Where does your Trash go?
On Nantucket, we have three main waste streams:
- Recyclable (R) Waste,
- Compostable (C) Waste, and
- Non-Recyclable/Non-Compostable (NR/NC) Waste.
Recyclable (R) Waste is collected, sorted, baled, and shipped off-island to commodity markets for revenue. This includes Shipping Boxes, Plastics, and Tin/Aluminum. Glass is crushed and mixed with soil aggregate and then reused onsite for landfill roadway maintenance. The recycling streams are the same as they were previously. The Glass collection container, however, is now located by the other recycling streams at the Recycling Drop-Off Center.
Compostable (C) Waste is collected and sent through our large industrial
composter. This process turns your food scraps and other compostable waste into nutrient rich soil. Any non-compostable materials that contaminate this stream are screened off, baled, and landfilled on-island. As an island, Nantucket has a finite amount of land, and therefore very limited landfill space. The newly constructed lined landfill cell (3A) became operational in January 2019 and has a forecasted life-expectancy of approximately 10 years based on the island’s current waste production and contaminated compostable stream rates. Effectively if our compostable stream were 100% clean and free of non-compostable waste, NOTHING would be landfilled on Nantucket.
Nantucket’s Public Works and Health Departments and our partners at Waste Options Nantucket (WON), as well as our island’s Waste Haulers, are working together to continually assess and improve our solid waste and recycling operations to divert non-compostable waste from our industrial composter with the goal of zero waste to our landfill. Construction of new lined landfill space is extremely expensive on Nantucket so developing programs to reduce, reuse, recycle, and divert non-compostable waste off
-island is cost-effective.
The remaining items in your waste stream that are neither recyclable nor compostable are deposited as Non-Recyclable/Non-Compostable (NR/NC) Waste (formerly known as Bulky Waste). This includes plastic bags, shrink wrap, and other film plastics; Styrofoam; protein bar and candy wrappers; chip bags; straws and plastic cutlery; cleaning wipes; and all items made from a mix of materials including milk cartons, diapers, and Keurig cups.
Thank you for helping our island and helping our planet.
Still have questions? Contact DPW at (508) 228-7244 or email DPW@nantucket-ma.gov