Moving Toward Zero From Waste Management to Resource Recovery Authors: Jessica Edgerly, Toxics Action Center Dori Borrelli, Vermont Law School Toxics Action Center 141 Main St. Suite 6 Montpelier, VT 05602 P: (802) 223-8422 F: (802) 223-6855 www.toxicsaction.org Acknowledgements The authors express their gratitude to the following individuals who provided insight or information relevant to this report: Donna Barlow-Casey, Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District Eric Lombardi, EcoCycle Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Solid Waste Program staff We would like to thank Toxics Action Center members who support us financially and the Vermont Community Foundation and Harris and Frances Block Foundation who helped to fund this project. In addition, we’d like to thank the citizen groups across New England who have worked to protect their families and communities from toxic pollution threats posed by landfills and incinerators. Their energy and voices have brought forth the need for a new solid waste paradigm. In recent years, these groups have included: Vermont Organized Communities Against Landfills, Chittenden County, VT Friends of Missing Link Road, Rockingham, VT Citizens Leading for Environmental Action and Responsibility, Claremont, NH Working on Waste, Claremont, NH Concerned Citizens of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, Hinsdale, NH REACH for Tomorrow, Hopkinton, NH Oxbow Initiative, Canterbury, NH AWARE, Bethlehem, NH We the People, Old Town, ME Clean Air for Westbrook, ME Hamden Citizen Coalition, ME STOP, Hardwick, MA Holliston-Sherborne Residents Group, Holliston, MA Saugus Action Volunteers for the Environment, Saugus, MA Templeton Citizens Against the Dump, Templeton, MA Residents Against the Trash Transfer Station on South Street, Pittsfield, MA Woburn Neighborhood Association, Woburn, MA Help Raynham, Raynham, MA Citizens Against the Smell, Brockton, MA Haverhill Environmental League, Haverhill, MA Stop Any Further Expansion, Cohasset, MA Concerned Citizens of Russell, Russell, MA Stop Trashing Our Place, Cumberland, RI Pawtucket Alliance for Downtown Success, Pawtucket, RI For 20 years, Toxics Action Center has assisted residents and community groups across New England with toxic pollution issues in their communities. For more information about Toxics Action Center, please contact our office at 802-223-8422 or visit www.toxicsaction.org. For additional copies of the report, send $10 to: Toxics Action Center 141 Main Street, Ste. 6 Montpelier, VT 05602 © Copyright 2007 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements…………………………….…………………..……………………...2 Table of Contents..…………………………….…………………………………………..3 Executive Summary…..………………………………………………………….…….….4 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………6 Introduction: The State of Trash …………………………………………………….……8 Vermont’s Current Waste System Threatens Public Health and the Environment.8 The National Outlook on Waste ………………………………………………….9 Vermont’s Solid Waste History………………………………………………….10 Current Waste Diversion Programs Fall Short ………………………………….12 Privatization and Consolidation of the Solid Waste Industry……………………15 The Zero Waste Model………………………..………………..…………………….….17 What is Zero Waste?.............................................................................................17 A Waste Paradigm Shift……………………………………..…………….…….17 The History of Zero Waste………………………………………………………18 Spotlight on Nova Scotia………………………………………………………...19 Benefits of a Zero Waste Approach……………………………………………………...20 Environmental Protections……………………………………………………….21 Economic Benefits of Zero Waste…………………………………………….....21 Implementing a Zero Waste Program……………………………………………………22 Steps Toward Zero Waste …………………………...…….……….....................22 1. Set a Goal of Zero Waste………………………………………………....22 2. Identify Resources within the Waste Stream and Make a Plan …….……23 3. Separate Waste into Categories……………………………………….…. 24 4. Close the Loops………………………………………………………….. 25 5. Explore and Apply Waste Reduction Strategies ……….………………... 26 6. Insist on Producer Responsibility………………………….…………….. 26 7. Stimulate the Market for Recycled and Reusable Products…….………... 28 8. Fund Local and Regional Diversion and Resource Recovery Initiatives... 28 Taking Responsibility for Wasted Resources – Whose Work is Zero Waste?..................29 Spotlight on Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District.........................31 Conclusion…………………………………………………………..….………………..32 Endnotes………………………………………………………………………………….33 3 Executive Summary Toxics Action Center is a public health and environmental nonprofit organization that works with communities across New England to prevent and clean up toxic pollution. Waste disposal is often a major cause of contamination since landfills leak toxic chemicals into the underlying soil and groundwater, and incinerators emit harmful pollutants into the air. Toxics Action Center has partnered with the Central Vermont Solid Waste Management District to promote a zero waste model with a goal of reducing waste through incentives and systems that recover discarded resources. This report is a guide for the development and establishment of a statewide zero waste program. Resources currently move through our society in a linear fashion. Raw materials are extracted, processed into consumer goods, consumed, and disposed of through burning or burial. Vermont produces more than 600,000 tons of waste per year. Seventy percent of that waste is landfilled or incinerated, polluting our air and water. The dioxins, furans, volatile organic compounds, polychlorinated biphenyl, methane, and heavy metals often released from these facilities threaten public health. A zero waste model offers a circular resource management system in which discarded materials are looped back into the economy to be reused, reprocessed, or composted. Treating discarded resources as actual resources decreases the need for virgin material extraction, reduces pollution produced by waste disposal facilities, and saves large quantities of energy. The waste diversion rate of 30%, achieved nationwide in 2001, helped conserve the amount of energy used annually by 6.5 million homes. i Furthermore, the infrastructure required by a zero waste model provides, per ton of discard, approximately ten times the number of jobs that traditional waste disposal facilities provide.ii The first step toward waste elimination is to set a goal of zero waste. Next, it is essential to create systems in which discarded materials are considered worthy of preservation. Shifting from a traditional waste management model to a zero waste model involves: • Identifying resources within the waste stream and planning to systematically protect these resources from disposal • Separating the discarded resources, ideally at the source to minimize contamination • Closing the resource loops through effective collection systems, programs, and infrastructure that maximizes the value of resources • Applying waste-reduction strategies and creating economic disincentives such as Pay- As-You-Throw programs • Insisting on producer responsibility by shifting the financial responsibility for the safe reprocessing or disposal of products upstream to manufacturers • Stimulating the recycled and reusable markets through government buying power • Funding coordinated local and regional resource recovery infrastructure and programs. The work of creating a zero waste future is the responsibility of industry in their design of products and packaging, government in their policy and management decisions, and 4 communities in their collaborations with industry and government to develop innovative and effective policies and programs. A zero waste goal may seem as unrealistic as zero accidents or zero emissions goals. All of these goals were established, nonetheless, to advance the systems and training necessary to make the goals attainable. Currently, 70-90% of discarded materials can be recycled, reused, or composted. A zero waste goal has helped many municipalities and regions around the world reach waste diversion rates of 50-60% within a few years. The goal of zero waste holds the same promise for Vermont. 5 Recommendations Adopting a Goal of Zero Waste Goals are set to reflect a vision. To build and promote healthy, sustainable communities in Vermont, our vision must not be one of wasted resources that are lost to burial and incineration. Instead, we should envision a state that is industrious with its resources, conserving and using them for the benefit of all. Goals are also set to guide planning, programming, spending, and policy decisions. The goal of zero waste will not be met tomorrow, but it will never be met if we do not set the goal and formulate systems that further the goal. The Agency of Natural Resources should adopt a zero waste goal and create a zero waste model to guide the state’s Solid Waste Management Plan. Setting Limits on Waste Disposal Very little is accomplished without deadlines. In committing to a goal of zero waste, we must allow ourselves to feel pressure to move toward that goal. Placing a ten-year moratorium on new landfills would apply that pressure. During these ten years, the state’s priority should be to fund and build the resource recovery infrastructure of a zero waste system. Other regions have met initial goals of 50% waste diversion within five years of setting a zero waste goal. A ten-year landfill moratorium would provide Vermont with time to take major steps toward zero waste and analyze successes and failures. Maximizing Existing Waste Diversion Systems Some