Reduce, Ruse, Recycle: Waste Management Discriminations Against Paterson NJ’s Arab American Community (1990-2024)

Yousef Mortaja

Site Description
Author Biography
Final Report
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Image Analysis
Data Analysis
Oral Interviews
Video Story

Site Description:

GAETA Recycling began operations 1990 in the midst of a vibrant Arab American community in Southern Paterson, NJ. More than 30 years later, in 2024, a hearing was held within that same community discussing GAETA’s proposal to expand their waste transfer and material recovery operations. However, with a history of regulatory non-compliances, and its environmentally unfavorable location for inhabitants, residents pushed back. Arab Americans though, comprising the majority of the neighborhood, appeared to be deliberately left unaware of the hearing— a hearing where, in a neighborhood where Arabic is the main language after English, only English and Spanish documents were found. This study looks to examine the underlying decisions which led to why in a predominantly Arabic speaking neighborhood, the Arab Americans were treated like they didn’t exist. For what reasons did GAETA decide to establish operations in Southern Paterson? Why was an examination of existing census data and more than 30 years amongst a predominantly Arab American population not conducive enough for GAETA to translate their hearing documents and other materials into Arabic? How has the health of Arab Americans worsened as GAETA expanded their operations over time? This study takes a closer look at the Arab American struggle as minorities without minority status, and how aspects such their invisibility on the US census may lead to environmental discriminations. This study also hopes to provide greater insight into the mechanisms behind the injustices plaguing Arab Americans, and how this fits into the broader American perception of Arab Americans pre/post 9-11.

Author Biography:

I am a fourth year student studying Applied Physics and Mathematics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Final Report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgiqLfg2hIg

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Primary Sources:

Primary Source Report

Certification of the March 9, 1999 Amendment to the Passaic County District Solid Waste Management Plan

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Office of the Commissioner

Year: 1999

Location: NJDEP Passaic County SWMPACAA

This source is a document from 1999 from the NJDEP’s office of the commissioner concerning GAETA Recycling’s amendment to the Passaic County district solid waste management amendment plan. Since this document contains different government agencies contacted concerning the amendment, and those agencies who objected, commented, or refused to do so regarding it, the document may be able to provide useful insight into GAETA Recycling’s operational behaviors and violations in 1999, 9 years after, the EJIS states, the facility began operations and during one of their early expansions. The document also contains several issues mentioned by the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste (DEP) highlighting several possible areas of concern regarding GAETA Recycling, their location, and their proposed expansion, all of which may prove to be useful when observing how GAETA Recycling has operated and how that may have impacted the Arab American community in the area.

An email from the Ironbound Community Corporation, Clean Water Action, and Earthjustice Addressed to Gaeta Recycling Co., Inc. (See page 71 of document)

Date: July 12, 2024

Location: NJDEP Uploads Gaeta EJIS Public Hearing Municipal Clerk cover letter

This email lists several comments/concerns, conditions, and suggestions regarding GAETA Recycling’s expansion. The email brought up several important points such as the Gaeta’s “failure to understand the community in which its facility is located” and provided insight into a possible house of worship (HOW) environmental discrimination with Omar Mosque down the street. This email provided several points, the way in which Gaeta addresses such, can give several key insights into addressing environmental discriminations, an example of such points being “Gaeta’s Permit Should Include Adequate Reporting Provisions to Prevent Further Throughput Exceedances” for, as an example, a lack of adequate reporting may indicate some of the company’s motives

In the Matter of Gaeta Recycling Co., Inc.

New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division

Year: 2007

Location: Justia New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division – Unpublished Opinions Decisions 2007

This source contains documentation of the early history (1985-2004/2006) of Gaeta Recycling as well as an appeal by the City of Paterson and the Islamic Center of Passaic County from to the issuing of a solid waste facility permit renewal to Gaeta Recycling. The history is useful to highlight the early stages of Gaeta recycling, and the appeal is useful to see which areas of injustices were impacting the Arab American community.

Solid Waste Facility Permit

Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste

Year: 1998

Location: Division of Sustainable Waste Management (DEP Website)

This early solid waste facility permit for Gaeta Recycling is a very important document to look at since the community response to Gaeta up to this point (1998) was unheard of and after providing notice and public comment for the 1999 amendment-2 there were no objections or challenges to the certification. Looking at the contents of the permit may help explain or reveal some more information regarding a lack of objection/community response up to this point.

Paterson Planning Board Resolution Opposing Gaeta Expansion (Submitted an Email OPRA Request)

Date: July 25, 2000

Location: Paterson Municipal Clerk

After the DEP supplied copies of Gaeta’s application for major modification, various groups responded listing a number of concerns, the Paterson planning board submitting a resolution opposing this expansion. Taking a look at the contents of the resolution may help us look into what possible environmental injustices against Arab Americans could have been taking place along with what environmental concerns the Paterson Planning Board enumerated.

Primary Source Analysis

Email from the Ironbound Community Corporation, Clean Water Action, and Earthjustice to Gaeta Recycling Co., Inc. (See page 71 of document) 

This is an email from the Ironbound Community Corporation, Clean Water Action, and Earthjustice to Gaeta Recycling Co., Inc. under the subject heading “Comments on Gaeta Solid Waste Transfer Station and Material Recovery Facility Permit Applications”. The email is a submission of comments under New Jersey Environmental Justice Law regarding Gaeta Recycling Co., Inc. and their Environmental Justice Impact Statement of June 2024. On top of expressing that Gaeta’s operations and proposed expansion will make worse the condition of the overburdened community in which the facility is located and argued that a number of environmental injustices against Arab Americans took place.

First, the email begins with the header “Public Hearing Issues” and subsequently mentions Gaeta’s “failure to understand the community in which its facility is located,” and that Gaeta, “failed to ensure community members could participate in the hearing”. Their words, “failure to understand”, and “failure to ensure” indicate that the organizations believe Gaeta did not fulfill their environmental justice law obligations in ensuring Arab Americans could participate in the hearing. They describe how Gaeta’s facility is located in the largest Palestinian-American enclave in the U.S. but that the hearing contained no Arabic documents. They also state, “Nearly every community commenter at the public hearing noted that Arabic is the primary language, besides English, spoken within the neighborhood,” further emphasizing the failure on the part of Gaeta. Second, the three organizations stated that the Gaeta facility was located on the same block as the Omar Bin Al-Khattab Mosque, “but that Gaeta had apparently failed to do any outreach to the community through the mosque”. Again, the words, “apparently failed to do any outreach to the community through the mosque” indicates that the three organizations believe Gaeta fell short in their environmental justice obligations. They also state, “Gaeta should have done outreach directly through the mosque”, and, “Gaeta seemingly failed to involve them in the process of pursuing the permit modifications it is seeking”. The words, “should have done” and “seemingly failed to involve” indicate a deficiency on the part of Gaeta in fulfilling necessary requirements and that the Arab Americans were left out. Third, the organizations mentioned regarding multiple commenters that, “although they lived near the facility, they did not receive the mail outreach that Gaeta stated it had sent out”. The word choice here, “that Gaeta stated it had sent out” again highlights that the organizations believe Gaeta fell short when it came to the requirements. They also state that, “Gaeta should have ensured that any resident who lives nearby the facility received notice well in advance of the public hearing so that they could participate”, and the words “should have ensured” indicate that same failure. While these latter outreach comments may apply to Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans alike, when coupled with and considered alongside the two previously described situations above they prove to truly emphasize how much the Arab Americans were left unconsidered.

Secondary Sources:

Sara E Grineski et al, Distributional Environmental Injustices for a Minority Group without Minority Status: Arab Americans and Residential Exposure to Carcinogenic Air Pollution in the US, National Library of Medicine, 2019.

This source is a medicinal journal article looking at the carcinogenic air pollution in Arab American enclaves consisting of Moroccans, Egyptians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, etc.

 

This source can potentially be an important reference when it comes to looking at the carcinogenic effects on Arab enclaves throughout the United States more generally, but more pertinent to the discussion of Paterson, may be an important source of demographic data on the Arab demographics which make up most of the Paterson population. This may also be used to compare Paterson health and socioeconomic information with that of another Arab community/demographic in other parts of the country. The goal of that would be to potentially see the differences in the environmental impacts on varying communities throughout the nation and pick out what would make Paterson unique. This source also contains some other potentially relevant background/historical information pertaining to why discrimination would even be taking place in the first place, and it mentions different sources of data and their lack of information regarding people identifying to a middle eastern or northern African background.

 

Shawn Brennan, Historic Paterson, New Jersey, EBSCO, 2024

This is a source on historic Paterson, New Jersey touching on its development throughout the 1900s.

 

This source contains potentially useful information about the chronological history of events which took place in Paterson, NJ, and it especially has a section on Paterson in the  twentieth century. Knowing what Paterson was like during this time period can prove to be very significant information since it may inform how world war two and post world war two events shaped the way Paterson came to be in the late 1900s when GAETA would come to establish one of its operations in Southern Paterson. This source provides historical context, and having a good historical context of Paterson may allow us to better understand the place where our events our taking place, and how did the actors involve end up situated where they are today. A good understanding of the history may also allow us to better piece together and understand what it is that could have led to the injustices faced by Arab Americans in Southern Paterson, as well as possibly improve our understanding of how the pre 9-11 perception of Arab Americans ties into decisions related to integration within their communities.

 

Suhad Tabahi and Jacob Bucher, The Social Construction of Arab Identity in the U.S.: The Historical Complicity and the Modern Responsibility of Social Work, Western Michigan University The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 2020

This source provides a historical account of the Arab migrations to the United States, and provides several legal accounts surrounding the Arab identity in the United States.

 

The information contained in this source may prove to be very useful in several respects. The first is with respect to establishing the social context and the history of how these Arabs came to the United States in the first place, and it may even show or help us find out how these enclaves even first formed. Secondly, the article provides a theory which may explain how the Arabs were perceived from a racial standpoint in the United States. After that the article brings mention of how these Arabs were white by census. This point is especially important since although they may have been white on census, that may not have necessarily meant that they were white anywhere else. The article also brings some court situations/what the court rulings may say regarding whether or not the Arabs are “white”, as well as how the Arabs were perceived from what may have been a social work perspective. All of these points/ideas may all prove to be very useful when it come to looking into how the American perception of Arab Americans pre 9-11 contribute to environmental injustices that would be faced by Arab Americans.

 

 

Image Analysis:

Data Analysis:

 

 

 

Gaeta Recycling Co. Inc. is located in the heart of Little Ramallah, South Paterson, New Jersey. Operating in this location for more than 30 years, the already overburdened community of Arab and Non-Arab American residents alike have had to deal with the environmental pollution consequences associated with the waste management plant. Two sets of data were collected, one constrained only to the block group containing Gaeta’s facility (block group 340311830013) and the other within a circular buffer of radius 0.55 miles around that same facility reaching out into little Ramallah. Gaeta used the former block group data to justify language selection decisions in their public hearing held on June 12, 2024, which included English and Spanish documents, but excluded Arabic documents. As noted by commenters at the hearing, Arabic is the primary language after English spoken in the community. Here we seek to answer the questions: how does that community addressed by Gaeta Recycling in their public hearing relate to the actual communities affected by their environmental impact, and how can companies sufficiently satisfy governmental requirements while still causing harm at the expense of others?

Naturally, with the recycling plant’s increased expansion comes a greater traffic influx to and from their facility. As can be seen from the above block group data, diesel particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide emissions are 2.2 and 2.1 times greater than the national average respectively. Furthermore, traffic proximity and volume is 1.8 times the national average. Garbage trucks being a significant source of diesel particulate matter and greenhouse gas emissions, and an increase in the tonnage of waste being handled at their facility means greater traffic, and hence greater pollution and harm to the community if the trucks remain environmentally unfriendly. If this increased pollution is not enough, the block group containing Gaeta’s facility is already 4.8 times closer to a superfund site when compared to the US average. Clearly, the block surrounding Gaeta Recycling is already overburdened as it.

As noted previously, Gaeta extracted data from the block group 340311830013 mentioned above in justifying the language selection decisions at their hearing. Taking a look at the “Residential Populations” graph for this block group, the majority of residents are Hispanic with the population of white non-Hispanic alone (a category which includes Middle Easterners and North Africans) being less than the US average. Now, it is important to note that while the white non-Hispanic alone category can include Middle Easterners and North Africans, the presence of such a category/population does not guarantee that Middle Easterners and North Africans make up a part of it in a given location. This is consistent with the fact that no one was reported in this block group (as shown in the same “Residential Populations” graph) to live in a limited English-speaking household, and with what applying our slightly larger 0.55-mile radius buffer reveals. Taking this wider look, applying this new circular buffer about the Gaeta facility, we see a very different population. While the Hispanic population in the region is still larger than 2.5 times the national average, the previously non-existent, now largest category, limited English makes an appearance at 4.7 times the national average— reaching close to twice the size of the initial block group’s largest demographic. Earlier, limiting our scope to solely the block group data, this category of limited English speakers was, again, zero— non-existent. Additionally, our wider look reveals additional, previously unseen demographic information. While in the block group low-income levels are significantly less than the national average (at 0.2x the national average), we find in the broader Arab American community that the percent low-income is slightly more than the national average (at 1.1x the national average).

Not only does our circular buffer continue to emphasize the broader environmental consequences of the proposed Gaeta expansion, but it also reveals the primary demographic of the community. As shown previously, and consistent with the block group data, greenhouse gas and diesel pollution are both more than twice the national average, and residents are both 4.8 and 4.2 times closer to a superfund site and hazardous waste than the rest of the United States respectively. Additionally, we see that in the broader Arab American community the lead paint indicator is reported at 2.3 times the national average compared to only 1.4 times the national average within the block group. Again, it is no surprise that the community is already overburdened as it is— whether we look within the block group or slightly more outside of it. The big difference, however, lies in who the people are who are shown to be affected by this pollution. Taking only the block group data into consideration, the large Arab American community surrounding the Gaeta facility is left almost, if not entirely, out of the picture. A small but sufficiently sized circular buffer, however, shows them to be the primary demographic. While English and Spanish documents at a public hearing may cater to some of the South Paterson demographic, the large Arab American population are made unable to attend either due to a lack of notification, or translated documents, resulting from their language barrier.

Companies and corporations, when made to comply with certain fairness guidelines and criteria may end up making decisions that are at the expense of the well-being of the community they are affecting. As Gaeta states in their June 12, 2024 hearing response to comments, “To comply with the requirements of Subchapter 4, Process for Meaningful Participation, the two most prominent languages utilized within the community at large as determined by U.S. Census and EJMPAP data, English and Spanish, were selected to provide Public Notice and Public Hearing information to the populace.” However as shown above, and as mentioned by numerous public commenters at Gaeta’s public hearing, Arabic is the second most spoken language in the community after English. The affected community contains a population of limited English speakers more than 4.5 times the national average, with Spanish speakers noticeably less, although still significant. Such means through which companies fulfill governmental criteria and requirements may not allow for affected communities, such as the Arab American community in Paterson, to react or respond to that which may have an impact on their health and lives. If many non-Arab community residents were left unaware of the hearing, what do you make of those Arab American community members who cannot even speak English? Ensuring that all members of the community can voice their concern plays a pivotal part in ensuring the health and wellbeing of those impacted and making sure that all affected individuals are considered plays a primary role in doing so.

 

 

Oral Interviews: