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conservation

Minute Man park cited as endangered by historic preservation group

May 2, 2024

Minute Man National Historical Park and nearby landmarks have been designated as one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Trust chose MMHNP due to threat of private jet hangar expansion at nearby Hanscom Field, which would significantly increase the number of private jet flights along with noise and greenhouse gas emissions. The jets would use the runway that directly overflies Minute Man Park, Walden, Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, and historic homes in Concord, Lexington, Lincoln, and Bedford. Hanscom is the only airport in the country that abuts a national historic park and a national wildlife refuge.

The park and surrounding area designated by the Trust includes the site of the first battle of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775; the homesteads of the authors Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Alcott; Walden Pond and Walden Woods, and properties connected with the Underground Railroad and Brister Freeman and Caesar Robbins, two enslaved men who were emancipated after their service in the Revolutionary War.

“Against the dire backdrop of our warming climate and the climate disasters that result, causing so much suffering for millions, it is utterly appalling to consider a massive development for luxury private jets in the midst of the landscape that inspired the founding of our democracy and the American environmental movement,” actor and activist Ashley Judd said at the May 1 announcement ceremony in Concord. “We must take responsibility for protecting both our historic sites and our planet by firmly opposing this completely senseless development.”

“Today’s announcement reminds us of the enduring responsibilities we bear: to preserve our national treasurers like Walden Pond and Walden Woods through vigilant advocacy and devoted stewardship. Without both, we face the very real possibility that these national treasures could be lost for future generations. Critical choices lie ahead. We must choose wisely by prioritizing what is essential for the preservation of the special places that inspire us, embody our history, reflect our values and define us as Americans,” said Don Henley, musician and board chair of the Walden Woods Project.

The Trust encourages residents to sign their petition urging Gov. Healey and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg them to stop expansion of Hanscom Field. 

The project’s draft environmental impact report and other documents can be found here. The public comment portal is here (project 16654, login/registration required). The deadline for comments on the DEIR has been extended to June 14, 2024.

Category: conservation 1 Comment

Correction

February 21, 2024

The February 20 article headlined “My Turn: 100 seconds to a better planet” did not contain links in two places saying “click here.” The article has been updated, and the paragraphs explaining how to check which green energy plan you’re on(and how to upgrade to 100% Green) are reprinted below:

First, make sure you have your Eversource bill at hand. Then click here, fill out the form, and press “Submit.” Or call LGEC customer support at 844-651-8919 and tell them you want 100% Green. They will make the change for you. (It may take several billing cycles before the change takes effect.)

If you’re uncertain which option you’re in now, click here to see where the rate and supplier information is noted on your Eversource bill. Then find your February 2024 or a later bill to compare.

Category: conservation Leave a Comment

My Turn: 100 seconds to a better planet

February 20, 2024

By Michael Moodie and Belinda Gingrich

(Editor’s note: The following is one in a series of “Climate Minutes” posted on the Lincoln Green Energy Committee website.)

The Lincoln Green Energy Choice (LGEC) program offers residents three options for electricity from renewable (primarily wind and solar) sources:

  • Basic — 26% renewable, 14.631 cents per kWh
  • Standard Green — 62% renewable, 16.093 cents per kWh
  • 100% Green — 100% renewable, 17.348 cents per kWh

When the program started three years ago, unless an enrolling household specifically selected Basic or 100% Green, it was placed in the Standard Green program by default. The great majority of those enrolled in the program ended up with Standard. With busy lives and automatic bill payments, probably few of us have given much thought to our electricity supplier since.

About 13% of Lincoln households have chosen the 100% option, while 80% have Standard and 7% Basic. The CFREE team hopes that more households would move to 100% if they knew how easy it is to do and how minimal the extra cost would be. The 100% option is just over a penny per kilowatt-hour more than Standard. For an average home that uses 10,000kWh per year, that’s about 35 cents a day. This is one of the simplest and lowest-cost steps we can take to get at least the electricity part of our fossil fuel use out of our lives.

We’ve timed it. If you can spare 100 seconds, you can do this! First, make sure you have your Eversource bill at hand. Then click here, fill out the form, and press “Submit.” Or call LGEC customer support at 844-651-8919 and tell them you want 100% Green. They will make the change for you. (It may take several billing cycles before the change takes effect.)

If you’re uncertain which option you’re in now, click here to see where the rate and supplier information is noted on your Eversource bill. Then find your February 2024 or a later bill to compare.

Tech support will be provided free of charge in the Tarbell Room of the Lincoln Public Library on Friday, March 1 from 1–2 p.m. Volunteers will have computers set up to help anyone who’d like to make the change to 100% (or any other change). Bring your Eversource bill. We’ll also do a Q&A and provide tech support to help users make changes on Thursday, March 21 from 2–3 p.m. at Bemis Hall.

Moodie and Gingrich are writing on behalf of CFREE (Carbon-Free Residential, Everything Electric), a working group of the Lincoln Green Energy Committee.


“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Category: conservation, news 2 Comments

My Turn: Updates on the town’s two solar energy projects

February 7, 2024

By Jim Hutchinson, Select Board

A number of folks have expressed interest in the status of the solar projects in progress at the transfer station and Lincoln School, so I thought I’d post an update. I am the Select overseeing the transfer station project and I was also a member of the PPA [power purchase agreement] subcommittee that advised the School Committee on the Lincoln School solar project. For this update I also got input from Buck Creel, the Lincoln School staff member overseeing the Lincoln School solar project.

What solar project is Lincoln doing at the transfer station?

After years of effort, careful negotiations with the National Park Service, discussions with neighbors on Mill Street, and a successful competitive bidding process, Lincoln is now finalizing final details of a Power Purchase Agreement (“PPA”) with the New Jersey-based firm HESP to construct and operate a 1.4MW solar PV system for our benefit on top of the capped landfill next to the transfer station, which we expect to generate enough green electricity to cover the amount of municipal electricity that has historically been used by the town net of the Lincoln School. As an added benefit to the town, while we are doing this construction work, with the input of the Conservation Commission and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, we will also construct a bikeable and walkable path connecting Mill Street to the transfer station access road.

What is the expected schedule for the transfer station solar project?

We are currently working our way through the local, state, and utility permitting processes. We received Conservation Commission approval for the project in November 2023 and hope to get Planning Board approval this March. We hope to get approval from the MassDEP by June, and from Eversource by the end of the summer. HESP will then order the equipment and begin installation, hopefully in the Fall of 2024, or Spring of 2025 at the latest. Construction is expected to take four months, and equipment startup one additional month. We hope to be generating electricity by the Fall of 2025.

What is the solar project at Lincoln School?

The School Committee signed a PPA Agreement with TotalEnergies (previously SunPower) back in 2022 to install 1.2MW of rooftop and parking lot canopy solar PV as well as 562KW of battery storage. We expect this system to generate enough electricity to cover the expected usage at Lincoln School and thereby make the school “net zero” overall. In addition, the battery system should help us minimize the dreaded “demand charges” from Eversource that occur if our generation plus battery supply doesn’t meet our spot demand and we have to draw power from the grid at peak times. The technical approach taken in this project was somewhat novel for municipal projects in that it is “behind the meter,” meaning that a good chunk of the solar power generated by the panels is used directly by the School and is not shipped out to Eversource, and thus we do not have to pay distribution charges on that amount.

I see the solar panels have been installed at Lincoln School rooftops and carport canopies. Are they live?

No. TotalEnergies has encountered a number of setbacks that have delayed the completion of this project, including supply chain issues, issues with Eversource needing to adopt new policies and procedures for our novel “behind the meter” situation, and most recently, an equipment compatibility issue between the inverters and rapid shutdown safety devices used on the project, which is the current holdup on energizing the system. None of these delays have been the fault of the Town of Lincoln, although we have done what we can to help resolve the issues quickly while protecting Lincoln’s interests.

When do we currently expect Lincoln School solar to be live?

We are working with TotalEnergies now to finalize the plan for them to replace the incompatible equipment, which will be done solely at their expense. They need snow and ice-free conditions to do this work, so the schedule is weather dependent, but we currently expect the work to be completed and the system to go live in May, and possibly sooner. TotalEnergies does not collect any revenue from Lincoln for this project until they go live, so they are just as eager as we are to do so.

Aren’t we paying more for electricity from Eversource while we wait for the Lincoln School solar PV system to go live?

Yes, although note that the cost to Lincoln for delays is not the full ~$500,000 per year we spend on electricity when sourcing solely from Eversource; it is the roughly $60,000–$100,000 per year we hope to save when we replace much of the Eversource usage with PPA usage. The exact savings we might have enjoyed are not possible to calculate since we do not know exactly how much power the panels would have produced over the period.

Can we recover that extra cost due to delays from TotalEnergies?

Possibly, for some amount related to the guaranteed production of the system, since we don’t have any actual production. We did negotiate for and got language in the PPA agreement that addresses costs associated with some delays in getting the system live. With town counsel’s help, we are reviewing the town’s rights, the expected dollar amount that might be recoverable, the likelihood such events will be judged to be force majeure and thus not be eligible for recovery, and the impact pursuing a recovery could have on what is the beginning of a 25-year relationship with this developer. Subsequently we will advise the School Committee, who will make the ultimate determination on whether the town pursues a recovery.

Once these two solar projects are live, will Lincoln be “net zero” regarding municipal electricity use?

Yes, these projects are expected to generate enough green electricity to cover our municipal electricity usage, although note that in the case of Lincoln School the sizing was done based on expected usage, and in the non-school case we are sizing while considering historical usage. Periodic reassessment of our “green coverage” will be needed. Also, new uses to the town, such as a possible community center or increased adoption of electric vehicles by the town, may require additional solar power in the future to keep the town “net zero.”


“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Category: conservation, My Turn, news 2 Comments

Lincoln Green Energy Choice prices to decrease in January 

December 8, 2023

The Mass. Department of Public Utilities requires the town to publicize an announcement about the new prices for Lincoln Green Energy Choice. Following is the text of the announcement.

Beginning in January, prices for Lincoln Green Energy Choice, Lincoln’s electricity aggregation program, will decrease by more than 6 cents/kWh for all program participants. The new prices will take effect as the current electricity supply contract with First Point Power ends and a new, 24-month contract with First Point Power takes effect. Most participants will also receive more electricity from renewable sources and a price that is lower than Eversource’s winter residential Basic Service price, though future savings compared with Eversource cannot be guaranteed.

The new prices and associated renewable content for each option are as follows:

Lincoln Standard Green – Lowering to 16.093 cents/kWh. Participants in Standard Green already receive an additional 32% of their electricity from renewable sources, “additional” meaning above the minimum required by state law. With the new contract, that additional amount will increase to 38% in 2024 and 44% in 2025. Most participants are enrolled in Lincoln Standard Green.

Lincoln 100% Green – Lowering to 17.348 cents/kWh. This option will continue to provide 100% of participants’ electricity from renewable sources.

Lincoln Basic – Lowering to 14.631 cents/kWh. This option will continue to provide an additional 2% of participants’ electricity from renewable sources.

Lincoln prioritizes helping to build demand for new renewable energy projects on the New England grid. As a result, the additional renewable energy that is purchased for each program option, over and above the minimum amount required by state law, is from new renewable projects in the New England region (MA Class I RECs).

The new prices are designed to provide long-term stability and are fixed for 24 months, from January 2024 to January 2026. In addition, the Lincoln Green Energy Choice Standard Green and Lincoln Green Energy Choice Basic prices are below Eversource’s January 1 residential Basic Service price of 17.25 cents/kWh. However, Eversource’s Basic Service prices change and future prices are unknown. As a result, future savings compared with Eversource cannot be guaranteed.

Lincoln Green Energy Choice has a track record of providing measurable value to participants, including providing price protection during last winter’s volatile electricity market. Lincoln Green Energy Choice has saved participants more than $1.4 million since the program’s 2021 launch through September 2023. In addition, because all program participants buy more electricity generated from renewable sources than is required by law, Lincoln Green Energy Choice has helped the community to avoid more than 12 million pounds of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent to the emissions associated with more than 1,211 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles for a year.

No action is required for current Lincoln Green Energy Choice participants. All active program participants will automatically be enrolled into the new First Point Power contract with their January 2024 meter read. The new program price will first appear on February 2024 Eversource electric bills, and the electricity supplier will be listed as “Lincoln Green Energy Choice.”

Participants will be enrolled in the same program option they have in the current First Point Power contract. However, participants may choose a different program option or leave the program before the new First Point Power contract takes effect, and at any time in the future, with no penalty or fee.

To enroll, make changes to enrollment, or get more information, please visit the program website at LincolnGreenEnergyChoice.com or contact customer support with Lincoln’s program consultants at 1-844-651-8919. Large commercial accounts are subject to special terms and conditions.

Category: conservation 2 Comments

Mass Audubon gets $25 million from MathWorks

November 12, 2023

Lincoln-based Mass Audubon has received a $25 million gift spanning seven years from mathematical computing software MathWorks to help protect and restore the Commonwealth’s valuable natural lands.

The gift of $7 million in year one and $3 million in each of the six subsequent years is the largest programmatic gift in Mass Audubon’s 127-year history and will be used to acquire, restore, and preserve properties to their natural state, particularly in coastal areas. One example of such work already going on is the “rewilding” of retired cranberry bogs at Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Plymouth.

“This extraordinary commitment to protecting the nature of Massachusetts is nothing short of transformative, and we are forever grateful for MathWorks’ overwhelming generosity,” said David O’Neill, president of Mass Audubon. “It’s so heartening to see a world-renowned company like MathWorks prioritize the natural world, and we are honored they are entrusting us to carry out such important work.”

Since the gift spans several years, “there’s not a lot of specifics right now” on how the funds might impact Drumlin Farm or other wildlife sanctuaries overseen by Mass Audubon, said Aaron Gouveia, the organization’s director of public relations.

“The opportunity for nature to play a role in fighting climate change is more vital than ever,” said Jeanne O’Keefe, SVP and CFO of MathWorks, said in a press release. “Between Mass Audubon’s 127-year history of conservation and MathWorks’ commitment to its local communities and green initiatives, we’re confident this kind of partnership will inspire even more corporate social responsibility and lead to the protection of outdoor spaces that benefit people and wildlife across the state.”

In fiscal 2022, Mass Audubon received $8.87 million in gifts, grants, and government contracts, according to its annual report for that year. Its operating budget in 2022 was $32.53 million. In 2019 (the most recent data readily available), MathWorks more than $9.7 million for educational programs, which included research grants, university fellowships, curriculum development, and museum partnerships with 15 organizations in four countries including Mass Audubon.

Locally, the Carroll School on Old Sudbury Road gave Mass Audubon 85 acres of land straddling the Lincoln/Wayland border (part of 103 acres from an anonymous donor) in 2020. That parcel is now part of the Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary.

Category: charity/volunteer, conservation Leave a Comment

My Turn: Lincoln has a Climate Action Plan – now what?

September 19, 2023

By Lynne Smith

For the past year, Lincoln staff and residents have worked to develop a comprehensive Climate Action Plan. A Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Action Grant, provided through the state’s Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs, funded the project.

Over 100 residents participated in workshops, focus groups, and committee meetings to make sure the plan included input from as many members of the community as possible. At most of these sessions, people were eager to meet the challenge of our changing climate, but many said they are not always sure how to do so. The plan prioritizes goals and strategies that will help the town and individuals take action.

A Climate Action Plan is a big deal. In fact, Lincoln’s plan is about 77 pages filled with informative charts, graphs, goals, and strategies. But the plan is only a first step in the process toward its stated overarching goal of “reducing greenhouse gas emission while also advancing community resilience in equitable and sustainable ways.”

Specifically, the plan organizes strategies into the following six planning areas: energy, mobility, built environment, working lands and natural resources, social resilience and education, and water and solid waste management. For each of these areas, three to four “priority strategies” were identified through an evaluation and prioritization exercise. For each strategy, the plan describes the implementation lead, next steps, how it improves equity, potential co-benefits, implementation partners, funding sources, and measures of success.

Priority strategies are not necessarily ones that will be completed first or are the most important, as this exercise only provided a high-level assessment of how beneficial the strategy could be to the community and environment. Any strategies can be tackled when possible (Lincoln is already making progress toward many of them) and this exercise can be performed periodically to update considerations based on new data, changes in conditions, opportunities, and constraints.

Now that Lincoln has a Climate Action Plan, the town is better prepared to apply for more federal and state funding to implement goals and strategies. To access these funds, professional town staff will need to apply for grants and manage their implementation. With limited staff ability and town funding, many of the strategies laid out in the plan will need the community’s help.

At the State of the Town meeting on September 30, Assistant Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Curtin will explain more about the plan and the next steps toward implementation. Residents will be able to provide essential input on how we can move forward to achieve our climate goals. Green Energy Committee members will be on hand to talk with residents about how to increase their energy efficiency and reduce their fossil fuel emissions.

To review the Climate Action Plan before the September 30 State of the Town meeting, click here. We look forward to seeing you there!

Lynne Smith is a member of the Green Energy Committee’s Climate Action Lincoln Subcommittee.


“My Turn” is a forum for readers to offer their letters to the editor or views on any subject of interest to other Lincolnites. Submissions must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Items will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Submissions containing personal attacks, errors of fact, or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Category: conservation, My Turn Leave a Comment

Town unveils draft Climate Action Plan

June 28, 2023

The town is kicking off the summer review period of its draft Climate Action Plan at a virtual event on Thursday, June 29 from 7–8 p.m. Residents are invited to learn more about the plan and the strategies to reduce carbon emissions and increase the community’s resilience to climate change impacts (click here to register).

The plan — which was developed by Assistant Director of Planning and Land Use Jennifer Curtin and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council along the lines of other towns’ climate action plans — lists Lincoln’s climate action goals and groups strategies into six categories:

  • Energy 
  • Mobility 
  • Built environment 
  • Working land and natural resources 
  • Water and solid waste 
  • Social resilience  

More than 200 strategy ideas were received from community engagement activities during the spring that included workshops, focus groups and a survey. After public review this summer, the final draft will be submitted to the Select Board for approval in the fall.

When the plan was presented to the Select Board on June 26, board member Kim Bodnar was intrigued by one of the proposed strategies: establishing an “ambassador program” to help residents understand and access grants for weatherization, building energy retrofits, adoption of solar power, battery storage, etc. “Is it like a Geek Squad for green folks?” she asked. “That would be incredibly helpful — sometimes people just don’t know.”

“We heard from folks that they would rather hear [about steps they could take] from their neighbors rather than Mass Save or people who want to sell you things,” Curtin said. The ambassador program “is my #1 focus… it’s really impactful and not an expensive thing for the town to do.”

Board member Jim Hutchinson asked whether the town would need more staffing to carry out various elements of the plan, which will also involve extensive grant application writing. “We’re going to have to give some serious consideration to that when we have a real solid sense of priorities and timeline,” Town Administrator Tim Higgins replied.

“A lot of this stuff is kind of aspirational” and will involve more detailed feasibility studies, cost/benefit analyses and data gathering, Curtin added.

More information on the draft Climate Action Plan:

  • MAPC summary presentation
  • PowerPoint presentation to the Select Board
  • Executive summary of the plan
  • Full text of the plan

Category: conservation Leave a Comment

Lincoln and others are working on waste reduction, but there’s a ways to go

June 21, 2023

Editor’s note: This is a follow-up piece to the “Where Does It All Go?” series published in the Lincoln Squirrel in August 2022. Links can be found at the bottom of this article.

By Alice Waugh

Lincoln is doing its part by recycling and composting diligently, but there’s always room for improvement to meet the state’s ambitious goals for reducing solid waste disposal — trash, recyclables, and everything in between.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan released in 2021 calls for reducing disposal statewide by 30% percent (from 5.7 million tons in 2018 to 4 million tons in 2030) by 2030 and sets a long-term goal of achieving a 90 percent reduction in disposal to 570,000 tons by 2050. To this end, MassDEP has been banning more items from the trash and encouraging composting, while recycling sorting facilities are working on reducing contamination and educating consumers about what and what not to recycle.

Residential waste by category that was processed by Wheelabrator/WIN Waste Innovations in North Andover in 2019 (top) and 2022.

Trash and what goes into it

There’s a long list of items that are not allowed to go into the trash, including construction and demolition materials (asphalt pavement, brick, concrete, clean gypsum wallboard and wood) as well as tires, large appliances, lead acid batteries, metal, yard waste, and cathode ray tubes in addition to recyclables. In November 2022, that list of banned materials was expanded to include mattresses, textiles, and commercial food from facilities and organizations generating more than one-half ton of those materials per week (down from the limit of one ton per week imposed in 2014)

The largest category of waste sent to municipal waste combustors (a.k.a. MWCs, incinerators, or waste-to-energy plants) is organic material — mostly food waste. However, the share of those organics in the waste stream for WIN Waste Innovations (formerly Wheelabrator) in North Andover, Lincoln’s trash handler, dropped sharply from 35.6% of the waste stream in 2019 to 24.8%, according to the report for 2022. This is at least in part due to the availability of grants through MassDEP’s Sustainable Materials Recovery Program that helps pay for compost bins and implement programs.

Under an agreement with Black Earth Compost, Lincoln began accepting compost at the transfer station in 2019 (the company also does curbside pickup and lists what is and isn’t compostable). The amounts dropped off each month rose consistently year over year until the first quarter of 2023, when the transfer station accepted 12 tons of compost — down from 14.5 tons in the first quarter of 2022, according to the Department of Public Works.

Source: Lincoln Department of Public Works

The state is also working to reduce food waste from small businesses and residents by fostering more development of community and drop-off composting programs as well as efficient models for curbside food waste collection.

Years ago, transfer stations in Lincoln and other towns used to take construction and demolition debris as bulky waste for incineration, but that material is no longer acceptable in the municipal waste stream. Some of it (along with recyclables) was still sneaking into the bulky waste container near the metals container at the transfer station, but since the container became accessible only with the help of a DPW employee, the amount of unacceptable materials has dropped, the DPW reported.

On the other hand, the percentage of construction and demolition debris collected by Waste Innovations in North Andover has increased from 11.4% to 18.8% of the materials total from 2019 to 2022 for reasons that are unclear. The Construction & Demolition Recycling Association and MassDEP provide information on managing debris, including where to dispose of it.

The state monitors the loads sent to MWCs can levy fines on towns that include too many unacceptable items. In the past year, four municipalities — Arlington, Boston, Natick, and Quincy — have been warned though not fined by MassDEP for having recyclable cardboard in their trash, according to MassDEP spokesman Ed Coletta. Cambridge (mattress/box springs) and Watertown (mattresses and tires) were also warned.

Burning vs. burying

Back in the day, most garbage was sent to a landfill or burned in open fires, both of which had (and still have) drawbacks. Like many densely populated parts of the country, Massachusetts began running out of space for landfills, which also released greenhouse gases such as methane into the atmosphere, as well as other pollutants into the ground and water. MassDEP has closed all unlined landfills and requires the remaining few to close when they reach capacity. Most of the state’s trash now goes to MWCs via transfer stations or private haulers. Today it has only 16 active landfills, and three of those accept only ash and other waste left over from MWC combustion.

Those facilities are about half as energy-efficient as modern natural gas power plants, with an electrical efficiency of approximately 24% vs. 50%, Coletta said. “The electrical efficiency of a MWC is lower primarily due to the fuel type (i.e., solid waste) that has less energy content (for example, less carbon and greater water content) than natural gas,” he explained. Like landfills, MWCs emit pollutants, although they are regulated by MassDEP and the federal government to ensure they do not “pose significant risks to public health or the environment,” though the agency notes that it’s not possible to completely eliminate emissions from combustion.

As alternatives to incineration for nonrecyclable plastic, gasification and pyrolysis (heating in the absence of oxygen to produce hydrocarbons to make more plastic or fuel oil) are being explored, but there are challenging costs and drawbacks. Pyrolysis still produces carbon dioxide and other atmospheric pollutants, and it is energy-intensive, sometimes requiring even more energy than it yields. The mixture of different types of plastic and contaminants being pyrolyzed is also a problem. 

“There’s too many types,” said Jen Dell, a chemical engineer, in a 2022 Chemical Engineering News article. “There are too many additives. You can’t recycle them all together, and separating them out defies the second law of thermodynamics. It is just impossible to reorder all these plastics once they’ve been put into a curbside bin.” Finally, some also point out that pyrolysis does nothing to reduce dependence on plastics, since it only produces more plastic.

For cities and towns today, “the question of whether landfills or municipal waste combustion facilities is a complicated question – each has its pros and cons. Our focus in our 2030 Solid Waste Master Plan is to reduce the amount of waste that is disposed overall, whether it is disposed of at an in-state landfill, in-state combustion facility, or out-of-state landfill,” Coletta said.

In a welcome twist that was unforeseen when polluting landfills were filling up and closing, some capped landfills such as Lincoln’s are now being turned over as sites for solar panels. Lincoln has hired a firm to install a solar installation atop the landfill across from the transfer station that could eventually generate enough electricity to power all town-owned buildings excluding the schools.

Recycling

As always, the best approach to reducing overall waste is a combination of the “five Rs”: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot. (“Refuse” means saying no to disposable single-use plastic, coffee cups, utensils, straws, shopping bags, food packaging, and anything else you could replace with a reusable or compostable option.) Even though it’s listed as #4, recycling — in particular, single-stream recycling — is probably the most familiar strategy.

As noted in the Lincoln Squirrel last year, Lincoln’s recycling rate (the proportion of recyclables diverted from the trash) since 2012 has averaged about 40%, which is slightly better than the statewide average of 33% but well below world-leading cities including San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles in the U.S., which recycle or divert about 80 percent of their waste from landfills and MWCs.

Lincoln sends its single-stream recycling to Waste Management in Billerica for sorting and sale. A group of residents from the Green Energy Committee and Mothers Out Front visited the facility in February 2023 to learn how the process works and made this two-minute video. But they still had some unanswered questions, so the Lincoln Squirrel talked to Chris Lucarelle, Waste Management’s Area Director for Recycling Operations. Here are his replies:

Is it correct to say that anything stamped with #1, #2 or #5 is recyclable?

We prefer that we say “plastic bottles, jars, tubs and lids” rather than numbers.

Can other household items made of plastic be recycled along with cans, bottles, etc.? For example, plastic toys/chairs/buckets, reusable plastic kitchenware?

Not kitchenware, but we do separate items like buckets and crates that are bales and sold as a bulky rigid plastic grade.

What happens to nonrecyclable plastic? Can it be sold for pyrolysis or some other use, or does it all get sent to the incinerator? 

We are working on solutions for those miscellaneous plastics but we’re not quite there yet.

How big a problem is contamination of recyclable plastics with nonrecyclable types or other things?

Because we sort all of our plastics optically, we are able to make bales of just PET or HDPE [#1 and #2] without contaminating the batch. To keep plastics out of the paper when sorting, we are now automating our paper lines with optical sorters to extract any plastic that found its way into the stream. Sometimes it’s usable flattened containers that can be recovered and sometimes it’s film and pouches that ends up with the residue.

Do you expect to be able to accept black plastic as a recyclable material any time soon?

Some of our facilities have the technology today to recover black plastic, but not all facilities yet.

Aside from “tanglers” (plastic bags, wire, rope, hoses, etc.) that jam the machines, what do you often see in the recycling stream that should not be there?

Small camping propane tanks and lithium ion batteries, both of which are a fire hazard.

What about small metal household items other than cans such as old saucepans, metal pipes, tools, or other small hardware?

This type of scrap metal tends to jam in our equipment or risks injury to our workers. Scrap metal should not be placed in a curbside bin.

Are empty plastic medicine bottles considered trash?

Yes — plastics smaller than two inches in any dimension should not go in the recycling bin. This includes loose plastic bottle caps,  which tend to fall through the equipment at recycling processing facilities (put caps back on bottles before recycling).

I hear that small Fancy Feast-type cat food cans should not be part of single stream recycling – why?

They are often lined with plastic.

Is shredded paper OK?

Many of our MRFs [materials recovery facilities] accept shredded paper from commercial sources as an independent stream. When it is placed in the single-stream bins, it ends up contaminating the glass.

(Belinda Gingrich, who was part of the tour by Lincolnites, also noted that shredded paper and small scraps “fly about like confetti. Any paper smaller than two inches on a side will most likely get lost in the system and end up in the trash containers that reside under the conveyor belts.”)


More information about recycling:
  • Recyclopedia (created by Recycle Smart MA, a program funded by MassDEP), where you can look up almost anything to find out whether you can put it in your recycling bin. For items that aren’t allowed, the site also suggests other means of disposal, such as Beyond the Bin.
  • Recycling 101 from Waste Management, which sorts the recyclables from Lincoln and other area towns
  • The Lincoln transfer station
  • The “Where does it all go” series in the Lincoln Squirrel from 2022:
    • Part 1: Single-stream recycling
    • Part 2: Trash
    • Part 3: Recycling beyond single-stream
    • Part 4: Beyond the transfer station
    • Part 5: The 5 R’s, and some numbers
  •  

Category: conservation Leave a Comment

Town moves forward with firm to build solar installation at landfill

April 19, 2023

After years of stops and starts, solar panels may finally start appearing on the capped town landfill in late 2024. 

The town recently selected HESP Solar of Montvale, N.J., to build a solar voltaic facility that will provide 1 MW of electricity, which is about what’s needed to power town-owned buildings excluding the schools. The electricity will go directly to the electrical grid and the town will receive income from a power purchase agreement (PPA).

Although the firm is not based in Massachusetts, during the bid process they brought in a Massachusetts attorney to better understand the Commonwealth’s regulatory and incentive processes, an electrical engineering firm that has built solar projects atop landfills in the past, and a geotechnical firm to learn more about the landfill, said consultant Beth Greenblatt at the March 20 Select Board meeting. Greenblatt works for Beacon Integrated Solutions, which was also involved in creating the PPA for the Lincoln School’s solar installation.

“They will work to accommodate the town in all ways possible. I think they’ll be a very good partner for the town,” she said.

Lincoln won’t have to pay anything and will actually see three revenue streams from the deal. In addition to income from the PPA in the form of electricity savings — estimated at $170,000 to $200,000 per year — HESP Solar will make lease payments for use of the land and PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) for their personal property on the site.

“Financially it’s an attractive proposition for the town,” observed Town Administrator Tim Higgins.The project was slowed by several factors including the pandemic and lengthy negotiations with Minute Man National Historical Park. The park owns the right of way on either side of Route 2A, so the town needed their approval to install power lines from the landfill out to the road. Before the facility can go on line, the interconnection process will need multiple approvals including Eversource and MassDEP, which will permit reuse of the landfill. Construction contracts could be signed in about a year.

Category: conservation, land use 2 Comments

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