In early 2020, Casella Waste Systems contracted with DSM Environmental Services Inc., a firm that specializes in datadriven analyses related to resource recovery and solid waste management solutions, to conduct an analysis of the potential economic and environmental benefits to siting waste disposal capacity in the North Country of New Hampshire in conjunction with a state-of-the-art recycling facility in central New Hampshire.

The findings of that analysis help to illustrate the need for additional integrated waste and resource management infrastructure throughout the state, and serves to underscore the reality that further limiting the development of this infrastructure in New Hampshire will have long-term effects on everything from municipal budgets to greenhouse gas emissions, and statewide recycling rates.

Currently, over 80 percent of the waste accepted at Casella’s NCES Landfill in Bethlehem originates from New Hampshire customers, which means that, with the scheduled capping and closure of that facility in 2026, more than 55,000 homes and businesses throughout the state will need to find solutions for the waste that is currently being sent there.

Actively choosing not to add additional capacity for that waste would result in an estimated $75 million in added costs to New Hampshire taxpayers through additional transportation costs and tipping fees and the loss of over $190 million in economic benefit over the next 20 years.

With municipal budgets already pushed to their limits, that money could be better utilized in other ways — such as implementing waste diversion programs — instead of simply paying more to have waste hauled greater distances.

In addition to establishing this much needed disposal capacity, Casella has also proposed to invest in a recycling facility that is estimated to process 80 million pounds of recyclables annually. Currently, Casella exports nearly 60 million pounds of recyclables from New Hampshire to Massachusetts each year where it is processed and sold to end markets. The proposed recycling facility will reduce transportation costs and is estimated to create more than 50 new jobs and result in an economic benefit of over $200 million to the state’s economy.

In addition to the economic benefits, the report estimates that the annual reduction of greenhouse gas emissions would be more than 29,000 metric tons of carbon due to increased recycling rates and avoidance of additional transportation, which is equivalent to taking more than 6,200 passenger cars off the road each year.

New Hampshire is currently limited in advancing recycling programs because it lacks the proper infrastructure. If the cost to dispose of waste continues to rise due to the scarcity of capacity and lack of competition in the marketplace, then it is economically unrealistic for local municipalities to be able to consider new programs to advance recycling.

What Casella has proposed helps solve both compounding issues facing the people of New Hampshire. The benefits of these projects to New Hampshire over the next two decades are estimated at over $400 million to the state’s economy, a cost avoidance of nearly $75 million, and the elimination of nearly 600,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

That is the true cost to both the economic and environmental well-being of the state of New Hampshire if it chooses to continue to eliminate disposal capacity.

John W. Casella is chairman and CEO of Casella Waste Systems Inc.