An open letter by Steve Casale, President of VOCAL, to all Vermonters.

There are better ways to demonstrate responsibility than creating a new hole in the ground, to accept the ever-increasing amount of waste that we generate.

Landfills are money makers. Trash produces profit. New England Waste Service, a subsidiary of Casella, is permitted to accept 370,000 tons per year at its Coventry landfill and WSI is permitted to accept 172,000 tons at its landfill in Moretown. Diverting Chittenden County’s waste to a third landfill will do nothing to reduce the amount of trash accepted by the two existing landfills. Instead, it will result in more trash traveling an even greater distance from outside the region to end up in the two existing landfills.

The proposed Williston dump will similarly rely upon the continued waste generation of residents across Vermont to keep the operation in the black. If this landfill is approved, every incentive toward launching new, creative waste diversion programs will evaporate overnight. If it is approved, why would CSWD find markets for the plethora of resources Vermonters throw out each day – plastics, metals, organics – when they can generate income by simply tossing our waste into the new landfill? In addition, why push for producer responsibility upstream, demanding that manufacturers make durable, recyclable products, when reductions in the waste stream only convert to a loss of profit?

We should be asking bigger questions about waste management, resource recovery, and producer responsibility and stop wasting our time on short-term solutions that will only perpetuate the problem. Vermont can do better. And we should.