Update: Maine falls short of waste diversion goal

Maine fell short of its recycling efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new state report. The most recent data highlight a common theme for the state, which has continued to lose ground on a decades-old law aimed at diverting half of its waste away from landfill or incinerators.

The ambitious diversion goal was first enacted in 1989 to address Maine’s shrinking landfill capacity. With total landfill space anticipated to significantly decrease in the next five years without intervention, the state’s recent findings have caused alarm among environmental groups and advocates for more conscious waste disposal.

The report—published by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (Maine DEP)—states only 34 percent of materials were recycled in 2020 and 2021. This is down from a recycling rate of 38 percent in 2017.

Maine DEP produces the waste generation report every two years using data reported by individual facilities.

“The numbers really showed that we’re moving in the wrong direction in that we’re both recycling less and we’re making more trash for disposal,” Sarah Nichols, who oversees waste programs at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, tells Maine Public.

According to the report, the average per-ton cost of recycling is generally higher than disposal under current market conditions. In fact, some municipalities in Maine have saved money by cutting recycling programs, leading to a situation where the state is unlikely to meet its waste reduction goals without improvements to the overall recycling system.

Additionally, the closure of a waste processing facility in Hampden, Maine, has left more than 100 communities with no choice but to landfill or incinerate a majority of their waste. The facility was purchased for $1.5 million in August 2022 by the Municipal Review Committee (a nonprofit organization overseeing MSW issues for 115 municipalities in coastal Maine) with hopes to restart the operation this year; however, these plans fell through after a prospective operator dropped out and key changes to environmental permits were not granted by deadline.

Brian Hawkinson, executive director of recovered fiber with the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), says Maine is not alone in its struggle to increase recycling rates. 

In a letter to Waste Today, he says “the COVID-19 pandemic significantly changed the way Mainers interacted with the recycling system. Stay-at-home public health orders shifted individuals away from locations with highly-efficient recycling systems—including offices and restaurants.”

Hawkinson adds that these factors, combined with the closure of the Hampden facility, undoubtedly contributed to the state’s recent recycling shortfalls.

In total, Maine residents sent roughly 900,000 tons of municipal waste to landfills and waste-to-energy plants in 2021, which is up roughly 700,000 tons from just four years prior. Maine Public reports the state also is backsliding on progress toward another waste goal—that residents should send less than 0.55 tons of waste, on a per-person basis, to landfills or waste-to-energy plants each year.

The state met that goal in 2017, but the per capita disposal rate has since gone up to almost 0.7 tons in 2020 and 2021.

To combat these rising numbers, lawmakers have passed legislation to potentially address the state’s waste problem, including a plastic bag ban, a restriction on out-of-state demolition waste in state-owned landfills and the establishment of an extended producer responsibility program for packaging.

“The numbers and the trends are troubling, but they’re not at all surprising, which is why we’ve worked so hard recently to pass pretty systemic changes to our waste policies,” Nichols says. “So, I do unfortunately think things are going to get a little worse before they get better when these laws go into effect.”

While the state’s current recycling rates may cause alarm, Hawkinson says Maine residents are avid paper recyclers when provided access to proper programs. In 2020 and 2021, Maine residents recycled more than two times more paper by weight than plastic, glass and metal combined.

“Residential recycling programs are critical to meeting environmental goals and providing the supply of recovered fiber that is used to manufacture paper and paper-based packaging products that people rely on every day. We encourage officials in Maine to ensure that recycling programs remain widely available for Mainers who have demonstrated they are eager to use them,” he says. 

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Brian Hawkinson, executive director of recovered fiber with the American Forest & Paper Association.