice and the White House and for overhauling the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) External Civil Rights Compliance Office.

Read full article at Waste Today