The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection released a draft version of a new 10-year waste reduction goal earlier this month. It looks to reduce 30 percent of the state's trash by 2030, which would be 1.7 million tons less garbage every year.
The department is also targeting a 90 percent reduction by 2050.
Part of the new state initiative is to target institutions like hospitals, bigger restaurants, nursing homes. The initiative would ban any instution that produces more than a half-ton of food waste in a week from throwing food away.
The state currently has a disposal ban for businesses producing more than a ton of food waste per week.
Not everyone likes the proposal. Michael Camara owns waste hauling company ABC Disposal, which has contracts throughout the South Coast and Cape Cod. He says the state makes these bold initiatives every ten years, but nothing holds them accountable to follow through.
Mass DEP has provided a $400,000 grant to the Town of Yarmouth to build an anaerobic digestor that would take food waste and sludge waste from the region and turn it into energy.
The department will host a number of public hearings on the draft proposal, including one
Tuesday, November 19, at 5 p.m. at the MassDEP Southeast Regional Office, 20 Riverside Drive in Lakeville.
