WESTFIELD- Westfield State University (WSU) Massachusetts Student Public Interest Research Group (MassPIRG) members helped deliver over 10,000 public comments from students and citizens from across the state to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) on Thursday in opposition of a pending DEP proposal.
Every 10 years, the MassDEP issues a “Solid Waste Master Plan”, the state’s blueprint for dealing with waste. Governor Deval Patrick pledged to maintain the long-standing moratorium on new incineration facilities in Massachusetts in December 2009. The draft 2010-2020 plan, issued in July 2010, kept the longstanding incinerator moratorium, and emphasized promoting reduce/reuse/recycle policies. For over two years, in a still-unexplained delay, the DEP sat on the draft plan.
On November 26, MassDEP Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell advised a small group that the plan was imminent, and would, in a change of policy, allow for new burning of waste.
According to MassDEP, the proposal to modify the municipal solid waste incinerator moratorium would encourage the development of alternative technologies that will convert into fuel some of the waste that remains after the recyclable materials have been removed from the waste stream.
“Keeping recyclable materials out of landfills and incinerators benefits Massachusetts environmentally and economically,” said Kimmell. “Allowing the development of innovative and cleaner technologies will help us deal with the portion of the waste stream for which recycling isn’t currently feasible, to manage these materials in an environmentally responsible way.”
The proposed incinerator moratorium modification encourages the use of alternative technologies, such as gasification or pyrolysis, for converting waste into energy or fuel on a limited basis. Total additional capacity for gasification or pyrolysis of solid waste would be limited statewide to 350,000 tons per year, which is half of the projected in-state capacity shortfall of 700,000 tons, if the master plan’s disposal reduction goals are met.
Recycling advocates asked for a comment period on that provision, and were given a deadline of March 1 for the official comment period.
Over 10,000 citizen comments from across the state were collected in less than eight weeks, which included handwritten notes, photo albums, and other personal messages.
MassPIRG consists of 14 student chapters, including one located at Westfield State University that is staffed by three interns and a few volunteers. WSU freshman Kane Hardaker, who is an Environmental Science Major and an intern for MassPIRG, worked primarily on this campaign for the University. Overall, WSU contributed 450 of the comments delivered to Boston.
“The ZeroWaste campaign is a movement that shows that people today are more than willing to work to create a better future for the next generations”, said Hardaker. “They just need to be educated on viable solutions to contemporary issues”.
“MassPIRG always does a commendable job of making us aware of initiatives and goals” said WSU Director of Admission Services and Sustainability Coordinator Bill Bickley.
Although Friday was the official comment period deadline, WSU MassPIRG members continued to raise awareness at the WSU Campus Dining Commons.
