Maine’s clean and healthy environment strengthens the state’s economy and is central to our way of life. Holding polluting corporations accountable through systemic changes in local, state, and federal policies is the key to creating a more healthy, prosperous, sustainable future for us all.
NRCM’s Sustainable Maine program takes a practical, collaborative approach to solving environmental problems faced by Maine people and communities, particularly with how to better prevent and manage waste. We want to make doing the right thing for people and the environment the easy, clear choice for individuals and businesses.
Our vision of sustainability in Maine is ensuring a healthy future for life on Earth. Unfortunately, polluting corporations continue to ignore what is right for the environment at the expense of people’s health. Instead, they spend big money to try to convince people that it’s an individual’s responsibility to act, not theirs. But we are onto them.
The fossil fuel industry knows our clean energy transition is underway, so to keep their profits flowing, they are ramping up production of single-use plastics. We cannot allow this to happen. At every stage of the life cycle for plastics — from production to disposal — there are significant human health impacts, and they disproportionately affect economically and socially disadvantaged people.
Many of us feel guilty that we still rely on gasoline-powered cars, and we can’t seem to avoid wasteful packaging despite our best efforts—but it’s not our fault as individuals. In the State House, in schools, and in our communities, NRCM works with local businesses, municipalities, and Maine people to galvanize support for solutions that require corporations be a part of solving the problem and make it easier to reduce waste and pollution.
Learn more about our Sustainable Maine program priorities and how you can help on the pages below.
Going Plastic-free: My Family’s Month-long Challenge
I started my new job with Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) in early March 2022. At the time, my wife and I, spurred on by the growing concerns of plastics in the environment, had been thinking about ways to further reduce plastics in our waste stream. We had long since adopted strategies such as Read More
Let’s Look at Plastic in Daylight, and Leave the Smoke and Mirrors to Hollywood
Corporations that spew out plastic packaging want us to pay no attention to the man behind the (plastic) curtain. The consumer brands that thrust the barrage of plastic pollution on the world seem determined to confuse and mislead people into believing plastic packaging is good for the environment even though the facts are undeniably to Read More
Poll Affirms Mainers Overwhelmingly Support Policies to Reduce Waste, Act on Climate
NRCM news release May 6, 2022 (Augusta, ME) – The vast majority of Mainers support policies to curb pollution by reducing waste and acting on climate according to a new poll of Maine voters conducted in Spring 2022. The poll confirms that actions taken by the Maine Legislature over the past few years to encourage Read More
New Law Will Close Out-of-state Waste Loophole
Don’t Waste ME | Community Action Works | Natural Resources Council of Maine news release A bill to stop filling Maine’s State-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill with out-of-state waste was signed into law yesterday by Governor Janet Mills. LD 1639 will close a loophole in the state’s waste laws that had allowed private corporations to import construction Read More
Addressing PFAS Contamination on Maine Farms
Ben Whalen, Co-Owner of Bumbleroot Organic Farm in Windham and board member of the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) recently delivered testimony to the Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry (ACF) Committee in support of LD 2013, a bill that would provide sorely needed relief and research funding for commercial farmers whose land is contaminated Read More
Debunking Claims Made by Companies Profiting Off Maine’s Out-of-state Waste Loophole
This legislative session, a bill (LD 1639) that would close Maine’s out-of-state waste loophole is gaining momentum. You see, Maine’s State-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill (JRL) was never supposed to accept out-of-state waste, and there is no good reason why it should. The State purchased the landfill to provide disposal capacity for Mainers’ waste, not the Read More
Bill to Close Out-of-state Waste Loophole Approved by Legislative Committee
News release by Don’t Waste ME, Community Action Works, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine February 7, 2022 (Augusta, ME) – A bill to stop filling Maine’s landfills with out-of-state waste received a key endorsement today when a bipartisan majority of the Legislature’s Environment & Natural Resources Committee voted 11-2* in favor. LD 1639 Read More
Support of LD 1911, An Act to Prohibit the Contamination of Clean Soils with So-called Forever Chemicals
Senator Brenner, Representative Tucker, and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, my name is Sarah Nichols, and I am the Sustainable Maine Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). I appreciate this opportunity to testify in support of LD 1911, and we urge the Committee to continue its Read More
Nature Links Students Raise Awareness of Plastic Pollution
When it comes to plastic pollution, people often want to do more than just learn—they want to stop it. That is exactly what happened at Nature Links for Lifelong Learning, a nonprofit adult education center in Blue Hill, Maine. The Natural Resources Council of Maine is always working to engage Mainers in environmental activism. We often Read More
