The world of solid waste management is complex and multi-faceted; challenges and opportunities abound. As Maine prepares to revise its comprehensive Materials Management Plan this year, we are considering a variety of different ways in which the Plan can promote and support waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting, in order to minimize the amount of waste requiring disposal, consistent with Maine’s statutory solid waste management hierarchy. Much progress has been made in this direction, but much work also remains. 

The Materials Management Plan will provide information, guidance and direction to inform waste management decision making and activities on the state, regional and local levels, and will reflect the State’s ongoing commitment to managing waste in ways that conform to the principles of the hierarchy. The Department continues to evaluate the ever-changing solid waste landscape so that we can respond effectively by developing new or tailored approaches to arising issues and needs.

The U.S., including Maine, has been significantly impacted by new Chinese standards for recyclable materials.  Many of us recently have unhappily discovered that our local recycling programs have stopped accepting many types of plastics.  Some programs have also stopped accepting mixed paper.  These changes are in response to China’s decision to stop imports of these commodities unless the commodity bales are contaminated with less than 0.5% other materials.  DEP staff are working with others in the recycling industry to support the development of new materials processing facilities and domestic markets for recyclables, and to educate consumers to “Recycle right!” so we create clean commodities readily remanufactured into new products.  Also, DEP will soon launch a new small grants program (The Maine Solid Waste Diversion Grant Program) to improve Maine’s recycling infrastructure.

There are many benefits to recycling, including reduced energy use in remanufacturing, and extraction of raw materials and its related environmental impacts.  We realize these environmental benefits on an even greater scale when we reduce the amount of waste we generate.  The easiest way to reduce our waste generation is to reduce our consumption – buy second-hand products and products with less packaging, take advantage of leasing, borrowing and rental opportunities, and donate reusable goods.  Check out our Reduce, Reuse, Recycle web page to learn more.

Maine has made significant progress in “organics” (such as food scraps) management over recent years.  Organics can constitute over 40% of our solid waste stream by weight, and the challenge is to effectively collect and divert them from disposal.  Once collected, the value of organics can be recovered, often through composting to produce helpful soil amendments, or through anaerobic digestion.  The Maine Legislature took a very positive step by establishing the “Maine Food Recovery Hierarchy” in statute.  In order of priority it calls for:  reducing the volume of unwanted food, feeding people, feeding animals, composting or conversion to fuel, and at the bottom of the hierarchy, disposal.  The Legislature also established a “food scrap composting pilot program” which DEP staff is hard at work implementing.  DEP staff also continues its focused effort to provide training and technical support to municipalities and others concerning organics handling and composting. 

The Department recently presented its revised Chapter 418 (Beneficial Use of Solid Wastes) to the Board of Environmental Protection for final adoption.  This was a major substantive rule that required approval by the Legislature.  Generally, the purpose of the rule is to facilitate and support the beneficial use of solid wastes in a way that is protective of the environment and public health.  The amended rule includes updated standards, clarifications, and reorganization intended to make it current, clear and easier to use.  Regulations adopted by the Department   obviously have a direct impact on the activities being regulated.  We are hopeful that overall, these new rules will have a positive effect on beneficial use in Maine. 

Although each state, including Maine, has its own unique set of solid waste management challenges, there are both regional and national issues that are of common interest.  The Department continues to actively engage with other states to gather information, develop solutions to problems, and establish harmonious approaches to waste management.

Reducing diesel emissions is an important goal for improving air quality.  In 2005, U.S. Congress passed the Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) to reduce public health risk from exposure to harmful diesel exhaust by reducing emissions from older polluting diesel engines that do not meet current federal emission standards.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for overseeing and distributing DERA funds.  

Since 2005, the Bureau of Air Quality’s Mobile Sources Section has received nearly $8 million through national competitive grants and State awards to reduce diesel emissions from school buses, locomotives, port equipment, trucks, and marine engines.  Early projects focused on reducing emissions from Maine’s largest public fleet, school buses.  Now that on-highway emission standards are so clean, the focus has turned to replacing non-regulated marine engines.

The Maine Clean Marine Engine Program was developed in 2009 to repower unregulated diesel marine engines which emit up to twice the NOx and diesel particulate as new engines that meet current EPA emission standards.  Maine commercial vessels are eligible to receive a 40% grant for the purchase and installation of a new engine that meets EPA Tier 3 standards.  This successful and popular program has benefitted both air quality, fishermen and Maine boatyards.  To date $2,023,333 has been spent to repower over 100 vessels thereby reducing harmful exhaust emissions by 54.16 tons/year of NOx and 3.63 tons/year of diesel particulate matter.

The Maine Clean Diesel Program is receiving up to $4 million dollars from the Volkswagen settlement funds and is currently accepting applications.

For more information: http://www.maine.gov/dep/air/mobile/cleandiesel.html

The US Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 is collaborating with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (ME DEP) to provide free technical assistance for municipalities and businesses in Maine. This program supports environmental and public health improvements in priority program areas. Technical assistance will be granted based on achieving the greatest public health or environmental impact. 

“EPA is very pleased to offer our technical expertise to Maine communities and businesses. Protecting our environment and ensuring healthy communities is accomplished far better with strong collaboration and partnership,” said Alexandra Dunn, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office.

EPA technical assistance is available under the following priority program areas: Brownfields Cleanups, Citizen Science, Clean Indoor Air, Community Resilience, Drinking Water Resource Planning, Emergency Preparedness, Energy Efficiency, Environmental Fairs, EPA Reporting for Small Municipalities, Federal Facilities Green Challenge, Grant Proposal Training, Lead Poisoning Prevention, Meeting Facilitation Assistance, Pollution Prevention, Recycling Sustainability, Stormwater Management, Trash Water/Marine Debris Assistance, Water Efficiency, and Waste Wise/Food Waste Challenge.

The deadline for a municipality or business to express interest is July 31, 2018.

For further information on the area(s) of EPA/ME DEP technical assistance or to express interest, please visit https://www3.epa.gov/region1/eco/uep/mtap.html or contact Bill Longfellow at william.longfellow@maine.gov.