Those are some of the highlights of a new universal recycling program, which officials are hailing as a success. The 2 percent growth in recycling and composting, for example, diverted 12,000 tons of food and other material from the waste stream.
Due also in part to the law that went into effect two years ago, food donations to the Vermont Foodbank ramped up by 40 percent between 2015 and 2016.
Nevertheless, Vermonters still bury about two-thirds of the state’s annual waste in landfills.
That’s the upshot of a report issued this month by the Agency of Natural Resources’ Department of Environmental Conservation summarizing efforts since the universal recycling law’s inception in 2014 to reduce the amount of solid waste buried each year in Vermont’s landfills.
The law required Vermonters to begin recycling most recyclable solid wastes (paper, cardboard, aluminum, steel cans, glass bottles and jars, and some plastics) by 2015 and to begin composting leaves and yard debris this year. Vermonters will have to compost appropriate food scraps by 2020.
Vermonters are not required to compost meat and bones, and these may be safely disposed of in the trash, Department of Environmental Conservation guidelines say.
After the Legislature adopted Act 148 in 2012, the state’s universal recycling law went into effect in July 2014, when landfills and transfer stations became required to accept most recyclable solid wastes. DEC officials confirmed that year that all solid waste facilities in Vermont do collect recyclables.
Also as part of the law, since the summer of 2014 all Vermont municipalities have been required to provide recycling containers alongside public trash cans.
Vermonters still dump into state landfills an estimated 100,000 tons yearly of organic material, such as food scraps, yard debris, wood and paper, according to the DEC report. As much as half the state’s trash includes material that could be recycled or composted, the report states.
Beginning July 1, all transfer stations and trash drop-off facilities in the state must begin accepting food scraps, and haulers must offer to collect customers’ food scraps.
By July 1, 2020, food scraps will be prohibited entirely from Vermont landfills.
The move is expected to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases associated with Vermont’s solid waste by 37 percent by the year 2022 and to diminish the state’s reliance on landfills for trash disposal.
Organic waste in the absence of sufficient ventilation emits methane as it decomposes; the gas acts upon the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas with at least 20 times the potency of carbon dioxide, scientists say.
The universal recycling law status report issued this month relies in part upon DEC waste composition studies performed every five years. The last such study was conducted in 2013, and the next will be completed in 2018, according to department materials.
