With the holiday season in full swing, trash cans around the state may be getting more of a workout than usual. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 700 million pounds of turkey were purchased before Thanksgiving, and 35 percent of it will end up in a landfill. That is according to a report by the Food Tank, a nonprofit dedicated to educating people about sustainable eating.
The good news is that the thrown out meat can be composted. Here in Connecticut, about 40 percent of the solid waste tossed out every year is compostable, organic material, according to state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. DEEP has been given the task of coming up with a management plan that will reduce municipal solid waste production in the state by 60 percent in eight years.
That’s roughly 2.3 million tons of trash per year statewide that needs to be diverted to recycling or composting, according to the DEEP.
Not doing so could cost the state $2.5 million more per year if residents continue to produce trash at the same rate of about 3.5 pounds per day, according to DEEP. Recycling properly could save taxpayers and businesses $75 million in disposal fees annually, according to the DEEP. DEEP has created and released a comprehensive management strategy targeting this environmental initiative, written into Public Act 14-94 two years ago. “Stepped up efforts to reduce waste, divert waste, and recycle are critical to controlling the future costs for waste disposal,” said DEEP Commissioner Robert Klee in a release announcing the department’s new strategy.
“The (management plan) outlines realistic steps we will take together to transition our materials management system from a cost driver to an economic driver for our cities and towns, and businesses,” it said. The management plan looks at ways to improve recycling, increased composting, and calls on municipalities to reduce their waste by 10 percent.
“Essentially, 60 percent of the material that would have otherwise gone into a landfill, would go elsewhere,” said Lee Sawyer, a policy officer for the DEEP. “We’re working with (municipalities) to implement strategies.” According to DEEP, other components of the plan include:
- Strengthening local waste reduction and recycling programs, including Increased enforcement of existing recycling laws and local ordinances.
- Fast-tracking deployment of new technology that more effectively sort recyclables and recover energy and materials of value from waste, including development and strengthening of state incentives for new technologies that generate electricity from waste such as anaerobic digestion and gasification.
- Greater responsibility and participation by corporations that produce materials in sharing in the cost and development of recycling programs.
To read the full story, visit http://www.ctbulletin.com/news/bad-recycling-practices-costing-state-millions/article_b660eb71-0ff1-59e4-9a2d-627b2ef6543f.html.