Massachusetts DEP has released a draft of a regulatory plan geared toward slashing the amount of waste disposed statewide 30% by 2030. The plan, which proposes an “aggressive” longer-term goal of reducing waste disposal 90% by 2050, will get a hearing in Worcester Oct. 30.
“The draft plan outlines a mix of regulatory, financial and technical assistance to move towards these goals, improve the commonwealth’s waste management system and provide important environmental and economic benefits for Massachusetts,” Martin Suuberg, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said in a news release Friday.
The plan, available at mass.gov/guides/solid-waste-master-plan, aims to build off recent success, with the DEP saying that, from 2008 to 2018, the state’s per capita disposal dropped by 18%.
DEP said 5.7 million tons of waste are currently disposed of each year, meaning the 30& goal would require reducing that figure by 1.7 million tons.
Plan initiatives include:
• Increasing requirements on the diversion of commercial food material from disposal
• Improving the performance of recycling facilities handling construction and demolition materials
• Providing financial and technical assistance to enhance municipal solid waste and recycling programs
• Targeting the reuse and recycling of textiles, mattresses and other bulky waste items
• Enhancing compliance and enforcement of existing waste disposal bans
• Pursuing additional bans on target materials
• Advancing adoption of extended producer-responsibility systems for select materials.