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Advocates urge Baltimore to stop burning yard waste, expand composting and update fees
Summary
Environmental and community advocates urged the Board of Estimates to invest in composting infrastructure, update landfill and bag fees, and stop sending yard waste to be burned, citing cost savings and job creation potential.
Multiple residents and environmental advocates testified at Taxpayer Night that Baltimore should accelerate zero-waste initiatives, expand composting capacity and adjust solid-waste fees to better reflect the cost of disposal.
Angela Clark, a Fortieth District resident and member of Progressive Maryland’s environmental justice task force and Sunrise Movement, urged investment in composting and recycling instead of burning yard waste at Briscoe. Clark cited a 2018 report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and told the board that recycling yard waste costs approximately $18 per ton compared with about $50 per ton to burn it, and said the city could save roughly $32 per ton by diverting organics to composting.
Sir James Weaver, an environmental justice organizer with Progressive Maryland, also cited the 2018 Institute for Local Self-Reliance analysis, saying composting and recycling create more jobs per 10,000 tons of processed material than landfills and incinerators. Weaver called for capital investments and local jobs tied to compost and recycling infrastructure.
Jennifer Kunsey of Clean Water Action and Andy Hines, a Bolton Hill resident, supported increasing the landfill tip fee for large haulers (unchanged since 1993) and increasing the city’s share of the carryout bag fee, proposing exemptions for SNAP and WIC transactions to make the fee more equitable. Kunsey said the Foley’s Lane compost facility (already funded in part by an EPA grant) is a step forward but not sufficient without additional facilities and capital funding.
Speakers also urged the Board and administration to fund the SOS sewer-backup program for households experiencing backups caused by city infrastructure, referencing prior orders from state regulators; Jennifer Kunsey asked that budget changes be made to fully fund remediation for affected households.
The testimony tied solid-waste policy to public-health and economic outcomes and called for the FY26 capital and operating plans to include funding and billing updates that discourage incineration and increase local composting capacity.
