Draft 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan--Comment Period Still Open

Since 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has conducted 1,000 waste ban inspections, inspected more than 30,000 loads of trash, issued over 800 notices of non-compliance, and delivered more than 30 higher level enforcement actions with penalties under the 2010-2020 Solid Waste Master Plan.

The 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan prioritizes waste materials applicable to commercial waste (industry and institutions) and focuses primarily on food material, cardboard, furniture and other bulky materials.   

Strategies in the new plan include:

• Improving waste ban compliance and enforcement

• Increasing the amount and frequency of MassDEP waste ban inspections

• Creating and distributing outreach materials to raise awareness about waste bans

• Continuing to utilize third party inspection data to inform inspections and outreach

• Increasing the use of direct business information requests to gather more information on waste ban compliance status

• Implementing new waste bans for food material (reduced threshold of 1 ton per week)

MassDEP has scheduled more online public hearings and will accept additional public comment through September 15, 2020. The re-opened public comment period will focus specifically, but not exclusively, on issues of environmental justice, climate change, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic as they relate to solid waste management in Massachusetts.

Next Online Public Hearings: August 20 & September 1 & 10, 2020

For more information contact Dan Forsythe at dforsythe@capaccio.com . Please see https://www.mass.gov/guides/solid-waste-master-plan for more details about the plan.