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Blog Post | Solid Waste

To boost the country's recycling rates, we need an accurate measurement first | Henry Hintermeister

"We are misrepresenting and inflating the amount of material recycled."

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Blog Post

Why are we spending $20 billion of taxpayer money to help fossil fuel companies accelerate the climate crisis? | Aaron Colonnese

Our money is quite literally being used to hurtle us faster toward climate disaster.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Solid Waste

Comprehensive bill calls for U.S. to move beyond plastic

WASHINGTON -- As plastic pollution becomes an increasingly dire problem, elected officials in both chambers of Congress introduced legislation Thursday to address the issue. On Capitol Hill today, Sen. Jeff Merkley (OR) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (CA) unveiled the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021, a bill to improve the health of our people and our planet.


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Blog Post

Court case puts air ambulance memberships in spotlight. What does this mean for consumers? | William McGovern

Air ambulance bills can run in the thousands of dollars. Some companies sell "memberships" to consumers. But this option may not be a smart purchase for most consumers. 

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Financial Reform

PIRGs Join 300+ Groups To Urge Congress To Rescind "Fake Lender Rule"

The state PIRGs and  U.S. PIRG joined 300+ consumer, faith and civil rights groups urging Congress to rescind a "fake lender" midnight regulation, which would allow predatory lending, even in 18 states and the District of Columbia where usury caps protect over 110 million consumers. 

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News Release | US PIRG | COVID-19

Nursing homes still don’t have enough masks, gowns, other PPE

A new analysis by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group found that 8 percent of nursing homes nationwide had a critical shortage of surgical-grade N95 masks, as of Dec. 27. And 4 to 6 percent of homes reported shortages in at least one other category of PPE.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

Statement: CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger resigns

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger submitted her resignation Wednesday soon after the inauguration of new President Joe Biden. Resignation opens seat for President Biden’s new nominee Rohit Chopra.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | COVID-19

Statement: COVID-19 deaths reach another grim milestone: 400,000

The number of U.S. deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic surpassed 400,000 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Consumer Protection

Statement: USPIRG applauds Biden nominees Chopra to head CFPB and Gensler to chair SEC

President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he intends to nominate Rohit Chopra as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director and Gary Gensler as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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News Release | U.S. PIRG | Financial Reform

Historic legislation to prevent predatory loans passes Illinois General Assembly

Illiinois PIRG applauds passage of predatory lending reform capping usury ceiling at 36% APR. Measure sent to governor. Illinois will become the 18th state, along with the District of Columbia, that effectively bans payday loans.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Public Health

Glyphosate Pesticide in Beer and Wine

Roundup is everywhere. As the most commonly used agrichemical in the world, Roundup and its main active ingredient, glyphosate, is showing up in places people do not expect, such as food and drinks.1 In this report, we tested beer and wine and found glyphosate in beer and wine from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. We even found glyphosate in some unexpected places, such as in some organic varieties.

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Report | MontPIRG Citizen Advocate | Consumer Protection

Driving Into Debt

In much of America, access to a car is all but required to hold a job or lead a full and vibrant life. Generations of car-centric transportation policies – including lavish spending on roads, sprawl-inducing land use policies, and meager support for other modes of transportation – have left millions of Americans fully dependent on cars for daily living.

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Report | MontPIRG | Transportation

Climate Solutions from Day One

New governors are getting ready to take office in 20 states, from Florida to Alaska. As America’s newly elected governors prepare to take on their states’ biggest challenges, they should prioritize taking bold action on the greatest challenge of our time: climate change.

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund | Transportation

Paying for Electric Buses

Most of America’s school and transit buses run on diesel, a highly-polluting fuel, but there is a better option. All-electric buses are here, and they’re cleaner, healthier and save money for transit agencies, school districts and bus contractors to run in the long-term. 

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Report | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

A Citizen's Guide to Reducing Energy Waste

The future is here—but we’re living in the past.

Clean energy from the sun and wind can provide for our energy needs without the global consequences of pollution, yet we’re still producing and consuming virtually all of our energy in ways that do lasting damage to our environment, our health and our climate. To make matters worse, much of the dirty energy we produce goes to waste.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips

Consumers struggle as CFPB complaints break records, report finds | Henry Hintermeister

"The surge in complaints is a signal of the strain the pandemic put on consumers, and of the minefield of tricks and traps they face in the financial marketplace."

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips

Shopping for safe cosmetics shouldn’t be hard. That’s why we’re partnering with Clearya. | Gina Werdel

A free Chrome extension and mobile app created by a passionate couple helps customers easily find non-toxic consumer products as they shop online.

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Blog Post | Consumer Tips

With $1,400 payments on the way, here's what to do, and not do | Teresa Murray

85 percent of Americans are expected to get money -- without the need for you do anything, including clicking any email links, providing any information by phone or paying any fees.

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Blog Post

Half of U.S. states looking to give Americans the Right to Repair | Nathan Proctor

25 states have introduced or carried over Right to Repair legislation so far this year

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Blog Post | COVID-19

Here’s what doctors think you should know when communicating about the COVID-19 vaccine | Henry Hintermeister

“We don’t attack those negative messages. We just have to profoundly overwhelm the senses with the positive messages — in addition to showing them the spot on your arm where you got the shot.”

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Blog Post

U.S. PIRG endorses bipartisan bill to end hunger on college campuses

A bipartisan consensus is forming around at least one issue: battling hunger among college students.

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Blog Post

Right to Repair campaign pushes Apple to make some initial changes

Apple is starting to get the message: Growing numbers of consumers are done putting up with stuff they can't repair.

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Blog Post

PIRG calls for improvements in food recall system after CDC reports yet another E. coli outbreak

Here we go again: In April, another illness outbreak was tied to contaminated food, this time sickening over 170 people in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee and Virginia.

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Blog Post

After U.S. PIRG Education Fund report, Wells Fargo eliminates some student debit card fees

After MontPIRG reported on problems in its debit card practices, Wells Fargo took steps to eliminate some "surprise" fees on student cards.

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Blog Post

We're calling on Wendy's to 'Hold the Antibiotics' from its beef supply chain

How can the country's third-largest burger chain help save the cornerstone of modern medicine? By buying only beef raised without the routine use of antibiotics.

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News Release | U.S. PIRG

Students host hundreds of local actions for Youth Earth Week

BOSTON - The Student PIRGs, a student environmental organizing group, is partnering with local organizations, student governments and elected officials to host in-person and virtual actions to celebrate Youth Earth Week, a national effort of more than 250 actions around the country to protect the environment, from April 19 to 23.

Blog Post

'Build Back Better' plan would transform America's aging infrastructure

The United States is in need of an infrastructure overhaul.

Blog Post

The costs of the digital divide are higher than ever. Repair can help.

Millions of Americans stand on the wrong side of the digital divide. It’s time we fix that.

Blog Post

Illegal warranty voiding highlights need for FTC action

When consumers don’t have time to wait for authorized repair, they shouldn’t be faulted for finding alternatives.

News Release | U.S. PIRG Education Fund

New survey: 43 major appliance companies void warranties for independent repair, despite consumer protection laws

A new survey from U.S. PIRG Education Fund finds all 43 appliance manufacturers we surveyed would consider voiding the warranty if a device had “unauthorized” repair, despite a 2018 warning from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Transportation

'Build Back Better' plan would transform America's infrastructure

President Biden's infrastructure package takes a fix-it-first approach toward repairing the nation's highways and bridges, and includes key provisions for expanding electric transportation, getting the lead out of drinking water, and strengthening the electric grid.

 

Solid Waste

Toxic waste cleanups are lagging. We need polluters to pay to clean up their messes.

The United States has a toxic waste problem. But as the financial burden for cleaning up that waste has shifted primarily to taxpayers, cleanups are lagging behind.

 

Solid Waste

Nation's strongest plastic waste bill returns to Congress

The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act would install a national bottle bill, ban some of the worst single-use plastics, and shift more financial responsibility for collecting and processing plastic waste onto plastics producers.

 

Solid Waste

To boost the country's recycling rates, we need an accurate measurement

The Environmental Protection Agency set a goal of boosting the United States' recycling rate from 32 to 50 percent by 2030. We commend this target — but there are a few things we first need to fix about how the agency counts "recycling."

 
  • 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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This Earth Day

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