With New Master Plan, City of Cambridge Aiming to Reduce Trash by 50 Percent

In 2020, the City of Cambridge hit its goal for a 30 percent reduction in trash under the Zero Waste Master Plan. Now, it’s aiming even higher.

City officials updated the City Council’s Health and Environment Committee on the drafting of the Zero Waste Master Plan 2.0 — aiming for 50 percent trash reduction by 2030 — during a public hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Cambridge Department of Public Works Commissioner Kathy Watkins said the goals of ZWMP 2.0 build on ZWMP 1.0.

“In 2009, we really created our first target for trash reduction. So the goal was toward 30 percent reduction over 2008 baselines by 2020 — which we have met — and then a 50 percent reduction by 2030, and then an 80 percent reduction by 2050,” Watkins said.

The city has already established a commercial and curbside recycling program, partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection on recycling education, and started textile and mattress recycling services, officials said.

DPW Deputy Commissioner John F. Nardone said the curbside compost program was expanded to all residential buildings, diverting 2,500 tons of food waste yearly.

Now, the city plans to provide trash collection services to residential buildings, implement additional Bigbelly and recycling units throughout Cambridge, and provide comprehensive education to residents on what is recyclable to prevent contamination.

“We’re looking at this waste master plan to sort of say, ‘What are the things we need to be prioritizing and focusing on the next five years?’” Watkins said.

Councilor Patty M. Nolan ’80, who sits on the committee, said waste reduction and recycling intersect with other important goals of the City Council.

“Remember our public health work, our quality of life improvements, and other important facets of the city: It’s not all just about reducing waste,” Nolan said.

“We need to think about big steps and small steps, tackling the difficult problems and the simpler ones. Trash reduction is a large part of that,” Nolan added. “The Zero Waste Master Plan update is essential to reducing our trash output, increasing our ratios of recycled and composted material and protecting the public health of our city.”

Alex Bradley, a policy intern at the nonprofit advocacy group Run on Climate, said the Council should implement small changes and policies to target plastic waste production in particular.

“Cambridge has made some efforts in the past to reduce plastic waste back in 2016,” Bradley said. “It’s critical that we revisit these policies and our larger plastic waste reduction efforts. It’s really important that we update and strengthen these ordinances to avoid setbacks from policy loopholes and to continue to push forward.”

Diane Roseman, co-chair of the city’s Recycling Advisory Committee, said reducing food waste would have the biggest impact on the city’s recycling goals.

“Food waste is the number one item in our trash that does not belong in our trash,” Roseman said. “So if we want to make the biggest impact on reducing our trash, it would be to mandate food waste diversion.”

Watkins said the goal is to finalize ZWMP 2.0 by 2025.

“We continue to do outreach, continue to finalize specific recommendations,” she said. “The goal is to have, early 2025, complete the Zero Waste Master Plan 2.0 and then really start implementing those additional strategies.”

But former Councilor Quinton Y. Zondervan, currently the policy director at Run on Climate, said the city needs to move even quicker.

“What I would really encourage you all is to work with more urgency,” he said. “Some of these topics have been in conversation for easily over a decade.”