From the CT Public Radio's Patrick Skahill, Connecticut's trash future unclear after closure of processing plant:
Nearly 50 towns choose to send their trash to the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority or MIRA. MIRA burns that garbage, but it says it will soon close its Hartford plant because of money and mechanical problems.
DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said Connecticut’s waste future boils down to two things: finding new disposal sites for garbage and reducing what we throw away.
Tom Kirk, president of MIRA, said good policy needs to be in place to make sure that happens. Otherwise, towns will just chase the cheapest option for getting rid of their trash. “And that, today, is putting it on a truck or train and sending it west,” Kirk said. “That will not change until there is either a regulatory statutory restriction against dealing with your garbage that way, or the economics change.”
“I don’t think anyone is leading right now, and I do see the system falling apart," says state Rep. Mary Mushinsky (Wallingford).
Read Patrick Skahill's full story Connecticut's trash future unclear after closure of processing plant.
For previous coverage, see
- With trash plant at death’s door, is it time for state leadership? by Tom Condon October 19, 2021
- With clock ticking, fate of half a million tons of CT trash remains unclear by Patrick Skahill | Connecticut Public Radio July 9, 2021
- Food could hold the key to fixing the state’s waste disposal problems by Jan Ellen Spiegel January 11, 2021
Check out: Maine Will Make Companies Pay for Recycling. Here’s How It Works (NY Times)