Maine Environment Fall/Winter 2021: What’s Inside! In this issue of Maine Environment, we feature a story about our work to close a loophole in Maine law that allows toxic out-of-state waste to fill our State-owned landfills like Juniper Ridge in Old Town. We also update you on our work to restore the Kennebec River above Read More
landfills
Maine Should Not Be New England’s Dumping Ground
This is an old familiar tale of wealthy corporations exploiting Maine’s laws and natural resources in pursuit of profit, and the underrepresented people who are being affected banding together and fighting back. The setting for this story is Maine’s State-owned Juniper Ridge Landfill (JRL) in Old Town/Alton; its protagonists are the working-class people living adjacent Read More
Support of LD 1639, An Act To Protect the Health and Welfare of Maine Communities and Reduce Harmful Solid Waste
Senator Brenner, Representative Tucker, and members of the Joint Standing Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, my name is Sarah Nichols, and I am the Sustainable Maine Director for the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM). I appreciate this opportunity to testify in strong support of LD 1639. The time has come for Maine to Read More
Recognizing the Unjust, Disproportionate Health Impacts of Our Waste System
There is more to our waste crisis than meets the eye as a new United Nations (UN) report makes clear. The study, released by the United Nations Environment Program and the environmental justice nonprofit Azul shows that at every stage of the life-cycle for plastics – from production to disposal — there are significant human Read More
News & Noteworthy — January – March 2021
Read some highlights from this month’s news stories and opinion pieces related to the environment, including Maine’s air, land, water, and wildlife, in this month’s News & Noteworthy from the Natural Resources Council of Maine. March 2021 Plastic pollution continues to be on the minds of many Mainers, including lawmakers who this week discussed a Read More
Top 5 Take-Aways from Maine’s Latest Waste and Recycling Report
The Sustainable Maine team at the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) is laser-focused on three bills that will make a huge difference in addressing serious problems and troubling trends with our recycling and landfilling system. Maine people want to do the right thing for the environment, but we need better policies in place if Read More
News & Noteworthy — October – December 2020
Read the latest news stories and opinion pieces related to the environment, including Maine’s air, land, water, and wildlife. December 2020 We start with news about the delay in Maine’s statewide plastic bag and foam bans, which have had enforcement delayed amidst the pandemic. NRCM doesn’t feel that that is necessary or a good idea Read More
Mainers Call for Greater Protections at State-owned Landfills
News release (September 16, 2020) — A group of Maine residents and the Penobscot Nation will call on the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) at their September 17th meeting to support a citizen’s petition that will ban out-of-state waste from being disposed in State-owned landfills and enact greater environmental justice protections for those communities directly Read More
Why You Should Care about Landfills
There’s a hidden climate villain in Maine that you might not know about, and it’s where about 75% of our total waste goes. According to the U.S. EPA, landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States.[1] Pound for pound, methane has about 30 times more atmospheric heat-trapping capability than carbon Read More