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ARTICLE · 08 JANUARY 2013

MassDEP Issues A New Solid Waste Master Plan: A Difficult Road To Achieve Some Ambitious Goals

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The Master Plan goals are to reduce solid waste by 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 - not quite zero waste, but more than sufficiently hairy and audacious.

United StatesEnvironment
Seth Jaffe
Seth Jaffe
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Late last week, MassDEP announced release of the 2010-2020 Solid Waste Master Plan, subtitled "Pathway to Zero Waste."  James Collins might describe that as a Big Hairy Audacious Goal

The Master Plan goals are to reduce solid waste by 30% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 - not quite zero waste, but more than sufficiently hairy and audacious.  To work towards those goals, the Master Plan has three primary objectives:

1.         Reduce Waste and Maximize Recycling

2.         Improve the Environmental Performance of Solid Waste Facilities

3.         Develop Integrated Solid Waste Management Systems

Like the goals, these objectives are reasonable on their face. The question is how do we get from here to there.  For example, MassDEP proposes to modify the moratorium on new or expanded combustion facilities to allow 350,000 tons per year in capacity for "innovative and alternative technologies," such as gasification or pyrolysis.  However, even the limited discussion in

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