Materials management in Maine is sometimes thought of as a “wild-west” of unconnected market activities working towards various goals. Towns are responsible for dealing with this complicated, expansive area. Maine communities coordinate with regional cooperatives and private companies to do their best to comprehensively manage all their waste and materials streams, but still we see a need for more innovation and connectivity across the many stakeholders as we landfill and incinerate the majority of our waste, leading to concerns about air and water quality, social concerns about the sites for new landfills and increased costs.
With limited coordination, our management progress comes from many areas. Advances in recycling rates may be stagnant, but there are emerging areas, in particular organics diversion, that can propel Maine to new levels of landfill diversion. On top of diverting landfill tons, the ability to connect Mainers with the resources they need (food, clothing, soil amendment, children’s toys, appliances, etc.) is a key way to promote best use of our bounded resources, as well as community resilience and social well-being.
The Materials Management research team would like to invite contributors to submit abstracts related to waste reduction and diversion. We are particularly interested in contributions that focus “up” the waste hierarchy and on organic waste reduction, reuse and management.
Session Chair:
Travis Blackmer
School of Economics and Mitchell Center, UMaine
8:30am – 8:55am
I. Reducing Food “Waste” in Maine
Brieanne Berry1 and Balu Nayak2
1 Graduate Student, Dept. of Anthropology, UMaine; brieanne.berry@maine.edu
2 School of Food and Agriculture, UMaine; balunkeswar.nayak@maine.edu
Maine’s Food Insecurity Landscape
In affluent countries, about one third of food intended for human consumption is wasted. At the same time, food poverty, defined as the lack of access to a sufficient amount and quality of food to meet nutritional needs, is a pressing problem. Over 200,000 Mainers are food insecure, including 60,000 children. According to the waste hierarchy in Maine, feeding people is prioritized above all other uses, save source reduction. As a highly rural state, Maine has unique opportunities to prevent waste and provide food to those in need. Utilizing local institutions and farms may offer significant opportunities to reduce food waste and food poverty.
Can safety and quality indicators of fresh produce beyond expiration date help reducing food waste?
Globally, approximately one-third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted annually i.e. approximately 1.3 billion tons. Out of the total waste, 40-50% of the global supply of fruits and vegetables are wasted. A large portion of food waste in the United States typically occurs at the “retail and end-consumer stages of the supply chain”. Household food waste has been shown to be linked to the availability of cheap foods, confusion over label dates, lack of awareness of the impacts of food waste, improper or insufficient product storage, and superfluous purchasing of already-owned products. Understanding the extent of the objective organoleptic and microbial changes that occur in fresh fruits and vegetables past the sell-by or use-by dates proclaimed on the label, will serve to understand ways in which consumers can be educated about the meaning of such labels. Ultimately, increased consumer education regarding sell-by or use-by labels on fresh produce could reduce food waste at the household level.
9:00am – 9:25am
II: Reuse and Resilience in Maine
Cynthia Isenhour
Dept. of Anthropology, University of Maine; cynthia.isenhour@maine.edu
Consumer goods account for 35% of material inputs into the global economy and 75% of municipal waste, yet studies suggest that between 30 and 40% of what we throw away is still usable. Waste hierarchies, now well established in national and state level policies, recognize the environmental benefits of reusing discarded goods with residual value – rather than burying or burning them. Drawing on a survey of reuse businesses and organizations as well as statistical analysis of reuse market data, we argue that healthy reuse economies not only contribute to reduced energy and resource use, but are also important for economic sustainability and resilience.
9:30am – 9:55am
III: Systems to Manage Organics in Maine
Panel Presentation
Dan Bell, General Manager, Agri-Cycle; dan@agricycleenergy.com
Clayton (Mac) Richardson, Superintendent, Lewiston Auburn Water Pollution Control Authority; crichardson@lawpca.org
Jen McDonnell, Director of Sales and Marketing, Casella Organics; Jen.McDonnell@casella.com
Disposing organic materials in trash can may soon to be a thing of the past in Maine! There is not a “Magic-Bullet” when it comes of how to manage these materials. In this panel session we will look at what are the various systems that manage organic materials in Maine currently achieve? By what process? Where do the residuals go? What are the challenges and opportunities are for the system? Three different entities will present their organics management systems. Stress to be made on critical self-analysis of the system, the impact of their process and residuals on the environment (land use, water quality, air pollution and emissions) and what does the system fail to accomplish and where are the possibilities to make improvements in the future.
10:00am – 10:25am
IV. Solid Waste and Waste Disposal Processes for Isolated Patients with Infectious Disease
Deborah Saber, PhD, RN, CCRN-K
School of Nursing, University of Maine; deborah.saber@maine.edu
When there is an infectious outbreak, healthcare professionals are tasked with executing infection control processes that include waste management. Although current waste disposal processes have been updated, they were established in the 1980s when blood-borne pathogens were of extreme concern. Today, concerns revolve around highly infectious diseases such as Ebola and multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs). More data is needed about solid waste disposal practices because microbes in the healthcare environment evolve rapidly and are numerous, disposable solid waste is increasing, infectious disease spread is rapid, and patients with multiple comorbidities add to the diversity of solid waste. As a first step, this study used observational data collection and descriptive analysis to define types of solid waste. Two research questions included: 1) what quantity and characteristics are found with waste generated from infectious disease patients? and 2) what are the waste disposal practices for infectious disease patients? The waste from 2 patients was included in this study that was deemed exempt from the internal review board (IRB). In a hospital in the northeastern United States, types of solid waste were logged on 2 medical/pulmonary patients in isolation precautions for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus for 24 hours/day from August 1- August 7, 2016. Weights were also obtained for all waste. There were over 40 types of solid waste logged with 60.2% of waste disposal between 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM and 39.8% from 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM. Examining disposable isolation gowns alone found that 467 gowns were discarded as solid waste. Expanding this number over 52 weeks (1 year) could translate to the disposal of over 12,000 gowns per isolated patient per year. The gowns contributed to the solid waste weight, which was found to be 71.38 lbs. of waste for one patient per week, which could amount to over 3,700 lbs. of waste over one year. During this presentation, solid waste characteristics, quantity of waste, and waste disposal processes of hospitalized MDRO patients will be described. Implications of the findings will be discussed. These findings will act as a springboard for future studies that intend to build a contemporary waste disposal system for infectious patients and an algorithm than can be used to guide waste disposal processes for highly infectious patients (e.g., Ebola, anthrax).