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Jodi Bart Holzband loves trash day - and perhaps now more than ever, since she visits the bins twice as often as usual since stay at home orders went into effect. (Photo by Bess Maple Holzband, age 5)
Jodi Bart Holzband looks forward to trash day all week.
"I love that feeling, that it's leaving my house," the Austin public relations consultant said.
Never more than right now, perhaps, because Holzband says her family is generating more trash and recycling at the home than they ever did in the days before the stay-at-home order kept the family of four home all day.
<p>"I'm taking out the kitchen trash twice as often," she said. "I'm so grateful that the trash and recycling are still being picked up."</p><p>The Holzbands certainly aren't alone. </p><p>Residents across the city, who are staying home to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, are disposing of 11% more trash and 15% more recycling from their homes than they were at this time last year, according to Austin Resource Recovery, which manages waste in the city. </p><p>The increase prompted the Austin City Council on Thursday to waive fees typically charged for overflowing residential trash cans, an estimated $8,000 per week, until the city lifts the social-distancing requirements and waste levels go back to average rates. </p><p>The ordinance is retroactive to March 23, the same week the stay-at-home orders went into effect, and is expected to cost some $96,000 in revenue from fees charged for extra trash for the next few months. The agency had projected $427,930 in revenue for the 2019-20 fiscal year from extra trash. </p><p>"Due to the unprecedented situation, we understand most households will be generating extra trash," said Austin Resource Recovery Director Ken Snipes. "We want to do our part to make these uncertain times easier for all." </p><p>Austin Resource Recovery had, in mid-March, already stopped charging $9.60 per extra bag or requiring residents to buy the "extra trash" stickers for $4, said public information specialist Memi Cardenas. </p><p>They have also halted all bulk and brush pickups after April 20 until further notice. </p><p>Residents have never been charged for extra recycling. </p><p>It's not just sheer time at home that's causing the increase, residents say. Every restaurant in town is required to serve their food only to go—meaning a lot more take-out and delivery containers landing in trash and recycling bins.</p><p>More home shopping also means more cardboard boxes and, in some cases, non-recyclable packing material. </p><p>According to the resolution, the fees were being waived not only to save Austinites some money, but also to discourage trips out of the house to other locations to drop off extra trash. The city's recycling center is currently closed.</p><p>The extra waste and pandemic circumstances increase the risks for sanitation workers, who Cardenas said are now all given sanitizer and disinfectant spray to use on their shifts. The city also has given them rubber gloves to wear beneath their current gear and has ordered masks, although the supply is currently going to hospitals and medical staff, she said.</p>
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A handful of lawsuits accusing InfoWars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of defamation against Sandy Hook victims will be allowed to move forward, despite Jones's attempts to squash them, The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.
<p>The four lawsuits, filed by parents of two children killed in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012, were filed in Travis County, where Jones is based. The parents argue they have suffered emotional distress after Jones's comments.</p><p>In reference to the deadly shooting, in which 20 young children and eight adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones claimed that "no one died" because it was a staged operation to demonize guns. After these comments, some of his followers reportedly harassed and stalked parents who were involved.</p><p>Neil Heslin, father of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, filed two lawsuits taking issue with Jones's statements that the Sandy Hook shooting was "a giant hoax" and disputing that Heslin held his dead son in his arms afterward. </p><p>Scarlett Lewis, mother of Jesse Lewis, took issue with Jones's statement saying the shooting was "as phony as a three dollar bill" and doubting the parents' grieving.</p><p>Citing that Jones believed the shooting was a "false flag" operation put on by gun activists, Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, filed a suit.</p><p>Similarly, after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, Jones made claims that students involved were "crisis actors" in a "deep state false flag operation." Jones also attacked survivor David Hogg, who was 17 at the time.</p><p>Another defamation lawsuit, relating to InfoWars misidentifying the Parkland shooter, was also allowed to move forward by The Texas Supreme Court. The incorrect information was left on the site for 13 hours, without a correction issued after it was taken down.</p><p>The Texas Supreme Court rejected all of the attempted dismissals on behalf of Jones's legal team without comment. However, Justices Jeff Boyd and John Devine dissented on the Pozner suit without giving a reason.</p><p>Jones rescinded his claims during a deposition in 2019, saying he was under a "form of psychosis" that made him believe the shootings and "basically ... everything was staged." He said this distrust resulted from "the media and the corporations lying so much."</p><p>Jones has a history of spreading misinformation, starting in the early 2010s, and has started many prevalent conspiracy theories. Jones has been vocal about conspiracies that the Sept. 11 attacks were an inside job, drinking water is contaminated with chemicals that "turn the freaking frogs gay" and that Democratic officials are involved in a sex-trafficking ring.</p>
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