By Mal Leary
MPBN news story
AUGUSTA, Maine – Every day more than 4 pounds of waste is generated by every man, woman and child in Maine. That covers everything from food scraps to batteries and packaging, and a lot more.
Maine currently recycles some items, burns some for energy and landfills a lot. The Legislature’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee is proposing a number of changes to current law.
Sen. Tom Saviello, a Republican from Wilton co-chairs the committee. “We looked at re-establishing the recycling goals, we looked at implementing commercial food waste composting, we addressed the present fees that are out there.”
Dozens testified on the various portions of the bill, supporting efforts to compost food waste, mandate battery recycling, and reduce the trash going to landfills.
But there was opposition to some provisions, such as extending the bottle deposit law to Maine-made apple cider and blueberry juice containers. And the Department of Environmental Protection had dozens of suggestions for changing the bill’s language.
Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, House GOP leader, worried that the bill is too complex to handle in the short session of this Legislature.
“At least in my review of the bill, it obviously appears to be an omnibus type bill and so it’s kind of hard to actually get your arms around all of it, which I think, in and of itself, is a concern.”
