BUILDING MOMENTUM TO CLOSE MAINE’S WASTE LOOPHOLE
BUILDING MOMENTUM TO CLOSE MAINE’S WASTE LOOPHOLE
Last fall, community leaders living next to Maine’s biggest landfill made waves across the state to close a loophole that makes Maine a dumping ground for the rest of the region.
The state’s largest landfill is located among working class communities and threatens fishing and hunting for members of the Penobscot Nation. And, thanks to a giant loophole, a lot of the trash that ends up in that landfill comes from outside of the state.
Last year, community leaders in the group Don’t Waste ME filed a petition to close this loophole and keep out-of-state waste out of Maine. In September, community leaders organized neighbors to flood the Board of Environmental Protection with comments and testify at an hours-long public hearing on Zoom.
The momentum is building. The Portland Press Herald wrote an editorial calling on the state to close the loophole, and the Maine Sunday Telegram published a comic on it.
Community leaders in Don’t Waste ME are keeping the pressure on to protect the health of communities most at risk from landfill pollution.
