Wayne Huizenga, the kingpin behind the growth of Waste Management
(WMX) and then Blockbuster Video, developed businesses that practice racism,
environmental degradation, government exploitation and law breaking.
Huizenga and his cousins, Waste Management immediate past president
Dean Buntrock and Board member Peter Huizenga, followed their immigrant
grandfather into the scavenger business. In their first year in business,
Huizenga
crusaded across the country purchasing 90 scavenger companies. Following the
tradition of placing dumps in neighborhoods inhabited by the powerless, they
sited
more and more of them in Black and Hispanic communities across America. In
Dayton, Ohio, the largest waste management company (WMX) in the world is
racist. WMX selected a site in the African-American community inhabited not
by
poor but by middle and upper income people. The landmark study by the United
Church of Christ has documented their racist activity.
WMX undermines the environment. In Dayton, Ohio, Waste Management
chose their site in a highly populated area. Worse still, it is right at the
sole source
aquifer line. The aquifer provides fresh drinking water for the metropolis.
Eventually, the business-oriented Ohio Environmental Protection Agency forced
WMX to eliminate a section of the landfill because it was over the aquifer!
The
dump is still over watery sand and is a threat to the entire Dayton area
water
supply.
In Dayton, Ohio, Waste Management refused to compete for the landfill
site bidding. Instead they sued the City of Dayton and settled out of court
with a
$26 million payoff to the city. WMX cajoled the city into an agreement.
Huizenga
has succeeded in monopolizing the waste management industry and video
distribution (through Blockbuster) by eliminating competition with the same
ruthlessness. Monopolies are illegal in the United States. Huizenga's
history
exemplifies how the Federal government refuses to enforce its Sherman
Anti-Trust
laws.
WMX compromises government. In Dayton, Ohio, Waste Management exploited
Dayton's government with its payoff. It gained huge favors from
Ohio's
EPA for a 40% site enlargement so that the dump would become Dayton's highest
landmark, visible to all. WMX's history is strewn with convictions for
government
corruption and exploitation. It hires former government officials at a rapid
pace. In
1996 INFACT singled it out with a corruption award. WMX and
WMX the Huizenga family have no respect for the law and manipulate it
with regularity. In Dayton, Ohio, WMX broke the law by siting over an
aquifer,
siting in a minority community, concealing its survey showing that the site
was
dangerously over the aquifer, and misusing the judicial and legislative
systems to
gain an agreement with the City of Dayton. WMX and Huizenga have no respect
for the law and manipulate it with regularity.