City to Advocate 10 Year Solid Waste Management Plan

Waste management - A College Park recycling truck

At tonight’s regular meeting, the City Council will approve a letter to the Prince George’s County Department of Environmental Resources in regards to a draft 10 year solid waste management plan.

The plan will be reviewed and voted on by the Prince George’s County Council early in September.

This draft Plan does a couple of things, and most notably requires the construction of a waste transfer station, which would allow the County to ship solid waste around the State, and which is necessary because the Brown Station landfill in current use is close to capacity.

The Plan also includes steps toward a possible food waste composting station near the existing yard waste composting facility. There is little, however, that would actually reduce the production of other solid waste in the County.

Due to the current unsustainable level of waste production in our society, many local governments around the country are moving toward an eventual goal of zero solid-waste production, and taking aggressive steps toward this.

The City will be considering a letter asking the County to take a more aggressive approach toward reduction of solid waste, by doing things such as increasing recycling and other steps indicated in a report that the University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center put out and which was commissioned by the County.

The letter also asks that the County collaborate with the City to assist the City with its efforts to reduce production of solid waste and increase recycling and composting.