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Blog Post | Solid Waste

Amazon’s outrageous waste practice — and what you can do to stop it | Aaron Colonnese

Every year, Amazon destroys unsold and returned products by the millions. It's the pinnacle of unnecessary waste, and it has to stop.

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Blog Post | Public Health

Victory: EPA bans pesticide linked to brain damage in children | Aaron Colonnese

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Solid Waste

Channel your inner Woodsy Owl, the original zero-waste influencer | Mike Litt

Celebrating my favorite government mascot’s 50th birthday by sharing the zero-waste tips I have made a part of my life.

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Blog Post

Apple* and John Deere* shareholders file resolutions questioning their anti-repair stances | Nathan Proctor

Shareholders press these leading Right to Repair opponents to explain themselves as regulatory pressure mounts 

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips

PIRG's consumer watchdogs get to work in wake of massive T-Mobile data breach | Aaron Colonnese

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News Release | US PIRG | COVID-19

STATEMENT: President Biden’s new COVID-19 plan should help curb rampant spread of delta variant

President Joe Biden announced a sweeping plan Thursday to combat the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips

Post-Ida Tips: Don’t compound tragedy by getting scammed, or poisoned by a generator

After making landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, Hurricane Ida tore a path of destruction from the Gulf Coast all the way to New York and New Jersey. With billions of dollars in damage from flooding, wind and tornadoes, far too many people must make insurance claims, repairs and begin rebuilding.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Financial Reform

Consumer Advocates Urge Court to Block Use of Findings of Unlawful Trump-Era CFPB Taskforce

Democracy Forward, the attorneys for U.S. PIRG, the National Association of Consumer Advocates and Professor Kathleen Engel, filed a motion for summary judgement Friday in U.S. Court in our lawsuit against the Trump-era CFPB's so-called Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Consumer Tips, COVID-19

STATEMENT: Nursing home vaccine mandate will save lives

"We applaud the move to get more nursing home staff vaccinated. This will save lives."

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News Release | US PIRG | Consumer Tips, Consumer Protection

Back to school: financial literacy tips for college students, teens

During this time of year, families are thinking about the children going back to school, and for parents who are sending their kids to college, it can be a bit overwhelming. A key to addressing those concerns is making sure their teens are prepared for “adulting” -- in other words, taking care of their own lives.

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Result | Democracy

Delivering one million petitions to President Obama on dark money

U.S. PIRG joined a broad coalition to deliver one million petitions from Americans, including U.S. PIRG members and supporters, calling on President Obama to shine a light on dark money, or secret political spending.

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Result | Consumer Protection

30 years of toy safety

For the past thirty years, our sister organization U.S. PIRG Education Fund has taken a close look at the safety of toys sold in stores. Their reports have led to more than 150 regulatory actions. In November 2015, they released our 30th annual Trouble in Toyland report.

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Result | Democracy

Giving more Americans a greater voice in our elections

In our democracy, the size of your wallet shouldn’t determine the volume of your voice. In 2015, we helped win reforms in Maine and Seattle to ensure that more Americans have a greater say in our elections. Seattle’s Initiative-122 empowers small donors with “democracy vouchers” that can be donated to local candidates and lowers the cap on contributions. In Maine, the state’s Clean Elections Act was improved by strengthening campaign finance disclosure laws and offering qualifying candidates increased public funding.

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Result | Public Health

Convincing McDonald’s and Subway to protect public health

In 2015, bolstered by the support of more than 100,000 members and supporters, we convinced both McDonald’s and Subway to take action to protect public health. In March, just two days after we delivered more than 30,000 petitions to McDonald’s headquarters, the company announced that they would stop serving chicken raised on medically-important antibiotics. And in October, after more than 100,000 called on the chain to take action, Subway announced a similar policy for all the meat they serve.

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Result | Higher Ed

Protecting students from unfair bank fees

We helped win protections for students from unfair fees associated with campus bank accounts. The new rules, released by the U.S. Department of Education, ban some of the worst and most predatory fees that students encounter from banks.

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Pages

Report | US PIRG Education Fund | Antibiotics

Chain Reaction VI

The Chain Reaction VI report and scorecard ranks America’s top restaurant chains on their policies relating to antibiotic use in their beef supply chains. 

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Looking Inward

We surveyed nearly 1,000 personal care products from 26 popular cosmetics companies and scored them on ingredient safety and disclosure. The major takeaway: most companies need to do a lot more to inform their customers about what ingredients are in their products.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Warranties in the Void II

An updated survey of warranties from 43 companies finding all tell customers they void warranties for independent repair. The continued problem of warranties wearing thin underscores the need for action on Right to Repair.

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Report | US PIRG Education Fund | COVID-19

Nursing home safety during COVID: Staff shortages

For most of last year, more than 200,000 people at any given time were in nursing homes that themselves acknowledged they were suffering from staff shortages.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

Blueprint for America

Americans agree: Our nation’s infrastructure needs work. This report provides the blueprint that should form the basis of an infrastructure plan that will make America stronger today and lay the foundation for a brighter future. 

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Pages

Blog Post | Solid Waste

Amazon’s outrageous waste practice — and what you can do to stop it | Aaron Colonnese

Every year, Amazon destroys unsold and returned products by the millions. It's the pinnacle of unnecessary waste, and it has to stop.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Public Health

Victory: EPA bans pesticide linked to brain damage in children | Aaron Colonnese

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Solid Waste

Channel your inner Woodsy Owl, the original zero-waste influencer | Mike Litt

Celebrating my favorite government mascot’s 50th birthday by sharing the zero-waste tips I have made a part of my life.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post

Apple* and John Deere* shareholders file resolutions questioning their anti-repair stances | Nathan Proctor

Shareholders press these leading Right to Repair opponents to explain themselves as regulatory pressure mounts 

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Consumer Tips

PIRG's consumer watchdogs get to work in wake of massive T-Mobile data breach | Aaron Colonnese

> Keep Reading

Pages

Blog Post

House Oversight Committee finds Juul targeting kids

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi got right to the point as he opened a House committee's first hearing on the role of Juul in the teen vaping epidemic.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Antibiotics

Taco Bell the latest chain to reduce antibiotics in its meat supply

You might know Taco Bell for silly ads asking you to "think outside the bun." But the company is getting serious about at least one thing: reducing the overuse of antibiotics.

> Keep Reading
Blog Post | Public Health

Amazon: Take responsibility for unsafe products

Most of us expect that the products we buy in stores are safe to use. It turns out that's not always the case with Amazon. 

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Blog Post

Rather than require warning labels for Roundup, Trump administration moves to prohibit them

Does the public have a right to know that researchers for the World Health Organization say the widely used herbicide Roundup is a probable carcinogen?

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Blog Post | Consumer Protection

In the wake of the Capital One data breach, Ed Mierzwinski and Adam Garber explain how to protect your credit

Were you affected by the Capital One breach, one of the largest thefts of data from any bank to date?

> Keep Reading

Pages

Blog Post

Amazon’s outrageous waste practice — and what you can do to stop it

Every year, Amazon destroys unsold and returned products by the millions. It's the pinnacle of unnecessary waste, and it has to stop.

Blog Post

Victory: EPA bans pesticide linked to brain damage in children

Blog Post

Channel your inner Woodsy Owl, the original zero-waste influencer

Celebrating my favorite government mascot’s 50th birthday by sharing the zero-waste tips I have made a part of my life.

Blog Post

Apple* and John Deere* shareholders file resolutions questioning their anti-repair stances

Shareholders press these leading Right to Repair opponents to explain themselves as regulatory pressure mounts 

Blog Post

PIRG's consumer watchdogs get to work in wake of massive T-Mobile data breach

Public Health

Victory: EPA bans pesticide linked to brain damage in children

The EPA has announced that it will ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos — which has been linked to brain damage in children — from use on food crops. PIRG and our partners delivered more than 27,000 petition signatures calling on the EPA to protect public health and ban chlorpyrifos.

 

Consumer Protection

PIRG's consumer watchdogs get to work in wake of T-Mobile data breach

Cell phone carrier T-Mobile has announced that nearly 55 million Americans were affected by a hack of its records, which in some cases compromised Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. In response, PIRG published a tip guide for how those affected can protect themselves against identity theft or "phishing" scams.

 

COVID-19

Federal vaccine mandate for nursing homes will save lives

President Joe Biden has made the right call for nursing home residents and workers by announcing that Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements will not be available to nursing homes that employ unvaccinated workers. The science is clear: Vaccines work, and we need to utilize them if we want to protect our loved ones in nursing homes.

 

Transportation

Proposed federal Clean Car standards are a step toward cleaner air

The Biden administration has announced plans to strengthen fuel economy and emissions standards for vehicles, despite industry lobbyists' push for weaker emissions rules. The transportation sector is America's No. 1 source of greenhouse gas pollution, which continues to threaten public health and contribute to global warming.

 
  • STOP THE OVERUSE OF ANTIBIOTICS
    The World Health Organization has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the top 10 global health threats. That's why reducing antibiotic overuse in food production is so important.
    TAKE ACTION
  • How safe is our food?
    Nationwide recalls ranging from romaine lettuce to millions of pounds of beef to Ritz and Goldfish crackers underscore that there’s a growing public health crisis we need to address.
    Find out
  • WATCH OUT FOR UNSAFE TOYS
    Our “Trouble in Toyland” report found boron in slime, choking hazards without the proper warning labels, “connected” toys that pose a privacy risk and more.
    GET THE FACTS
  • HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?
    One year after Equifax announced the worst data breach in history, a U.S. House committee has recommended weakening data breach laws. Tell Congress to protect Americans, not Equifax.
    TAKE ACTION

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