Groups Push State to Strengthen Trash plan

Posted by Sylvia Broude on

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE         CONTACT:

                                                    Sylvia Broude, 617-747-4407

                                                                       

 

GROUPS PUSH STATE TO STRENGTHEN TRASH PLAN

Call on Governor Patrick and DEP to ‘Walk the Walk’ and Fulfill Promise on Zero Waste

 

Worcester, MA – Local recycling activists gathered with statewide environmental groups and town government officials to call on the Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and the Patrick Administration to move the state in a different direction.  Responding to the draft Solid Waste Master Plan for 2010-2020, released by MassDEP on July 2^nd, the group said that the plan needs to go farther to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in Massachusetts. They held a news conference in advance of the state’s second hearing on the draft plan, and stood outside DEP’s Worcester office calling on the state to ‘walk the walk’ and address public concerns in their waste policy for the next decade. The hearing on Tuesday at 5pm in Worcester was the second of five public hearings the state plans to hold to get input on their draft Solid Waste Master Plan, the Commonwealth’s blueprint for managing waste over the next decade. The previous 2000-2010 plan fell short of recycling and waste reduction goals, according to the DEP, and recycling advocates are pushing for more ambitious policies in the years to come.

 

“We commend the state for adopting a goal of ‘Zero Waste’” said Linda Cocalis, chairwoman of the Sturbridge Board of Health. “But we urge DEP and Governor Patrick to close the door on new incineration. Burning waste in incinerators and burying it in landfills causes serious health impacts for neighboring communities and competes with recycling efforts. Trash gasification has all of the same risks as traditional incineration. We can protect public health best by focusing on waste reduction and expanded recycling and composting.” Cocalis cited data from the Environmental Protection Agency stating that nearly 90% of what is currently disposed of in landfills and incinerators is readily recyclable and compostable materials including paper and paperboard, food scraps and yard waste, metals, glass and wood.

 

While the draft Master Plan maintains the moratorium on new incineration, the DEP has stated that they will allow certain types of gasification, a form of incineration that heats garbage to very high temperatures and turns it into gas that can be captured and burned offsite. They also propose allowing certain types of waste to be burned as fuel. Sylvia Broude, Organizing Director for Toxics Action Center spoke out against these destructive forms of waste disposal. “While the title of the draft Master Plan is “A Pathway Toward Zero Waste”, the nuts and bolts of the plan fall short of that goal. By allowing trash to be burned as fuel, DEP has created loopholes in the incinerator moratorium that conflict with true zero waste policies.”

 

Kirstie Pecci, attorney and spokesperson for Residents for Alternative Trash Solutions (RATS), called on MassDEP to ‘walk the walk.’ “Governor Patrick’s administration is ‘talking the talk’ on zero waste,” said Pecci, “but they need to ‘walk the walk.’ While the draft plan includes good ideas, it lacks program goals, incentives and penalties and moves too slowly to solve the state’s waste problem. It takes too long (until 2050) to meet goals in the plan, and we can get to 80% waste reduction in half that time.” RATS has been working for more than two years to stop the expansion of Casella’s Southbridge landfill, slated to become the largest landfill in the Commonwealth. Even if the expansion moves forward, the state could still run out of landfill capacity over the next two decades if we don’t act now. She argued for more drastic measures to reduce waste at its source and move away from burying and burning of garbage.

 

RATS and Toxics Action Center are founding members of Don’t Waste Massachusetts, an alliance of public interest and environmental groups around the state that also includes MASSPIRG, Clean Water Action, the Sierra Club and other groups. Don’t Waste Massachusetts is pushing the state to adopt real zero waste policies with ambitious plans to reduce, reuse, recycle and compost. Residents can weigh in on the state’s waste plan at a Thursday night hearing in Wilmington, or at mid-September hearings in Springfield and Lakeville and can read the draft plan and learn how to submit comments on the DEP’s website: http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/priorities/dswmpu01.htm and find out more information about Don’t Waste Massachusetts at www.DontWasteMassachusetts.org.