Environmentalists and grassroots activists are pushing to tighten Maine laws in order to reduce or eliminate hundreds of thousands of tons of out-of-state waste going into the state’s largest landfill. Maine nominally outlawed the dumping of trash generated in other states in 1989 by banning commercial landfills from operating. That allowed the state to manage the source of waste dumped at the landfills, but a loophole allows mountains of waste from elsewhere to still be disposed of in Maine.
Under the rules, Maine still accepts out-of-state waste for recycling. But the regulations say that if part of a shipment of waste is recycled in Maine, the rest of the shipment is reclassified as in-state waste and can be dumped at Maine’s state-owned landfill. The loophole allows hundreds of thousands of tons of out-of-state waste to be disposed of in Maine, mostly at the Juniper Ridge landfill in Old Town, the only landfill owned by the state that’s still operating. It is run by Casella Waste under a management contract.
The Natural Resources Council of Maine and others are pushing for changes in the rules to close the loophole, but it may need to wait until the Legislature convenes next year, said Sarah Nichols, sustainable Maine director at the organization. “This issue is not going to go away, and it’s going to get worse,” Nichols said. “It seems like it’s more ripe than ever.”