Baltimore City generates more than 430,000 tons of municipal trash annually, most of which is incinerated. But the city hopes to change this by dramatically reducing its food waste by 2040. The goal is to reduce commercial food waste by 50% and residential food waste by 80%.
When asked if this was feasible, Anne Draddy, the sustainability coordinator in the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, said “I think it might have to be.”
The city’s Quarantine Road Sanitary Landfill has an end of life of 2026, and the Wheelabrator Baltimore incinerator — where much of the city’s residential waste ends up — could close as a result of the 2019 Baltimore Clean Air Act.
A federal judge recently dismissed the legislation that placed strict emissions limits on the city’s two trash incinerators, Wheelabrator and Curtis Bay Energy’s medical waste incinerator. But on April 22, Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said the city will appeal the decision.
Moreover, even though Maryland is one of the wealthiest states in the country, about 21% of Baltimoreans were food insecure in 2017, according to Feeding America. These issues are forcing the city to rethink how it deals with its food waste.