Kansas City is about to bottle up its trash better. Bins will replace bags, keeping animals out of the garbage. But the convenience of a lidded trash bin may come at a cost for the environment.
Kansas City set a goal in 2009 to divert 80% of its waste from landfills. Now 15 years later, the city is halfway there. The bins, with their bigger capacity, threaten to reverse that progress. And it might still take more effort to keep trash safe from raccoons.
Takeaways: When Rick Meyers started knocking on neighbors’ doors to talk about a proposed landfill about a mile from his home, he didn’t appreciate the scale his campaign would take on. The door-knocking turned into an email list. That begat a Facebook group with nearly 5,000 members. Then a political action committee came online to […]
January kicked off with bone-chilling, pipe-bursting temperatures.
By the end of the month, Kansas City residents can expect energy bills, many topping $200, extending their wintertime misery.
Those bills — ranking among the most expensive in the country — come approved by regulators in both states.
Takeaways: A growing program in Kansas and Missouri aims to set up more kids for environmental jobs — and it’s focusing on foster kids. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is spending more than $450,000 to help foster children in the two states land environmental jobs. Those kids spend days in the classroom studying for key […]
Takeaways: Kansas regulators dialed back electric rate hikes that Evergy wanted to impose on its customers. Electric rates will now go up slightly for former Westar customers in the central part of Kansas and tick down for customers who used to get their kilowatts from Kansas City Power & Light. Evergy says, on average, its […]
Takeaways: Subdivisions, restaurants and retail shops pop up around Lee’s Summit and Raymore amid rising property values as single-family homes spread across what was farmland just a few years ago. But residents say a proposed 430-acre landfill could threaten that growth. And they’ve rallied together to block it — raising money and deploying lobbyists to […]
Homeowners eager for a lower-maintenance, planet-friendlier lawns are navigating a fine line between going more natural without drawing the wrath of code inspectors or neighbors who see prairie plants as weeds that threaten their home values.
The recent Midwest heat wave was “not typical,” but hot summer temperatures in Kansas City and beyond have people worried about their energy costs and utility bills.
At KC CARE Health Centers, more people of all ages have been coming in lately with symptoms associated with seasonal allergies — uncharacteristic for this time of year — and worsening symptoms of asthma. Sarah Dashwood, a physician with the center, said this concerning uptick has occurred within the last couple of weeks. The increase […]
For years, Kansas City has focused on reducing energy consumption among the largest contributors. But it is struggling to get building owners to cooperate.
