With the MIRA trash facility in Hartford set to shut down in 2022, the state of Connecticut is facing a waste crisis. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, along with dozens of municipalities from across the state, met to discuss the future of food scrap collection in Connecticut, which is playing a big role in the ongoing waste disposal battle and climate change.
“Some of the traditional things that we’ve relied on for places to take our trash are becoming more costly to manage or just running out of capacity,” explained Katie Dykes, commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Plans to close MIRA in 2022 will force big changes in the local waste disposal. “That means that more towns are having to pay more to send trash to the disposal,” said Dykes. “Or even having to rely on sending trash out of state to landfills to get rid of our trash.”
But, there is good news. Dykes explained, “we have a lot of solutions that are good for the environment and more economical that we can move towards to address this crisis.” In response, Commissioner Dykes created the Connecticut Coalition for Sustainable Materials Management. A group effort between DEEP and more than 80 towns to figure out the best next steps.