News Release Portland, Maine – Today, Feeding the 5000 Portland, Maine filled Monument Square with crowds of Mainers eager for a meaningful midday meal. The celebration featured a free lunch served to thousands made from perfectly good food that would otherwise have gone to waste, cooking demos by prominent local chefs, and helpful tips and Read More
Sustainability
Our vision of sustainability in Maine is ensuring a healthy future for life on Earth. 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.
More Composting Resources
Maine Guide to Recovering and Composting Organics in Maine: An excellent resource from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection Maine’s Compost School Biocycle: A national composting and organics recycling information hub. UMaine 2011 Waste Characterization Study : Showing that around 43% of our household garbage bags contain organic material (and 27 percent of which is Read More
Municipal Composting Programs
Municipal composting programs for food waste are few and far between in Maine, but there are many around the country and beyond. In Maine, most municipalities provide composting of leaf and yard waste, but few offer food scrap composting. Some towns partner exclusively with one of Maine’s compost collection companies to offer a discount for Read More
Home Composting Resources
Home composting is the most economical and environmentally sustainable way to manage household organic waste. Doing the work yourself, and preventing your organic materials from travelling to a compost site, saves money on any transportation and processing fees and reduces collection vehicle traffic and pollution. If you have a garden and the desire to maintain Read More
Maine Composting Companies
There are fantastic companies in Maine that make composting very easy and affordable. Those listed below offer a subscription-based service with regular pick up of your organic materials. They provide the bins, and some can even supply you with the finished compost! Garbage to Garden: Serving Greater Portland and beyond We Compost It!: Serving Great Read More
Why Choose Composting?
Organic Materials Don’t Belong in Landfills: Sending our organic waste, like food and yard waste, to landfills or incinerators is unsustainable. We need to move beyond the idea that our waste simply goes “away” and instead look for smart, effective ways to close the loop on our consumption patterns. Composting is nature’s way of recycling Read More
Company Offers Guarantee for Maine Towns to Reduce Trash by More than One-third
News Release The Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) and WasteZero announced today a joint initiative to help Maine towns dramatically reduce waste through WasteZero Trash Metering®, a Pay-As You-Throw (PAYT) program for household trash. WasteZero, the nation’s largest waste reduction company, will guarantee Maine communities that adopt its program—and that don’t already have a Read More
Controversial Hampden Waste Facility Gets Clearance
The Natural Resources Council says it is ‘dumbfounded’ by the state Department of Environmental Protection’s decision. by Madeline St. Amour, Morning Sentinel Portland Press Herald news story The Department of Environmental Protection has issued the final permits for a first-of-its-kind waste management plant in Hampden that would convert trash from more than 100 central Maine Read More
NRCM Dumbfounded at DEP Approval of MRC/Fiberight Waste Processing Facility
NRCM statement about Fiberight Application “We are extremely disappointed in Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s handling of the Fiberight application” said Sarah Lakeman, Sustainable Maine Project Director for NRCM. “There are powerful grounds for an appeal of these licenses.” NRCM, the Environment and Natural Resource Committee of the Legislature, engineers, attorneys, Maine citizens and others Read More