BOSTON — Massachusetts waste haulers are in search of new areas to eliminate building trash and particles following a transfer by Maine to ban out-of-state waste at one of many area’s largest landfills.
A proposal signed by Maine Gov. Janet Mills prohibits the importation of out-of-state trash and building particles and units new necessities for the enlargement and licensing of state-owned landfills.
Maine legislation restricts out-of-state waste, however a loophole in state legislation permits outdoors trash to be reclassified as Maine refuse whether it is initially processed at a Lebanon recycling facility earlier than heading to the sprawling Juniper Ridge landfill in Alton, positioned about 60 miles from Bar Harbor.
The state-owned facility, which processes about 500,000 tons of waste a 12 months, will get a majority of it from Massachusetts, New Hampshire and different states.
Maine lawmakers who pushed the measure by means of stated regional landfill operations devalue surrounding properties, impede financial improvement, and produce odor, noise and air pollution. They stated the regional landfill was by no means meant to simply accept waste from surrounding states.
However waste hauling corporations, which opposed the transfer, say the ban will price jobs and result in the closing of waste processing services in Maine.
They level out that stable waste is a regional business, and say restrictions on cross-border disposal of building trash and particles will drive up prices for companies and shoppers.
“Once you begin banning building and demolition waste you make it dearer, as a result of it has to journey farther,” stated Joe Fusco, vp of Casella Waste Administration, which operates the Juniper Ridge facility. “When there’s a constraint in disposal choices, the value goes up.”
He stated essentially the most fast affect of Maine’s new restrictions could be that Massachusetts haulers who use the Juniper Ridge landfill might want to discover some place else to eliminate it, which is able to drive up disposal prices.
Massachusetts banned disposal of most building and demolition particles greater than a decade in the past, forcing contractors to look to neighboring states to do away with waste from constructing renovations and different initiatives.
In 2019, Massachusetts exported practically 2 million tons of the 5.5 million tons of trash it produced that 12 months to different states, in line with the most recent information from the state Division of Environmental Safety. The quantity of exported trash has risen yearly since 2012, the information exhibits.
However states like Maine which might be on the receiving finish of the refuse are complaining concerning the quantity of waste coming from Massachusetts and different states, which officers say are stretching already restricted capability at their landfills.
In New Hampshire, officers are additionally seeking to tighten the legal guidelines to limit out-of-state trash amid warnings that the state will run out of landfill capability.
Environmental teams say the reply to diminishing landfill entry is diverting trash and building particles and have been pressuring states to aggressively increase recycling and reuse packages.
To make certain, the quantity of trash going into Massachusetts landfills is anticipated to lower even additional beneath the state’s new 10-year stable waste discount plan.
The plan requires slicing the quantity of stable waste going into landfills by 570,000 tons a 12 months by 2050 and bans the disposal of mattresses and textile merchandise.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts Division of Surroundings Safety stated the company “shares the identical targets” of Maine and different states to cut back stable waste and has been working to divert extra building and demolition supplies into the recycling stream earlier than it’s shipped out of state for disposal.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and web sites. E mail him at cwade@northofboston.com.