A committee considers one of the most significant updates of Maine’s solid waste management laws, a plan to divert more waste from landfills into recycling or composting programs. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story AUGUSTA — Cities and towns could have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional fees 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.
Why Fiberight Would Take Maine in Wrong Direction on Waste
By Sarah Lakeman, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed As we head into 2016, many Mainers are talking about trash. State lawmakers are discussing a bill to move Maine closer to our goal of recycling 50 percent of our solid waste. Communities are exploring ways to recover food waste, increase composting and reduce Read More
Natural Resources Council of Maine Awards “Protecting the Nature of Maine” Grants to Eight Middle Schools
The Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) has awarded grants to eight Maine middle schools to fund projects that engage students in protecting Maine’s environment. These grants will help students establish nature trails, set up school-wide recycling initiatives, propagate and plant native plants on which endangered birds depend, and much more. Some of these grants Read More
Waste Not, Want Not
91. That’s the number of times the Empire State Building could have been filled from top to bottom with the amount of food wasted in the United States in 2010. And the problem gets worse every year. United States Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, representing Maine’s First Congressional District, recently unveiled and introduced legislation to tackle this Read More
How We Can Divert Food from Landfills to Cupboards, Food Banks
By Christopher Burns, BDN Staff Bangor Daily News news story Nothing takes up more space in landfills than food. This isn’t just table scraps and coffee grounds. It’s also whole fruits and vegetables and even canned food, not all of which is unfit to eat. Americans sent a staggering 35 million tons of food to Read More
Beyond Our Borders
I’d like to cap off 2015 with a short note about a big topic: our place in the international community.
York Prepares for Start of Plastic Bag Ban
Chamber moves to help businesses By Deborah McDermott Seacoast Online news story YORK, Maine — Now that the first-in-the-state ordinance banning single-use plastic bags has been approved, the town’s business leaders, citizens and officials are shifting gears and preparing for the March 1 effective date. Residents last week approved the ordinance by a vote of Read More
Stop Wasting Food! Have Your Cake, and Eat It, Too.
As a micro-scale farmer who has put a lot of effort into every vegetable, egg and pork chop I sell, I’ve often thought it an unfortunate side effect of life in the land of plenty that most of us don’t really worry about throwing away food. But we need to start. Food waste may not Read More
York Enacts Plastic Bag Ban
By Tom Porter MPBN news story YORK, Maine — By a narrow margin, voters here have chosen to prohibit stores from using plastic shopping bags. This makes the southern Maine community the first in the state to introduce such a moratorium. Earlier this year Portland introduced a 5-cent fee for most plastic bags issued by Read More
