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Lau'ipala (yellow tang fish) swim in a coral reef off the island of Lānaʻi, Hawaii. Reefs are essential to biodiversity, with 25% of all marine species found in, on, or near
them. Healthy reefs also facilitate subsistence and commercial fishing, and they protect people from storm surges and floods, absorbing up to 97% of a shorebound wave’s energy. Around a billion people benefit from reefs. (M Swiet Productions / Getty Images)
feature March 14, 2024

Ocean Biodiversity

Ocean ecosystems are essential to our world, and thankfully, we can still chart a new path forward to protect them.

Press Release September 23, 2021

Report Sheds New Light on Ongoing Health Risks from Glass-Recycling Plant

Modeling reveals high levels of asthma-causing pollution from Owens-Brockway plant

The 2010 explosion and fire at the 'Pick Your Part' junkyard in Wilmington, CA took more than 30 hours to extinguish, releasing particulate matter, dioxins and heavy metals across neighboring communities.
(Photo courtesy of Jesse Marquez)
Article October 21, 2014

Scrapping the Recycling Industry’s Green Image

Not all recycling is as green as it may seem.

Roger Garbey and Andres Hernandez (L-R), from the Goldin Solar company, install a solar panel system on the roof of a home in Palmetto Bay, Florida. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
Article March 23, 2023

Creating a Sustainable Clean Energy Transition

Transitioning to 100% clean energy is a huge opportunity to power our economy and create good jobs without sacrificing our communities or the climate. Here’s how we do it.

In the News: Grist October 5, 2021

EPA might finally regulate the plastic industry’s favorite kind of ‘recycling’

Jim Pew, Attorney, Washington, D.C., Office, Earthjustice: “It’s quite simple. If you want to burn municipal waste, meet the Clean Air Act standards for municipal waste incinerators. If you want to burn industrial waste, meet the Clean Air Act standards for industrial waste.”

document April 27, 2021

New York: Comments on Proposed Part 350 – Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law

Food waste is a top contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. When food waste rots in landfills, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in its global warming strength. According to New York State’s inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, in 2014, landfill emissions made up about 58% of the State’s methane emissions and about 5% of its total greenhouse gas emissions.

Electric automobile, plugged into charging station. (Greg Pease / Getty Images)
Article January 17, 2024

Are Electric Vehicles Really Better for the Environment? Yes.

Electric vehicles stack up better than combustion any which way you look at it.

Earthjustice attorneys and community partners look at the site plan for the Ajax asphalt plant sited in the Dort-Carpenter Industrial Park during a meeting at St. Francis Prayer Center on May 10, 2022, in Flint, Michigan. (Sylvia Jarrus for Earthjustice)
Press Release December 12, 2023

Flint Groups Welcome Federal Action Against RJ Torching

The scrapyard violated emissions limits in a community already facing many harmful sources of air pollution

document February 4, 2020

Comments on the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Proposed Part 351, “Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling”

New York's legislature passed a strong law banning single-use plastic bags, however, the state's Department of Environmental Conservation proposed regulations that would allow thicker bags to be used, undermining the law. The loophole ultimately increases the lifecycle impacts from plastic bags, from the fossil fuel extraction, to harmful chemical additives, to the bags ending up on streets and oceans, or to later be burned or added to the landfills.

From the Experts June 28, 2021

To Create a Clean Energy Future, Mining Reform Must Be Front and Center

We are advocating for four solutions that together can ensure a sustainable supply chain for critical minerals.

Ford F-150 Lightning pickup trucks sit on the production line at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan. (Bill Pugliano / Getty Images)
Press Release March 31, 2023

Earthjustice Statement on Treasury Department’s Electric Vehicle Tax Credit Guidance

“Electrifying our vehicle fleet is essential to tackling the climate crisis, as transportation contributes the most greenhouse gases to the atmosphere of any industry in the United States.”

Press Release July 7, 2006

EPA Allows More Pollution from Large Waste Combustors, Avoids Recycling Requirement

Trash burning already accounts for over 13 tons of mercury pollution alone each year

Southeast Resource Recovery Facility (SERRF) Incinerator in Long Beach, Calif.
(East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice)
feature November 9, 2021

Vestiges of Environmental Racism: Closing California’s Last Two Municipal Waste Incinerators

California must divert its resources away from the dying technology of incinerators and towards more sustainable methods of waste management.

Press Release May 17, 2022

Earthjustice and Coalition of Organizations Send Letter to Biden Administration, Urging Strong Environmental and Human Rights Protections in Defense Production Act Implementation for Critical Minerals Sourcing

The groups urged the administration to institute strong cultural, environmental, and due diligence standards for any mechanisms involved with the sourcing of critical minerals

From the Experts July 12, 2023

As the International Seabed Authority Meets, It’s Time for Us to Protect our Oceans from Untested Mining

Earthjustice is standing alongside a diverse group of nations, conservation organizations, scientists, and Indigenous groups, and urging the ISA to stand strong against corporate mining interests and declare a moratorium on deep seabed mining.

Navajo community leader Daniel Tso speaks at a meeting at the chapter house in Counselor New Mexico where the Bureau of Land Management was hearing public comments on proposed new sites for leasing rights to additional drilling in the San Juan Basin. (Steven St. John for Earthjustice)
From the Experts July 5, 2023

New NEPA Guidance Can Give Us the Roadmap to a Just and Equitable Clean Energy Future

The Biden Administration is working to reverse former-President Trump’s reckless rollbacks of NEPA. Here’s what it should consider.

Press Release August 31, 2022

Federal Agencies Urged to Update Mining Rules, Halt Industry Handouts

Fast-tracking new mining projects threatens to pollute drought-stricken waters with toxic runoff

Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at the Covanta Energy incinerator in Miami, which started on Feb. 12, 2023, and burned for nearly 3 weeks. As of Mar. 2023, firefighters had
extinguished the full blaze but left a team on site to suppress any new smoldering. Incinerator staff continue to haul away hundreds of truckloads of waste and debris, and the cause of the fire is still unknown. (Miami-Date Fire Rescue)
Press Release June 1, 2023

New report details dangerous conditions Doral, FL residents endured during three-week Covanta waste incinerator fire

Report’s findings underscore the dangers that waste incineration facilities pose to Florida communities