THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS have been banner ones for climate progress in Massachusetts – we’ve made strides toward decarbonizing our buildings and transportation, scaled up clean energy, and worked to advance environmental justice. While we recognize the difficult and continuous work ahead, there’s been a palpable sense of climate momentum here in the Bay State. 

However, there is one major contributor to climate change that remains largely overlooked by policymakers — our trash. Every year, Bay Staters throw away 6 million tons of garbage. Nearly a third of that garbage is food waste. We’ve all tossed an apple core or banana peel into the trash can without much thought as to where it goes next. Unfortunately, that innocuously tossed food scrap is most likely bound for a landfill or an incinerator. At a time when we all need to be moving bold climate solutions forward, burning and burying waste are dragging us back. 

In Massachusetts, landfills are by far the largest industrial source of methane, a super-polluting greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the short-term warming potential of carbon dioxide. As more organic waste is added, it decomposes and creates even more planet-warming methane. In Massachusetts alone, the emissions from these landfills are the equivalent of driving more than 39,000 gas-powered cars for a year.

Massachusetts is also home to five operational municipal solid waste incinerators, among the highest number in the US. While misdirected renewable energy subsidies and disingenuous branding have framed burning trash as an environmentally sound alternative, these facilities released a staggering 11 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2018 alone.

Calling incinerators “waste combustors” doesn’t change the fact that they are a major health hazard to local communities, emitting toxic air pollutants like particulate matter and heavy metals which are linked to a variety of health problems including asthma, heart disease, and high blood pressure. 

For those who live near a landfill or incinerator, this crisis hits even closer to home. The majority of the Commonwealth’s incinerators are located in environmental justice communities. Low-income, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities already shoulder outsized burdens of health-harming pollution, and Black Americans are 21 percent more likely to be exposed to particulate matter than White Americans; by continuing to burn trash in vulnerable communities, we’re perpetuating a toxic cycle. 

We’ve already taken some meaningful steps toward keeping organic waste out of landfills and incinerators. In 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) put rules in place to keep some food scraps and other materials out of waste disposal streams.

When Boston launched its curbside compost pick up, there was already huge demand. Unfortunately, we’re still behind the curve, and challenges with enforcing food waste and other material bans mean that nearly 40 percent of the Commonwealth’s total waste is composed of items that were banned decades ago. Massachusetts must more than double our rate of organic waste diversion in order to meet our 2030 goals. 

Fortunately, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel; cities and states including San Francisco,  Seattle, and Vermont are already implementing common-sense solutions that Massachusetts can draw from. Practices like putting additional resources toward waste ban inspections, penalties for noncompliance, and accessible, multilingual public education would go a long way toward keeping our food out of landfills and incinerators. 

Both the Healey administration and municipal leaders also have an opportunity to leverage unprecedented federal funding through the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant to develop innovative strategies to cut climate pollution and build healthier communities. Boston has led the way by proposing investments to help scale up waste reduction in its application, an exciting move that we hope gains traction.

Burning and burying trash doesn’t need to be the way of the future. Right now, we have an array of opportunities at the state and local level to deliver cleaner air, protect local communities, and meet our climate goals. Massachusetts can cement itself as a national climate leader by making food waste a top priority.  

Janet Domenitz is the executive director of MASSPIRG. Cindy Luppi is the national field director for Clean Water Action.