Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

It’s time to modernize recycling in Connecticut.

Connecticut burns more trash per person than any other state in the country, generating half a million tons of toxic ash every year. If we don’t improve recycling rates, we’ll run out of landfill space for incinerator ash in six years.

Recognizing this, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has set a goal of keeping 58% of our trash out of landfills and incinerators — but Connecticut has been stuck at 30% for the last decade.

The good news is, we have the tools to get to 58% and even further to zero waste.  Communities like Nantucket are already keeping more than 90% of their trash out of landfills and incinerators and Connecticut towns like Darien and South Windsor are over 50%.

In order to get on the path to zero waste, we need to reduce the amount of resources we use, reuse what we can, and recycle the rest. Governor Malloy has created a Modernizing Recycling Working Group and we are calling on the governor and the working group to implement commonsense solutions, including:

• Updating the Bottle Bill to include juice containers
• Enforcing existing recycling mandates
• Removing organics from the waste stream
• Resisting attempts to incentivize incineration