Don’t Waste Arizona is a small environmental activist organization in Phoenix, Arizona. Areas of concern for the organization include air pollution, water pollution, landfills, toxics issues, left-of-center environmental justice, environmental education, and opposition to nuclear energy. ¹

Background

Don’t Waste Arizona was established in Phoenix, Arizona in 1992. It started opposing a proposed ENSCO toxic waste incinerator project in 1991 and continued working on other environmental issues in Arizona. It began filing lawsuits and regulatory complaints against polluters, focusing on landfill management and hazardous waste oversight. ¹

Don’t Waste Arizona provides technical, legal, and organizational assistance to communities in Arizona where there is an environmental problem. It claims that “unless we organize to push our government to protect us and our environment, there is certainly no one in government or industry who will.” ²

Its last published tax filing was a short-form tax return for 2013 that reported $31,250 in revenues, $3,151 in expenses, and net assets of $30,849. ³

Advocacy

In 2019, Don’t Waste Arizona signed a group letter along with more than 600 organizations to Congress urging Congress to halt all fossil fuel leasing, extraction, and subsidies; transition to weather-dependent energy by 2035; invest in weather-dependent-energy-powered public transportation; eliminate the sale of vehicles with combustion engines; “invest in a new green economy that is designed, built and governed by communities and workers”; and uphold the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The letter denounced nuclear power and other power solutions such as carbon capture and storage, waste-to-energy, and biomass energy, which they described as “dirty energy” approaches. Other organizations that signed the letter include 350.org, the Climate Justice Alliance, CODEPINK, Earthworks, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace, Indivisible, the Institute for Policy Studies, North American Climate, Conservation and Environment, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Progressive Democrats of America, Riverkeeper, and the Sunrise Movement. ⁴

In 2025 Don’t Waste Arizona was one of over 400 groups that signed an open letter publicly supporting Greenpeace’s actions during violent protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. Greenpeace was found civilly liable in 2025 for its role in delaying the pipeline’s construction and causing billions of dollars in damage. Other signatories in support of Greenpeace included civil disobedience and protest groups such as the Sunrise Movement, Extinction Rebellion, Community Movement Builders, Honor the Earth, and Direct Action Everywhere, and large left-wing organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Tides Center, the Service Employees International Union, and the American Federation of Teachers. ^{5  6}

Litigation

Don’t Waste Arizona has filed almost 100 lawsuits since it was established in 1992 and has filed several civil rights complaints. It has been involved in environmental issues in Hayden, Arizona since 1997, “helping the poisoned community there get EPA‘s intervention and a clean-up of toxic soils and air.” ⁷ Many of its civil rights complaints have been associated with the ASARCO copper smelter located in Hayden, Arizona. A 2002 complaint claimed that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) did not provide low-income Latino residents opportunities to formally make a complaint about air pollution from the nearby ASARCO copper smelter. ⁸ A 2007 complaint argued that ADEQ mishandled an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toxic reductions grant through deliberate discrimination, leaving South Phoenix’s minority communities with no relief, and by misuse of grant funds, poor oversight, and administrative failures. ⁹

In 2000 Don’t Waste Arizona president Steve Brittle filed a qui tam lawsuit against the City of Phoenix seeking $37 million, alleging the city kept federal funds that should have been deposited into the United States Department of the Treasury. A qui tam lawsuit allows private citizens to sue on behalf of the federal government. Critics have accused Brittle of pursuing cases such as this one for personal gain, since qui tam plaintiffs can receive a portion of any recovered funds. ¹⁰

From 2018 to 2019 Don’t Waste Arizona filed a lawsuit against Hickman’s Egg Ranch for failing to report ammonia emissions exceeding 1,000 pounds per day. Judgement was in favor of Don’t Waste Arizona. Hickman’s Egg Ranch paid a civil penalty of $3,000 to the United States Department of the Treasury plus $55,184 in attorney fees and $13,544 in costs to Don’t Waste Arizona. ^{11  12}

In 2019 environmental law organization Earthjustice partnered with Don’t Waste Arizona, along with other environmental groups including the Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Environmental Integrity Project, Sierra Club, and the Waterkeeper Alliance in challenging the EPA in allowing industrial livestock operations to avoid reporting toxic emissions to the state. ¹³

Leadership

Stephen Brittle is president of Don’t Waste Arizona as of its April 2025 state filing. ¹⁴ He has been a self-employed consultant since January 1992, a volunteer on the Maricopa County Local Emergency Planning Committee for ten years, and a longtime member of Intel Corporation’s Citizen Advisory Group for the Intel facility in Chandler, Arizona. ^{7  15}

Scott Meyer is secretary and treasurer of Don’t Waste Arizona as of its April 2025 state filing. ^{14  16} He has been with the organization since its formation. ¹⁷

1. “About Don’t Waste Arizona.” Don’t Waste Arizona. Accessed December 6, 2025. https://dontwastearizona.org/about.php
2. “Membership.” Don’t Waste Arizona. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://dontwastearizona.org/member.php
3. Don’t Waste Arizona. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990-EZ – Part I). 2013.
4. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed December 6, 2025. https://earthworks.org/resources/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
5. Robert Stilson. “Greenpeace, nonprofits, and illegal protests.” Capital Research Center. October 20, 2025. Accessed December 5, 2025. https://capitalresearch.org/article/greenpeace-nonprofits-and-illegal-protests/
6. “Open Letter to Energy Transfer.” Greenpeace. Accessed December 5, 2025. https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/energy-transfer-open-letter/
7. “About Don’t Waste Arizona.” Don’t Waste Arizona. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://dontwastearizona.org/about.php
8. “Don’t Waste Arizona, Inc. v. Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.” January 28, 2002. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://dontwastearizona.org/pdfs/civil_rights1.pdf
9. “Don’t Waste Arizona, Inc. and Individual Members of the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for the South Phoenix Multi-Media Toxics Reduction Project (SPMMTRP) v Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.” July 11, 2007. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://dontwastearizona.org/pdfs/civil_rights4.pdf
10. Gilbert Garcia. “Don’t Waste America.” Phoenix New Times. March 23, 2000. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/dont-waste-america-6417485/
11. “Don’t Waste Arizona Incorporated, Plaintiff, v. Hickman’s Egg Ranch Incorporated, Defendant.” Casemine. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5bac5b18ad1ed00c7ff05fba
12. “Don’t Waste Arizona Incorporated v. Hickman’s Egg Ranch Incorporated.” Court Listener. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6337193/dont-waste-arizona-incorporated-v-hickmans-egg-ranch-incorporated/
13. “Trump’s EPA Rule Says Animal Production Operations Shouldn’t Report Their Toxic Air Pollution.” Earthjustice. June 4, 2019. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://earthjustice.org/press/2019/trump-s-epa-rule-says-factory-meat-farms-shouldn-t-report-their-toxic-air-pollution
14. “Don’t Waste Arizona.” Arizona Corporation Commission. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://ecorp.azcc.gov/BusinessSearch/BusinessInfo?entityNumber=02410706
15. LinkedIn – Stephen Brittle. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-brittle-8b8b7015/
16. “Corporation Statement of Change.” Arizona Corporation Commission. Filed April 22, 2025. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://ecorp.azcc.gov/CommonHelper/GetFilingDocuments?barcode=25042215546329&__ncforminfo=24avW0LSgrM5F2zwE1PAksfiU8pzaZQdspZXpERFUigYqKNNoRpQDMlDpd7svXJWtQugQXnlMOuYdS40vIltKA4Mu3o–mTW
17. “2025 Annual Report.” Arizona Corporation Commission. Filed April 7, 2025. Accessed December 7, 2025. https://ecorp.azcc.gov/CommonHelper/GetFilingDocuments?barcode=25040704218119&__ncforminfo=24avW0LSgrM5F2zwE1PAksfiU8pzaZQdpetczPwl4kyC-TtKUPK_UNChoCR21Rr5wNFdeyl99HI-cPm0qO3W8mX4eiUrRk8i