Improving Trash Removal & Recycling
We’re working to improve Sharon’s trash program by implementing the SMART Program (Save Money and Reduce Trash).
Get more information:
We’re working to improve Sharon’s trash program by implementing the SMART Program (Save Money and Reduce Trash).
Get more information:
sustainablesharon.wordpress.com 
Just a comment that waste goes to the West Wareham, MA waste-to-energy facility. This is very different than the traditional incinerators of the past. It has very strict pollutant cleaning before steam is released. It is not as good as preventing waste or recycling first, but it does have a role to play in sustainable waste management as it is better than land filling (much less CO2, no methane, etc.).
Laura: Thank you for your interest and your response. While these kinds of incinerators are a type of stop gap measure the underlying issues remain. As the picture in the garbage truck shows, a huge portion of what is thrown out are materials that can easily be repurposed and not turned into ash and heat. We are proposing that zero waste be something we are always trying for as a goal and that burning paper, metals, glass, etc. is wasteful, and that these materials once burned will never be recaptured, and that most of what is being burned should never be in the waste stream to begin with.
As long as recycling is done poorly, the incinerator is as wasteful an outcome as any — especially when we take into account that for every ton of waste in a landfill we now know that 70 tons of materials were used to produce it.
The entire system is on the wrong footing and we all must take a breath and rethink policies that turn anything reusable into a moment’s heat..
Thanks, Dr. Ricky Stern. President, Sustainable Sharon Coalition