MassPIRG in Saugus to push for quicker recycling initiatives
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By Chris Stevens / The Daily Item
SAUGUS - In the shadow of Wheelabrator Saugus, a trash to energy plant, MASSPIRG called on the Department of Environmental Protection to "walk the walk" in terms of enforcing its commitment a new solid waste initiative for the Commonwealth.
The DEP released a draft Monday of a new master plan, Pathway to Zero Waste, but according to MASSPIRG, Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, it will take 40 years to get 80 percent of the way there.
Sen. Sal DiDomenico, D-Everett, along with Martha Dansdill, a member of Swampscott's Board of Health and executive director of Healthlink, and Healthlink co-founder Lynn Nadeau were also on hand to lend both support and criticism of the plan.
The basic goal of the plan is to increase recycling and reduce trash. But as Dansdill pointed out it will take a "painfully long, long time."
Dansdill called the document forward thinking but also timid because, she said, it lacks incentives and aggression to get the job done. She said other communities have gotten the job of cutting down on refuse in much less time.
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