How You Can Help

The DEP is in the midst of drafting the next 10 year Solid Waste Master Plan, which is the blueprint for dealing with the Commonwealth's waste. When the DEP comes out with their draft plan in early fall, the sparks will really start to fly. We know that if it is a reduce/reuse/recycle draft, you can be sure the waste lobby will be out there fighting it. But if it is a plan that allows more burning and burying, we will have to ramp up our efforts to make sure that the public interest -- and not the waste industry -- is heard.

Sign our petition to MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt. Ask her to enact smart policy that will help us boost recycling and move toward zero waste.

Bury, burn and waste?

• In Massachusetts, we bury, burn or export 53 percent of our waste.
• According to the Department of Environmental Protection, the “...growth [of recycling] has leveled off and we continue to dispose of materials that have significant value.”
• Of all the garbage we generate, one-third is excess packaging that gets thrown away immediately.

Or something new . . .

Instead of our government figuring out how to “manage” our waste by looking for more places to bury or burn it, we should launch an ambitious plan to reduce —and reuse and recycle the rest.

• Reduce: Less than 5 percent of plastic bags ever get recycled, so many stores and municipalities are phasing them out altogether in favor of reusable bags.
• Reuse: If all we did was update the Bottle Bill to include more containers, in one year we’d recycle enough containers to fill up Fenway Park to the Monster seats.
• Recycle: Recycled content requirements have helped build markets for recycled materials, cutting back significantly on waste.

The Zero Waste solution

Every 10 years the Commonwealth puts together a plan for dealing with waste, the Solid Waste Master Plan. The current plan expires next year.

That plan could take us down the same-old path of "managing" waste by burning and burying. Or, we could finally change direction and set out an ambitious plan to change course, by enacting smart policies to reduce, reuse and recycle the waste that currently winds up in landfills and incinerators

MASSPIRG is working to push back against burying and burning and for much more ambitious goals to reduce, reuse and recycle—to move toward zero waste in Massachusetts.