Every year, Bay Staters throw away 6 million tons of garbage. Our trash ends up in landfills and incinerators which not only pollute neighboring communities but also contribute to the climate crisis. But nearly a third of that garbage is food waste that we can keep OUT of the trash. Take action now!
Diverting Food Waste Protects the Climate
In Massachusetts, landfills are by far the largest industrial source of methane, a super-polluting greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the short-term warming potential of carbon dioxide. In Massachusetts alone, the emissions from these landfills are the equivalent of driving more than 39,000 gas-powered cars for a year. Keeping food waste and other organic materials out of the trash is a critical piece of meeting our state’s climate goals.
Diverting Food Waste Protects Our Neighbors
Most of the commonwealth’s municipal solid waste incinerators are in environmental justice communities. Low-income, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities already shoulder outsized burdens of health-harming pollution. By continuing to burn trash in vulnerable communities, we’re perpetuating a toxic cycle.
We Have the Solutions!
Burning and burying garbage is a climate and public health disaster. We need to keep food waste out of the trash in the first place, and we already have the solutions!
- Expand composting: Other cities and states are already modeling successful municipal compost programs, and Massachusetts communities are joining them. Boston launched curbside compost pick up in 2022! If we’re serious about diverting food scraps from landfills and incinerators, then we need the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to support the rapid expansion of municipal composting programs.
- Enforce the MA waste bans: In 2014, MassDEP put rules in place to keep some food scraps and other materials out of waste disposal streams. Putting more resources into increased public education and waste ban inspections can make these policies more effective and keep millions of tons of waste out of the trash.
- Build a better future: Both the Healey administration and municipal leaders have an opportunity to leverage federal funding through the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant to develop innovative strategies to cut climate pollution and build healthier communities.
Take Action! Sign a letter to the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Bonnie Heiple, urging her to support policies to keep food waste out of landfills and incinerators!
Read our coalition op-ed in the Commonwealth Beacon: “One of our major climate challenges is our own trash”
