If you’re thinking of getting rid of your old mattress or throwing out some ripped or stained clothing, starting Tuesday, you can no longer put them in the trash.

Beginning Nov. 1, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) is expanding its waste bans to include mattresses, clothing, towels, bedding, and other textiles. This means they will need to be repurposed, reused, or recycled.

Banned items will now include bedding, clothing, curtains, fabric, footwear, towels, and similar items. Textiles containing mold, bodily fluids, insects, oil, or hazardous substances are exempt from the ban.

All sizes of mattresses are included in the ban, but notably, the mattress ban does not include mattress pads and toppers, sleeping bags, pillows, car beds, strollers, playpens, infant carriers, waterbeds, air mattresses, and mattresses from futons and sofa beds.

Why the ban is in place

According to MassDEP, Massachusetts residents and businesses dispose of approximately 230,000 tons of textiles each year. These materials account for about 5% of the waste that makes it to incinerators and landfills.

Mattresses pose a similar problem. More than 600,000 mattresses and box springs are thrown away each year in Massachusetts. And according to MassDEP, they are expensive to transport, hard to compact, take up lots of landfill space, and can damage incinerator processing equipment.

This need not be the case. MassDEP said about 85% of disposed textiles could be donated, reused, or recycled, while more than 75% of mattress components can be reused or recycled.

There are both environmental and economic benefits to recycling or donating mattresses and textiles, MassDEP said.

Massachusetts has many businesses that sort, reuse, upcycle, or convert used textiles into new products. It also has many charities and businesses that resell clothes, mattresses, and other textiles. So, MassDEP said, donating helps keep these local businesses afloat.

Keeping used textiles out of the trash is also beneficial for municipalities, businesses, and residents who can then spend less on waste disposal, MassDEP said.

Recycling fibers also saves natural resources and reduces carbon emissions by using existing materials instead of creating more, according to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association.

Read more: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/10/31/textile-mattress-waste-ban-goes-into-effect-nov-1-massachusetts-massdep/

Following the execution of a number of federal warrants Tuesday, 23 people are charged with trafficking counterfeit prescription pills in connection with a North Shore-based drug trafficking organization.

Authorities also seized more than 74,000 fake Adderall pills containing methamphetamine and more than 1,000 oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The investigation into this drug trafficking organization has been in the works since 2018, when authorities identified brothers Lawrence Michael Nagle and Christopher Nagle as leaders of the organization.

The Nagle drug trafficking organization allegedly distributed large quantities of various controlled substances including Adderall, Xanax, and oxycodone.

Read more: https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2022/10/27/23-arrested-74000-pills-confiscated-in-massive-north-shore-drug-raid/

About 85% of the fur used to produce garments comes from fur factory farms that exist specifically to raise animals like foxes, rabbits, raccoons, and mink for their fur. While the animal agriculture industry also hinges on killing animals, much of the fur trade relies on killing animals — not ordinarily used as food in the U.S. — solely for fur. The Cambridge ordinance targets these unique conditions of the fur trade!

Cambridge just became the fifth municipality in Massachusetts to ban the sale of fur within its community.

The ordinance, approved unanimously by the City Council at its meeting Monday night, will take effect Jan. 1, 2023, pending the approval of the state attorney general’s office.

In the ordinance, the City Council outlined some concerns about fur including risks to public health, environmental threats related to its production, and the roughly 100 million animals that are killed annually as part of the fur trade.

The ordinance also noted that although no stores in Cambridge currently sell fur, “nothing in our municipal code would prevent fur shops or sales."

The ban does have some exemptions including any used fur from secondhand stores, nonprofits, pawn shops, etc., and any “fur product used for traditional tribal, cultural, or spiritual purposes by a member of a federally recognized Native American tribe.”

The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell tweeted about the news, noting that Cambridge joins Wellesley, Weston, Brookline, and Plymouth, which have similar bans in place.

“People don’t realize how prevalent fur still is in winter clothing,” MSPCA advocacy specialist Elizabeth Magner said in a statement. “It’s used in the lining of coat hoods and even sometimes for the pompoms on hats. That’s why it’s important that cities and towns take steps like Cambridge has to ban fur.”

Read more: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/10/26/cambridge-adopts-ordinance-banning-fur-sales/

A Hadley woman is facing assault charges after allegedly unleashing a swarm of bees on sheriff’s deputies as they attempted to enforce an eviction last week.

Deputies were met with a cluster of protesters when they arrived at the $1.5 million Longmeadow home on Oct. 12 to enforce an eviction, according to MassLive.

Rorie Susan Woods, 55, allegedly pulled up to the scene in an SUV towing bee hives and began trying to open the hives to unleash the bees, the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

“A Sheriff’s deputy tried to stop her, but as the agitated bees started getting out and circling the area, he pulled back,” officials said. “She then smashed the lid, and flipped a hive off of the flatbed, making the bees extremely aggressive. They swarmed the area and stung several officers and other innocent bystanders who were nearby.”

Read more: https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2022/10/19/longmeadow-bees-arrest-eviction-hampden-county/