If the court upholds the criminal charges filed against five county landfill employees and two business owners, Douglas County government will have failed that test on both counts. That would be a major failure by local government, and county officials must take action to prevent such abuses for the future.
Under the scheme, some landfill employees allegedly showed favoritism toward certain dump truck owners, who had to pay a mere $20 or $26 flat fee instead of the proper hundreds of dollars. The owners, authorities charge, then compensated the landfill workers with cash, gift cards and even hams.
No one knows the exact amount stolen. One estimate put the amount at $350,000 over a three-year period. And the abuse may have stretched across decades. Some employees told the Sheriff’s Office that the abuse extended back to 1995 - which would amount to a staggering long-term dereliction of duty by Douglas County government.
Oklahoma passes legislation expanding plastics recycling
The state will become the 11th to pass recycling legislation focused on the plastics industry.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed legislation April 19 that provides a modernized regulatory framework for advanced recycling technology in the state. Known as SB 448, the goal of the new law is to reduce plastic scrap waste, enhance operational certainty and increase the adoption of advanced recycling practices.
The legislation expands existing waste management laws in the state to include an emphasis on plastics recycling and recycling the various materials plastics facilities process.
In a news release, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) applauds the new legislation.
Nebraska landfill loses $350K in weight scheme by employees
Five employees of the Douglas County Landfill and two business owners who dumped refuse there have been charged with criminal conspiracy.
As reported by the
Lincoln Journal Star, five employees who worked in the landfill’s weighhouse and two business owners who dumped refuse there have been charged with conspiracy to commit theft in a scheme that could date back decades.
In the scheme, authorities allege, employees of the weighhouse would decrease the weight of a dump truck as it arrived at the landfill so the dump truck’s owner would have to pay the bare minimum for dumping tons of trash.