By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI.org
News staff
JOHNSTON — What will
Rhode Island's trash and recycling operations look like 20 years from now?
According to Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC), which manages
the Central Landfill, it will likely mean more recycling, a heavy reliance on
composting and maybe even getting out of the trash business altogether.
“The whole notion that
trash is a resource needs to be in our thinking,” RIRRC executive director
Michael O’Connell said at a May 29 meeting of the board of commissioners.
“If we woke up in
2035, we’d like to see organics out of the waste stream,” O’Connell said.
An upgrade of the new
recycling sorting system at the landfill's Materials Recycling Facility to
process all trash is one solution, he said. Incinerator is not.
O’Connell estimated
that it would cost about $400 million to build a waste-burning,
electricity-generating incinerator in Rhode Island. The debt service would add
about $50 to the price of disposing a ton of waste at the landfill. Rhode
Island cities and towns currently pay about $32 per ton to deliver waste to
RIRRC.
“We have yet to see
one that makes any sense at all, that’s why we haven’t been interested,"
he said.
Yet incinerators and
their demand for trash as fuel for their electricity generators are driving
down the cost of waste disposal. Some even take waste for free. Critics of
incinerators object to the harmful emissions and the burning of recyclable and
compostable materials.
Connecticut and
Massachusetts have the highest concentration of incinerators in the United
States, with six and seven, respectively. There are 87 incinerators across the
country. Connecticut incinerates 65 percent of its waste; Massachusetts burns
34 percent.
The closest
incinerator is 35 miles from Providence, in Millbury, Mass. An incinerator
hasn’t been built in the United States in 18 years.
One futuristic
solution turns trash into fuel pellets. (See an interesting video here.) The process involves removing recyclables
from trash and turning the remaining solid waste into combustible pellets. The
pellets can replace coal at utility plants and other electricity-hungry plants
such as cement manufacturers. Waste Management runs a test facility in San
Antonio, Texas. Several municipalities across the country are considering the
idea.
“I think that’s very
viable,” O’Connell said.
Board of commissioners
member Sheila Dormody, who serves as director of sustainability for the city of
Providence, said RIRRC’s waste-reduction goals are much less ambitious than
other cities and states, which are aiming for near zero-waste disposal.
O’Connell replied that
overhauling the recycling facility to take trash, a facility referred to as a
“dirty Murf,” could achieve greater waste reduction goals. But, he said, the
technology isn’t here yet for a truly integrated single-stream waste program.
Other trash-reduction
options include expanded recycling, the expansion of producer responsibility
programs for items such as mattresses and carpeting, and larger recycling
collection carts. O’Connell said shipping trash out of state and making RIRRC
an enlarged recycling facility with municipal partnerships should be
considered.
Overall, the volume of
trash is down 20 percent at the Central Landfill, according to O’Connell, as it
is across the country from a peak in 2008. RIRRC annual revenues are also down
from $67 million in 2007 to a projected $44 million this year. O’Connell said
the RIRRC has adjusted to the lower revenues through cost cutting and staff
reductions.
As the landfill nears
capacity, it will close Phase V of the trash heap and begin building up Phase
VI in 2014. Phase V will be capped after taking in some 7.2 million tons of
trash.
“We need to control our
destiny here,” O’Connell said.
The state's updated
solid waste plan is expected to be completed in 2015.