Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Waste Management Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
MassDEP outlines aggressive waste‑reduction targets and local supports for municipalities
Summary
At a regional workshop in Newburyport, MassDEP staff reviewed state targets — a 30% reduction in disposed tonnage by 2030 and a 90% reduction by 2050 — and described grant, technical-assistance and working-group resources available to help towns meet those goals.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection staff told municipal officials at a Newburyport workshop that the state faces tight disposal capacity and has set ambitious reduction targets that will require expanded local diversion programs.
"Back in 2020 the state disposed of nearly 6,000,000 tons of trash per year," said Rachel Smith, grants manager in MassDEP’s municipal waste reduction branch, noting the department’s goal to cut disposed tonnage by about 30% by 2030 and to approach 90% reduction by 2050. Smith said remaining in‑state disposal options — five landfills and five municipal waste combustors — are nearly at capacity, and some communities already ship trash long distances out of state.
The MassDEP presentation framed the challenge with data from the department’s 2022 waste characterization study: roughly 40% of what remained in the trash stream were common recyclables (paper, plastic, metal, glass) and nearly 21% were food scraps. Smith said those material flows represent the state’s biggest near‑term opportunities for diversion through recycling, reuse and organics programs.
To support local action, Smith highlighted three program areas MassDEP uses with municipalities: technical assistance, grants and outreach/education. Technical assistance includes regional municipal assistance coordinators (MACs) and one‑on‑one support (up to 80 hours for targeted projects), while grants include the Recycling Dividends Program (RDP) and larger Sustainable Materials Recycling Program (SMRP) awards. The RecycleSmart MA platform and a ‘‘Recyclopedia’’ search tool were presented as outreach resources available in multiple languages.
Brian Walsh, a municipal assistance coordinator who works with the DEP program network, explained RDP mechanics: municipalities earn points across categories tied to best practices and household counts; accumulated points convert to grant dollars that can be saved year to year or spent on eligible projects. Walsh called out common RDP prerequisites — annual reporting, certification of municipal and school recycling compliance, and procurement commitments — and noted an environmentally preferable procurement policy (EPP) requirement due June 1 for new applicants.
Smith and Walsh also described MAC-led working groups on curbside contracting, curbside food‑waste collection, pay‑as‑you‑throw and school‑focused initiatives as venues for peer learning and contract language examples. Smith recommended municipally negotiated warranties and procurement specifications (for example, required post‑consumer recycled content and warranty terms for collection carts) be included in service contracts.
Workshop organizers said slide decks and resource links from the session will be posted to a shared drive for attendees to review. The breakout sessions that followed were set to focus on translating the presentations into action steps and work‑plan goals for participating municipalities.
The MassDEP presentation and RDP details were delivered during the workshop’s morning session; organizers scheduled follow‑up working‑group conversations and breakout discussions to help towns adapt the guidance to local procurement and program planning.
