All the “Rs” of Solid Waste Management: Rethink Waste
Landfills in New Hampshire are Filling to Capacity—Rethink Solid Waste with Solutions You Can Put Into Practice
In the summer of 2021, we learned from Reagan Bissonnette, executive director of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association, that recycling in New Hampshire was “thriving,” partially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.1 It was encouraging to learn that markets for cardboard and Number 2 HDPE Natural plastics were bringing money back to New Hampshire municipalities. If you are as passionate about recycling as I am, and I hope you are, you probably feel virtuous about your recycling efforts and Ms. Bissonnette’s report. But should you?
Most of us are aware of the “3Rs”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. But for some reason, all we hear is “Recycle, Recycle, Recycle.” Whatever way you look at it, it’s time for all of us to “rethink waste” and consider all of the Rs of Waste Avoidance: refuse, reduce, reuse, re-gift, repair, repurpose. Why? Because we have a solid waste management problem in New Hampshire.2 Furthermore, plastics, which are made from fossil fuels, and the chemicals involved in their manufacture, such as PFAS, are harming the environment and they are harming us.3
Recycling and Solid Waste in New Hampshire
In 2019, the Committee to Study Recycling Streams and Solid Waste in New Hampshire published their report on the state of recycling programs in NH and the challenges to the municipalities that run recycling and solid waste management programs — a topic they described as being a subject that is beyond “vast and complex.”4 Way back in 1990, the NH Legislature brought forward a preferred hierarchy of waste management: with source reduction as the most preferred solution and landfilling as the least preferred. The study reported that, since 1990, NH has been focussed on recycling and that communities had “done an admirable job at establishing well-run recycling programs,” bringing in revenue when recycling #1 and #2 plastic for example. But are these programs helping us rethink waste? So, as I did in the first paragraph when I asked you as an individual if you felt virtuous about your recycling efforts, we are asking our NH communities the same question. Should our municipalities feel virtuous about recycling, particularly when plastics #3-#7 don’t appear to have a stable market? Or is it time to turn our focus up the waste management hierarchy and think about “source reduction” and more of the “Rs” that should come ahead of recycling?
Can Hospitals Help Save Forest Lake?
First let’s talk about plastic. Plastic pollution reduction legislation is almost nonexistent in NH at the state level and the lack of enabling legislation means municipalities are reluctant to enact local ordinances. Due to deep budget cuts at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Waste Management Division’ Solid Waste Management Bureau,4 NH is seriously behind in solid waste management planning and education. Plastic disposal bans by other states and decisions to stop sending plastics to poor countries, may mean more plastics being sent to New Hampshire, even as our landfills are near capacity.2 New laws and programs must be put in place to address economic and public health costs of dealing with solid waste including plastics.
Speaking of landfilling in NH, a mega-landfill of more than 100 acres was proposed right next to Forest Lake State Park in Dalton, mostly to accommodate solid waste from out-of-state. Boaters and swimmers would be able to see this landfill right from the lake. Citizens all over NH spoke out. However, a bill (HB177) to ban landfills near state parks was voted down in May 2021.5 With our current legislators not supporting healthy environmental efforts to regulate and limit landfilling in NH, we all should be finding every way we can to reduce solid waste.
According to Kathy Gerwig, Environmental Stewardship Advisory for Health Care Without Harm/Board Vice Chair, Center for Environmental Health, hospitals generate 29 pounds of waste per bed per day including plastics, paper, cardboard, and food waste.6 This adds up to a reported 2 to 6 million tons of waste annually.7,8 Rethinking waste at your hospital, clinic or place of employment could have a huge impact.
Solutions and Resources: Rethink Beyond the Bin
It’s well beyond time to “Rethink Beyond the Bin;” the recycling bin that is. First, here are some efforts we can make on a personal or community level.
We can divert waste from landfills and incinerators, work on source reduction, educate ourselves and others about reducing waste, look for solutions, and support waste reduction programs in our communities.
At the source, it’s not too difficult to refuse single use plastic bags and styrofoam to-go containers.
Get in the habit of carrying your own reusable mug, bowl, napkin, utensils, and grocery bags.
Rethink your consumption and ask, “Do I really need this? Can I borrow this from a friend or neighbor? Could I find one at a second-hand store?”
At home, use washable dishcloths and towels instead of rolls of paper towels.
Become a “regifter” giving new life to your books, clothes, kitchenware, and toys. You could gift your time instead of stuff by sharing skills such as knitting, cooking, music, dance, skating, or photography lessons.
Are you handy or know someone who is? Repair items instead of throwing them away. YouTube has lots of helpful guides. If you’re community oriented, host a Repair Cafe or Fix it Clinic in your school, community, or senior center.
Use your creativity. Socks can be repurposed as cleaning rags, pages from old books can make great art projects, wooden ladders can become bookshelves, and broken pottery can be transformed into mosaics.
When all of the other Rs are exhausted, then it’s time to recycle and recycle right! Put a particular eye on plastic because in the U.S. less than 9% of plastics are being recycled. Most plastic waste is being incinerated (15.8%), buried in landfills (75.5%), or left to litter our environment and deteriorate into micro and nanoplastics (Consumer Reports, 2021).9
Here are some ideas to rethink solid waste in your practice:
Spearhead a sustainability committee.
At your hospital or clinic, spearhead efforts to move away from single use plastic. Start in your cafeteria with single use items like straws and utensils by educating your peers to bring their own from home.
The cafeteria could look into ways to reduce food waste and start a composting program.
Find sources of reusable supplies, linens, and equipment.
Seek out solutions for reducing waste from procedure kits and trays, and for reprocessing single-use devices.
Switch from hard plastic to soft plastic for containers such as disinfectant wipes, which have less packaging and do not need to be disposed of as hazardous waste.7
Investigate medical waste recycling to determine if it is a viable solution for your facility.
If you would like to assist your community to rethink waste and rethink plastic, join the Ten Town • Ten Actions Campaign right here in New Hampshire. The Campaign has an online toolkit, which will help you partner with leaders in your community to take practical actions to change policy; engage and educate youth and other community members; and improve plastic waste management in your town or city. Your energy and creativity can be harnessed to rethink waste and rethink plastic, to the betterment of your local hospital community, our beautiful state of New Hampshire, and the rest of the world. And yes, we should feel virtuous about our recycling efforts, but we must do more.
https://www.des.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt341/files/documents/2020-01/r-wmd-19-02.pdf
https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/pfcs/index.htm and https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/pfcs/providers.htm
Kathy Gerwig, MBA, Environmental Stewardship Advisor/Senior Advisor, Health Care Without Harm/Board Vice Chair, Center for Environmental Health. Presentation: Decarbonizing Health Care, Part 2: Actions. Nov. 10, 2021.
Seema Wadhwa, LEED AP, MLA, Executive Director, Environmental Stewardship, Kaiser Permanente and Joel Sigler, Director, National Environmental Health & Safety, Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser Permanente’s Journey to Sustainability: A Case Study. Dec. 1, 2021
https://www.consumerreports.org/environment-sustainability/the-big-problem-with-plastic/
Patricia Beffa-Negrini, PhD, RDN
Retired Associate Professor and former Director of the Online Master of Public Health in Nutrition at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Member of the New Hampshire Network for Environment, Energy, and Climate’s Plastics Work Group
