11.6.1 Proportion of municipal solid waste collected and managed in controlled facilities out of total municipal waste generated, by cities

An amalgamation of actors from federal, state, and local governments in combination with private entities manage solid waste. In the US, non-hazardous solid waste is federally regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and state governments are responsible for ensuring those regulations are met through their own laws and regulations, which are then managed at the city or county level. In Virginia, the Waste Management Board under the Department of Environmental Quality requires designated regions and cities, counties, and towns not part of a designated region, to establish solid waste management plans (SWMP) that include source reduction, reuse, recycling, resource recovery (waste-to-energy), incineration and landfilling.

The Maryland Department of the Environment’s Solid Waste Program (SWP) oversees that domestic, commercial, and non-hazardous industrial solid waste is handled ​properly. Montgomery County, Maryland then is responsible for trash collection from approximately 90,000 homes through contracts with independent trash collection companies. However, other single-family homes and townhomes in the county have trash collection through private subscriptions with private trash collectors established either directly between residents and collectors, or via homeowners’ associations.

In Washington, DC the Department of Public Works (DPW) collects trash once per week from single-family homes and apartments with less than four living units in Wards 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 and parts of Wards 1 and 2. In Wards 2, 6, and part of Ward 1, DPW collects twice per week. However, apartment buildings with four or more units, mixed-use residential/commercial buildings and commercial properties are responsible for contracting for private trash collection services. Once collected, municipal solid waste is typically aggregated at a waste transfer station, an industrial location where trash can be sorted and compacted before being shipped to a landfill or waste-to-energy plant. In DC, trash and other materials collected through DPW or commercial entities are first routed to one of the agency’s two transfer stations, the Benning Road location in Ward 7 or the Fort Totten location in Ward 5 before being taken to the Energy Resource Recovery Facility in Fairfax County, Virginia. Energy Resource Recovery is a waste-to-energy plant that incinerates MSW to generate electricity then disposes of the ash at an adjacent ash landfill.

The complex web of how waste is managed in conjunction with historical redlining policies have concentrated waste facilities, incinerators, and landfills in low income and Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. This has severe health implications for communities close to these facilities from mercury, lead, and harmful particulate matter leading to increased rates of asthma, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease. These communities have been on the front line of generating solutions at the local level and advocating for policy more broadly. Further public opinion research regarding waste management focuses more so on plastic pollution and recycling such as the concern for the negative effects of plastic on wildlife, the belief in shared responsibility of individuals, businesses, and government to reduce waste, the desire to do more to reduce individual plastic consumption but finding it difficult to avoid, and general support for more action. 

Both recycling and compost programs play an important role in waste management, specifically by reducing the volume of waste that goes through processing. Recycling and composting programs are a visible, cost-effective way to decrease both solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions. For example, composting programs decrease the amount of organic waste in landfills, which in turn decreases methane emissions and greenhouse gasses, while recycling mitigates plastic waste, of which the United States has the highest percentage. As of 2018, the United States produced 292.4 million tons of waste, with a national recycling rate of 32.1%, which does not account for the waste produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, in which plastic product production exponentially expanded, increasing the price of recycled goods. 

In Washington DC, the city government has a goal of 80% waste diversion by 2032 through recycling or compost programs. However, as of 2022, DC recycles only about 16% of its waste, a rate that has declined by 1.34% over the past four years. In 2014, DC adopted a Sustainable Development Plan which set the 80% zero waste benchmark, in addition to 36 goals and 167 actions to improve environmental health and stability and mitigate waste. In regard to waste management, the Sustainable Development Plan offers three tiers of goals: individual, neighborhood, and District, in order to emphasize the role of individual action in combating excessive waste.

Pre-pandemic, the primary streams of sustainable waste-management were single stream recycling, organic recycling, and scrap metal. In 2018, community composting accounted for 135 tons of waste, with over 51,000 participants utilizing food-waste drop off points throughout the District. Presently, DC has expanded its focus on waste diversion through recycling and composting by developing a Zero Waste DC Plan, which will identify policies, programs, and other action items to increase sustainable waste management in an effort to meet the 80% waste diversion goal. The DC Office of Waste Management intends to conduct community engagement hearings throughout the Fall of 2022 to create a plan that best meets current interests and capabilities of the community, with an intended release of the final plan in Spring 2023. 

In Maryland, the Maryland Department of the Environment actively encourages recycling and composting programs as methods of waste diversion and management. Under the Maryland Recycling Act, all counties, including Baltimore City, are required to recycle between 20% and 35% of  their solid waste (depending on population), with a voluntary waste diversion goal of 60% and a recycling goal of 55% by 2020. As of 2019. 17% of Maryland’s waste state-wide was recycled, while 32% was landfilled and 29% was exported to out-of-state facilities. Overall, by the 2020 goal deadline, Maryland achieved a waste diversion rate of 42%, well below the initial goal of 60%. 

To increase this percentage going forward, localities are encouraged to engage in source reduction programs, in which the government increases and circulates publications, resources, and demonstrations on how to properly recycle, compost, or reuse waste with the effort of reducing generated waste at the individual level. Additionally, in 2021, the Maryland General Assembly passed the Recycling Market Law, requiring the Maryland Department of the Environment to encourage the creation and expansion of a market for recycled goods and products within the state. In regard to composting, Maryland House Bill 264: Organics Recycling and Waste Diversion, set to go into effect in 2023, will require certain food generators within 30 miles of a composting facility to reduce food waste, divert waste to food rescue or animal feed organizations, and engage in composting activities.

In Virginia, waste management policies are created and approved at the local level, specifically by 71 waste planning units throughout the state. Each unit is required to achieve a recycling rate of 25%, or 15% if the population is less than 100 individuals per square mile. These units are required to create their own solid waste management plans with 20 year timelines that are in line with Virginia’s Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Regulations. Each unit is then required to submit five-year updates to ensure that they are actively meeting goals and minimum requirements set by state law. 

Given the individualized nature of these plans, goals across the state vary due to population, interests, and capabilities. In Arlington, for example, the solid waste management plan has a goal of 90% waste diversion from landfill or incineration by 2038, while the Central Virginia Solid Waste Management Plan intends to maintain a recycling rate of 50% over the next 20 years. State-wide, Virginia reported a 2020 recycling rate of 45.5%, which includes source reduction credits earned by localities that promote waste reduction, reuse programs, and non solid waste recycling. Between 1991 and 2020, recycling rates have steadily increased, with the rate up 2% from 2019. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be calculated into current recycling goals and statistics. 

Overall, each of the three government jurisdictions that comprise the DMV prioritize utilizing recycling and composting as methods for waste management and diversion. While DC and Maryland have specific plans in place prioritizing recycling and zero waste programs at the state level, Virginia’s state policy provides overarching guidance for local governments to implement. Each government recognizes the importance of waste diversion as a key component of increasing sustainable waste management and as such encourage individual waste reduction strategies. 

Additionally, DMV governments often work with nonprofits to further engage the community in sustainable waste reduction strategies and provide key resources to ensure that all residents are able to contribute to recycling and compost programs. These organizations include DC Central Kitchen and DC Food Project, which aim to recycle food and reduce food waste through improving school food programs and improving urban food systems, the Maryland Recycling Network, a group of nonprofit organizations that emphasize the “three Rs:” reduce, reuse, and recycle, and Keep Virginia Beautiful, an organization committed to reducing litter and encouraging recycling to prevent environmental degradation.