The city wants to build the nation’s largest composting facility as part of its ‘zero waste’ efforts.
A $4 million Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant will help the city of Baltimore build the nation’s largest municipally managed composting facility, reports Christine Condon in the Baltimore Sun.
The proposed Bowley’s Lane Composting Facility will likely break ground in 2025. “According to its 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan, Baltimore City already had plans to expand the Eastern Sanitation Yard along Bowleys Lane, near Moravia Road, to include a transfer station for trash trucks. According to an EPA fact sheet, the composting facility would be co-located with the new transfer station.”
The solar-powered facility will be able to process 12,000 tons of organic material each year. As Condon notes, “In 2021, Maryland legislators passed a law requiring certain large generators of food waste, such as higher education institutions, to separate their scraps for composting. But the law only applies to facilities within 30 miles of a compost facility with the capacity to handle their materials.”
Read the full story: Baltimore receives federal funding to build composting facility
First New U.S. Waste-to-Energy Plant in 20 Years to Open in Florida
Waste-to-energy plants, or incinerators, are classified as renewable power plants by the EPA. A controversial Baltimore plant is under construction as well. More common in Europe, they may be catching on stateside due to low recycling rates.
City Gives Incentives To Recycle
In Corpus Christi, Texas, officials have entered a public-private partnership to give people more reasons to recycle.
Massachusetts Has the Nation’s Only Successful Food Waste Ban
The state has reduced its methane emissions by 25.7 percent per ton of waste following a law that seeks to eliminate food waste from landfills.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Chicago breaks ground on $3 billion megadevelopment
The new neighborhood, titled Foundry Park, will one day host 3,700 residences.
Satanic Place Names
From streams and lakes to valleys and canyons, I mapped more than 1,000 places named after the Devil.
California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO resigns after $600,000 scandal
Under Ian Choudri, the authority used taxpayer dollars to fund first class flights and trips to nightclubs.
Want to study the Missouri River? Soon, you may need unanimous approval from 10 states
Legislation would require 10 governors’ permission to study or build projects moving water outside the basin.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority