With about 5 million tons of solid waste disposed annually, Massachusetts is making progress toward a 2020 waste reduction goal, but reaching the finish line will take “concerted effort,” environmental officials told lawmakers Tuesday.
As of 2015, the state had cut its solid waste disposal volume by 1 million tons, passing the halfway point toward a goal set in a master plan calling for reducing disposal to 4.55 million tons by 2020, from 6.55 million tons in 2008, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Martin Suuberg said.
“Although progress to date is impressive, we must recognize that the next million tons of reduction will be tougher than the first and require a more concerted effort by us all,” Suuberg told the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture during an oversight hearing.
“The good news is, there is a strong correlation between recycling and a growing economy. We as a state still spend well over half a billion a year to throw things away. We must stop thinking of trash and waste and focus rather on investing in the infrastructure to reuse and recycle materials.”
With the state’s landfill capacity projected to drop from 5 million tons to 4 million tons in the next three years as landfills close, DEP plans to begin stakeholder discussions this summer to start its work on a new waste plan for the years beyond 2020.
Suuberg pointed to “critical issues” to focus on: reducing contamination in recycling by keeping nonrecyclable materials out of the stream; decreasing the amount of recyclable materials that end up in the trash; increasing capacity for composting, anaerobic digestion and other alternatives; raising the rates of reuse and donation of textiles and mattresses and recycling of construction materials; and expanding access to recycling services.
About 20 percent of the waste Massachusetts generates each year is exported, going to neighboring states and “as far away as Ohio for disposal,” said Greg Cooper, the director of MassDEP’s business compliance and recycling division.
Suuberg said recycling, reuse and remanufacturing supports more than 2,000 businesses with an estimated 14,000 jobs, and meeting the state’s 2020 goal would result in an annual $120 million to $160 million in avoided costs, though recycling and composting material also carry processing and collection costs.
Sen. Anne Gobi, who co-chairs the committee, said the panel convened the hearing because it will be considering “a number of bills dealing with landfill issues” and wants to work with the Department of Environmental Protection.
“We do want to work with you, but there is a problem,” she told Suuberg. “There’s a problem that you have identified yourself, in trying to meet goals for 2020, for 2050, and we need to work together to make sure that we can we can reach those goals but also understanding that we have to make sure that people are protected, that their health is protected — the health of our communities — and that in my opinion is paramount. That’s more important than maybe a company’s wallet.”
Kirstie Pecci, a senior fellow at the Conservation Law Foundation, said said Massachusetts has an “ad-hoc system” that leaves 40 percent of the state without access to recycling services. While municipalities do “absolutely heroic things” around recycling, the million tons cut from waste disposal totals was mostly done before 2010, she said.
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