Waste Not! Carroll

From the Carroll County Times, June 30, 2010 

By Daniel Andrews

To accommodate the discards of future population growth, our county government is planning to intentionally oversize the proposed waste to energy incinerator by a factor of 100 percent.

Until such growth occurs, they intend to contract with several outside jurisdictions to achieve our required incineration waste volume of 552 tons per day. By my ratio and proportion calculations, Carroll County won't achieve in-county incinerator waste volumes of this magnitude for several decades, if then.

We currently generate less than 300 tons of waste per incinerator day.

Our waste volume is declining, use of on-line paperless services is increasing, corporate packaging is becoming highly recyclable, electronic media technology is reducing print material and environmental stewardship is taking hold. Moreover, schools and colleges are teaching the importance of waste reduction, recycling resources and composting organic material.

Our local government wants to commit its citizenry to the regional waste business beyond our county borders, but I believe there are better alternatives. These include ramping up our countywide recycling efforts, building a material resource recovery facility, building a county organic compost facility, transitioning our waste collection to pay-as-you-throw and setting community targets for near zero waste lifestyles. All of these initiatives can be achieved locally and the incredibly expensive, proposed incinerator project won't be necessary.

Daniel Andrews

Westminster

The writer is a member of the Carroll County Environmental Advisory Council.