MassDEP reviews recycling market development action plan, flags land, outreach and organics infrastructure as priorities

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) used its first Recycling Market Development Work Group meeting of 2025 to report progress on state recycling market development efforts and to gather stakeholder feedback on siting, outreach and organics infrastructure.

"This is our first meeting of 2025. We convened this work group back in 2022, and this is our ninth meeting so far of the recycling market development work group," said Sean Silver, a MassDEP steward for the work group, opening the session and outlining the agenda.

MassDEP staff said the Recycling Market Development Action Plan — published in February 2024 as part of the agency’s broader 2020–2030 Solid Waste Master Plan finalized in 2021 — remains central to the agency’s strategy. Claudine Allian, MassDEP’s commercial waste reduction branch chief, summarized the master plan goal to reduce disposal by 30 percent (about 1.7 million tons) from roughly 5.7 million to 4 million tons by 2030, and noted disposal has increased by about 9 percent (roughly 500,000 tons) in recent years, a change staff…