by Chip Beckett
Glastonbury, and all of Central Connecticut is facing a trash crisis. The current trash to energy plant is slated to close in June 2022, without a replacement. The function of the plant was to safely and environmentally reduce the volume of trash. Electricity is an afterthought byproduct to help offset the costs of handling our trash.
Central Connecticut generates about 700,000 tons of trash yearly, with an estimated 10% recycled(75,000 tons per MIRA). A bottle bill that provides no new sites to return bottles will hardly get to another level of recycling to reduce the trash needing to be disposed of.
35% is estimated to be compostable organic material, or 245,000 tons. DEEP seems happy Connecticut has composting facilities for 26 tons/year. In other words, barely more than a high school science project. Clearly the scale is not nearly sufficient, nor is the regulatory interest available to provide the scale necessary for the problem before us.
Even if we doubled recycling to 150,000 tons and composted everything available, we still would have 300,000 tons of trash to dispose of. Hauling that to landfills, so the plastic packaging can blow off the trucks and out of the landfills, along with burying toxic consumer waste hardly seems like the environmentally responsible thing. It does seem Iike a way that CT can have another superfund site to pay for.
Trash was the operative word in trash to energy. It was never about electricity, except as a byproduct of environmentally and safely handling trash to help offset the costs.
Towns said they did not want to pay $145/ton to handle trash on their own; but costs have risen dramatically over $100/ton and headed higher with the MIRA plant closure.
$300 million to redo the plant works out to be $10/person/year to safely and responsibly handle our trash. It is not a significantly higher price than we pay now. The state is the only one who can allocate that money, no single town can or should. Regional entities can’t borrow money or invest in a long term project like this because the state does not allow it. Replacing the plant benefits all residents and is what government should do.
The state should scale up compostables to handle 245,000 tons per year immediately; if that is their preferred option. Recycle as much as possible. Then we ought to renovate the existing plant so it reliably operates at 1/2-2/3 its present capacity to take care of what recycling, reduction and reuse cannot accomplish, until a better plan or process is found and developed.
Green on the Corner editorial comment:
With the pending closure of the MIRA plant our community will be facing increased costs of our trash disposal. Important reasons for eliminating lower organic material from our waste:
- Economic $$ – Organic component of our trash is approximately 35 %. Diversion of this component will lower our costs for disposing of our trash.
- Mitigate climate change – Uncontrolled disposal of organic waste in landfills and stockpiles contributes to climate change with the release of significant methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide production. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and is a the most harmful of these gases in worsening climate change. Areobic decomposition of organic waste does not produce methane in contrast to anerobic composting. The latter composting is done in the absence of oxygen and does produce methane. In an industrial setting this can be captured and be repurposed for controlled energy generation. This is in contrast to uncontrolled release in landfills.
- Home composting- most cost effective of managinghousehold organic waste. See town of Glastonbury webinar on leaf and kitchen scrap composting. Alastair’s Top Secret Composting Recipe – April 29, 2021 – This may be seen on Glastonbury Town’s YouTube Channel. (presentation starts at ~ the 14 min mark.)
- Generation of healthy soil components- Repurposing of this organic waste and making it available for farming and gardening will improve soil health and make our gardens and landscapes more productive.
Many states are tackling the issue of eliminating organic waste from the waste stream and those efforts need to increase. For example, California recently enacted Senate Bill 1383 that requires all residents and businesses to separate such “green” waste from other trash. Those charges aren’t scheduled to begin until 2024. CalRecycle, the state agency overseeing the change. All plastics and non-compostables need to be separated. Beginning in 2024, CA state law will allow fines for those who contaminate their organic waste.