Waste management is more than just taking out the trash—it’s a critical part of New Hampshire’s future.
In this episode of Up to Speed from NHJournal, host Michael Graham sits down with John Casella, CEO and chairman of Casella Waste Systems, to explore the evolving world of waste and recycling in the Granite State.
From the journey of your curbside bins to the challenges of landfills and emerging contaminants like PFAS, they discuss how New Hampshire can balance growth, sustainability, and environmental responsibility. Why is recycling more profitable than disposal? What happens to your garbage after it’s picked up?
Give us 24 minutes, and you’ll be “Up To Speed!”
Sponsored by Legislative Solutions.
A few highlights:
What’s really going on in the world of handling our garbage here in New Hampshire and in some cases across New England?
It’s a great question. The reality of the business model over the last 50 years has changed pretty dramatically.
Today, we provide collection, transfer stations, recycling components, and disposal facilities to handle the waste that’s generated, not only by residential customers, but municipal customers, industrial customers, etc. And what’s transpired over the last decade is our ability to really look at the waste stream and find a higher and better use for the material that we’re taking to open disposal.
In doing so, what we’re doing is helping our customers — whether it’s a college and university, whether it’s a medical center, whether it’s a municipality or a corner grocery store — helping them meet their sustainability goals by finding a higher and better use for the material that’s being discarded.
What is the status of New Hampshire’s current disposal capacity?
New Hampshire is no different than other states in terms of needing disposal capacity, no matter how hard we’ve worked to find a higher and better use for the materials that are in the waste stream. And as New Hampshire grows — housing, population growth — you’re going to need to have disposal capacity in place. Do we have it? We don’t.
There’s capacity from the DES (Department of Environmental Services) perspective until 2030. What people need to understand is we are always going to need disposal capacity for those natural disasters that seem to be happening more often, whether it’s floods, hurricanes, or other damage. In those circumstances, that waste has got to be collected. It’s got to be picked up. It’s got to be properly disposed of and done so in a very timely fashion.
If you had a magic wand and could get political leaders in Concord to pass one law to make life better for you and your customers, what would it be?
We need to put ourselves in a position where we can more easily put capacity in place. I think the argument for people that, if we have disposal capacity in place, we’re not going to drive the materials management business in a different direction, is a real fallacy. I think that states need to take responsibility for the waste they are generating and not ship it to other states or try to ship it to someone else. And I think to the extent that we can make progress there, I think it’s going to benefit everyone.
