DEEP: State Must Curb Costs, Environmental Impact of Trash

“Taking out the garbage” could cost Connecticut’s residents, cities and towns, and businesses $25 million more per year within the next decade unless steps are taken to reduce the volume of waste and increase recycling, the head of the state's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said this week.

A new Comprehensive Materials Management Strategy just released by the DEEP provides a blueprint for avoiding these increased costs through initiatives that will divert 60% of trash from disposal by 2024, Commissioner Robert Klee said.

“Stepped up efforts to reduce waste, divert waste, and recycle are critical to controlling the future costs for waste disposal,” Klee said. “The CMMS outlines realistic steps we will take together to transition our materials management system from a cost driver to an economic driver for our cities and towns, and businesses.”

Klee said that if the average Connecticut resident continues to generate 3.5 pounds of trash every day, the total bill for trash disposal will spike by about $25 million per year by 2024, adding new costs for taxpayers and businesses.

The increased costs will result from the added expense of transporting trash to out-of-state landfills "hundreds of miles away," as the volume of waste "exceeds the diminishing capacity of our aging and out-of-date trash-to-energy infrastructure," he said.

A 10 percent reduction in waste, along with better recycling statewide, would stabilize rising costs while helping meet clean air and greenhouse gas reduction goals, according to the strategy report.

Key actions called for in the CMMS report include:

• Strengthening local waste reduction and recycling programs.
• Fast-tracking the deployment of new technologies that more effectively sort recyclables and recover energy and materials of value from waste.
• Greater responsibility and participation by corporations that produce materials in sharing in the cost and development of recycling programs.

“Through the 21st century approach to materials management detailed in our new CMMS, we can help protect the environment and natural resources by increasing reuse and recycling and diverting more materials of value from the waste stream,” Klee said. “At the same time, we can benefit our economy and taxpayers by creating jobs for our citizens in recycling industries and holding down the cost of waste disposal for our cities and towns as well as businesses.”

The CMMS report, which is an update to the state’s 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan, can be found here.

According to the CMMS report:

• Connecticut disposes of more than 2 million tons of trash and nearly 1 million tons of construction and demolition waste each year.
• Connecticut recycles 1.25 million tons of “municipal solid waste,” or about 35 percent of the total.
• A total of 40 percent of disposed trash consists of organic materials that could be composted or converted using anaerobic digestion technology.
• Recycling saves taxpayers and businesses an estimated $75 million in avoided disposal fees each year.
• Each state resident produces an average of 1,300 pounds of waste per year.
• A total of 87 percent of Connecticut's disposed municipal solid waste MSW goes to Connecticut’s five trash-to-energy plants which generate electricity as a by-product.

The CMMS report outlines a vision Klee said will be studied — To achieve 60 percent diversion of waste from disposal by the year 2024 by reducing waste, increasing reuse recycling, and composting, and focusing on the development of waste conversion technologies.

The goals outlined in the CMMS report are:

• Improve the performance of municipal recycling programs and reduce waste, including increasing participation and compliance with mandatory recycling provisions.
• Develop and improve recycling and waste conversion technologies.
• Encourage corporations that design, produce, and market products to share responsibility for stewarding the materials in an environmentally sustainable manner.
• Specific actions called for by the CMMS include:
• Increased enforcement of existing recycling laws and local ordinances.
• Continuous improvements to municipal recycling programs, including programs to reduce waste.
• Statewide outreach to provide information to residents about how to reduce waste and optimize recycling.
• A focus on the development of new materials management infrastructure, including greener alternatives to existing waste-to-energy facilities.
• Alleviating the cost of recycling programs to taxpayers by sharing responsibility with the producers of materials.