Local towns have been long been ready to tackle their waste crisis — specifically doing something about food waste — working to reduce what goes into the waste stream and improving recycling efforts. But the legislature has dragged its feet on this issue, leaving towns in limbo to deal with rising costs and the frustration of seeing the environmental impact go unaddressed.
The Record-Journal recently ran a story by reporter Jan Ellen Spiegel, of The Connecticut Mirror, who provided an in-depth look at the situation.
According to Spiegel’s report, local municipalities have been “begging for help” from the state, for years, to deal with food waste. They’ve told legislators that a key to fixing the state’s waste crisis — and to get the cost for processing it down — is to get food scraps out of the current process. Instead, that food waste could go to plants that can turn it into energy.
But begging didn’t result in action, despite the fact that there was money available at the start of the 2023 legislative session to expand an already successful residential food waste diversion pilot project.
There appears to be little excuse for the holdup. Certainly not ignorance. As Spiegel writes, “experts told them. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection told them. Even some in their own ranks told them. Most of all, local officials told them.”
Sam King, owner of Blue Earth, a food waste pick-up service, spoke with Spiegel. His company is expanding throughout the state and King noted the momentum that food waste recycling projects were gaining and how Connecticut must have leadership in order to advance. “The message from state leaders is that they don’t actually care about the waste crisis. It’s incredibly discouraging,” he said.
In 2022, the Record-Journal reported on a state-funded pilot project in Meriden that included 1,000 households. Food scraps were collected and delivered to Quantum Biopower, in Southington, to be turned into bio-gas.
The city had hoped to expand on that pilot program with additional Department of Energy and Environmental Protection funding.
“With tipping fees for waste disposal seeing 50% to 75% increases over the past couple of years, the economic impact to all residents is significant. Fully implemented programs could help keep costs down,” City Manager Tim Coon told the Record-Journal at the time.
That’s not going to happen. As Spiegel explains, DEEP had provided more than $5.5 million in grants to 19 municipalities and three regional groups for pilot food-scrap diversion programs. It seemed likely that the legislature would allocate roughly that same amount again.
But no. Two key provisions were cut: another $5 million for the pilot programs; and plans to set up a funding stream for municipalities to start food waste operations.
Residential food waste diversion could reduce the amount of municipal solid waste by about 185,000 tons per year, according to DEEP, as reported by The Mirror. DEEP said early results from the pilots showed that the programs worked.
According to Spiegel’s story, Gov. Ned Lamont was on board with the proposed funding but the legislature wasn’t. It did allow increased payments to the existing waste-to-energy plants and made a couple of other tweaks to existing commercial food waste mandates. Spiegal quotes House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, as saying: “The agreement at that time was to take out any funding sources and revisit the entirety of the issue next year.” This would be a “holistic conversation” rather than “a one-off program again.”
Now municipalities must deal with costs themselves, either for start-up programs or to simply swallow the tipping fees for waste, according to Spiegal’s discussions with stakeholders. Waste disposal companies will continue to work with cities and towns on the most cost-effective solutions.
While House Speaker Ritter provided the only clue as to why the legislature didn’t move forward on food waste issues, his reasoning isn’t sitting well with those who are waiting for leadership and solutions. And it’s not like this is something new that should need that “holistic conversation” — it’s a problem that’s been on the radar for years.
DEEP Commissioner Dykes told Spiegal “we’re not going to hold out for a legislative pathway anymore … I don’t think that what is coming out of this session truly reflects the set of solutions that I think stakeholders and municipalities really want.”
There’s a waste problem in Connecticut and clearly part of that problem is the waste of time at the Capitol in dealing with it.