Cardboard trash raises DEP hackles
Three area firms get violation notices
Three Central Massachusetts companies that added cardboard to their regular waste received violation letters from the Department Environmental Protection after a sweep of inspections at local disposal sites by that agency.
Ethan Allen Furniture’s service center in Bellingham, Lindenmeyr Munroe’s facility in Franklin and Wright Line LLC’s headquarters in Worcester all received non-compliance letters, which carry no financial penalty. Six other companies throughout the state and four hauling companies also received similar letters.
Cardboard, which must be recycled under state law, comprised 35 to 40 percent of the waste stream coming from all the companies that received the letters. The DEP handed out violations to the three local companies after their trash was inspected during the sweep last year at Wheelabrator Millbury Inc., an incinerator owned by Houston-based Waste Management Inc.
Wheelabrator is a 20-year-old, waste-to-energy facility that incinerates 1,500 tons of solid waste per day from 35 Central Massachusetts communities, and generates upwards of 40 Megawatts of electricity – enough to power roughly 40,000 homes.
Ed Coletta, spokesman for the Department of Environmental Protection, says that Wheelabrator was among eight local incinerators, transfer stations, or landfills targeted by the sweep.
The DEP determined which sites to inspect based on audit reports from those facilities identifying loads of waste that were rejected for containing a high percentage of recyclables.
The seven other local sites inspected were Southbridge Recycling and Disposal, the Holliston transfer station, the Southbridge landfill, Casella Waste Services in Auburn, the Hudson transfer station, Martone Landfill in Barre, and the Oxford transfer station.
Companies that continue to dispose of cardboard after receiving the letter can face penalties as high as $25,000 per violation, although most violations handed out are under $10,000, Coletta says.
More than 1.5 million tons of cardboard and other paper products are disposed of in Massachusetts’ landfills and incinerators each year, according to the DEP. One out of every five truckloads inspected by the DEP during this most recent sweep had significant amounts of cardboard.
"It’s a big issue," Coletta says. "We do a good job in this state with recycling, but we have a lot more work to do." The state plans another sweep this spring, he says.
All the companies have either submitted or are in the process of submitting plans outlining how they will proceed in cleaning up their waste disposal procedures. The DEP will review those plans and make recommendations, Coletta says.
A Lindenmeyr Munroe spokesman who declined to give his name says that the problem had been fixed and that the company added a second Dumpster at the facility to process recyclables. A message left at the company’s headquarters to confirm that information went unreturned, as did calls to Wright Line and Ethan Allen.
Kenneth J. St. Onge can be reached at kstonge@wbjournal.com
Banned from the trash
These common business items are among those that must be recycled by law:
* Paper – All paper, cardboard and paperboard must be recycled, except for tissue paper, toweling, paper plates and cups, and wax-coated cardboard
* Glass – Glass bottles and jars. However light bulbs, plate glass, drinking glasses, windows, windshields and ceramics can be thrown away
* Metal – Aluminum, steel or bi-metal beverage and food containers.
* Plastics – Narrow-necked soda bottles, although plastics such as yogurt containers can be thrown away.
* Leaves and yard waste: Leaves, grass clippings, weeds, garden materials, shrub trimmings, and brush one-inch or less in diameter
* Batteries – Lead-acid batteries, like those use used in motor vehicles
* White goods – Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes washers or dryers, ranges or hot water heaters
* Cathode Ray Tubes – Any intact, broken or processed glass tubes used in televisions, monitors and some scientific instruments
Source: Department of Environmental Protection
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