Rowing together ‘Towards Zero Waste’

Just like an 8-oared crew boat, which Petra Amara calls “the fastest rowboat on the water” in her rowing 101 blog, the “eight” cities and towns of the lower Merrimack Valley and their school systems are planning to form up and row together toward a more sustainable future by working together to dramatically reduce their overall solid waste.

The “eight” we are referring to are the municipalities of the Lower Merrimack Valley that Mayor Reardon and ACES are convening at a February workshop to be followed by 2 additional workshops in March and April.  The first workshop will convene representatives from Amesbury, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Rowley, Salisbury, and West Newbury, including the Pentucket and Triton Regional School Districts.  Representatives from municipal departments and commissions will meet at the Parker River Wildlife Refuge Visitors’ Center to expand and develop collaborative programs to reduce solid waste so that all eight programs can meet the looming State mandated 30% reduction in solid waste by 2030, when all state landfills are projected to reach their permitted capacity.

ACES is helping to coordinate the Waste Watchers Workshop (WWW) series and is looking forward to the kick-off of the first workshop on February 11th.  Lyndsey Haight, Dan Foley, and Alexandra Yavarow are leading ACES support team for the first workshop that will initiate sharing and learning new waste reduction ideas and best practices. In a press release last week, they explained that the workshop sessions will be instrumental in bringing this 8-member collaborative together for an initial peer learning and brainstorming session, along with introduction of successful models implemented in other parts of the country.  Examples of models have been researched by ACES team members and will be discussed by the group for their applicability to our situation.  

EPA has determined that nationally food waste is the single most common material sent to landfills, comprising almost 25 percent of municipal solid waste and most of that comes from schools. Only an estimated 5 percent is composited. When yard waste, wood and paper/paperboard are added to the food, these organic materials comprise over 50 percent of municipal waste in landfills.  But improvement is possible. The Senior Center in Newburyport began collecting compostable waste a year ago and has already collected over 12 tons of waste at their site.

Maybe our municipalities can encourage restaurants to begin recycling oyster, mussel, and clam shells to become paving materials or dune stabilizers rather than putting them into a disposal bin. Engaging restaurants to separate food waste from the general trash stream would require more planning but perhaps some have the space and kitchen tools to begin adopting such methods.

Newburyport City Councilor, Elizabeth Trach, introduced ACES to a great example of out of the box thinking from Bellingham, Washington. They are rescuing construction demolition materials and leftovers from the waste stream. They have developed processes to sort and stock reusable construction supplies, like a mini lumber yard. She told us that “friends outfitted much of their own ADU with materials purchased there.”  With new attention on ADUs, maybe recycling demo and left over construction materials can build a new supply chain that reduces both cost and waste.  We don’t know what other ideas our neighboring communities will be bringing to the table at the workshops but we look forward to the new energy they will create to stat rowing together Toward ZERO Waste.

The first workshop is scheduled for February 11th at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. ACES is convinced that it will be the start of something important and successful for our region and will provide ideas for other nearby communities served by the Daily News sister papers in Lawrence, Salem and Gloucester.

Sharing ideas on what Merrimac or West Newbury (or even Bellingham, WA) may be doing better than some other towns regarding waste will be extremely enlightening. Are there some solutions that work better in more rural communities like Newbury or Salisbury? What one little change in each town or city may get the ball rolling in the right direction? Let us know here if you would like to volunteer as a waste watching ambassador. Just drop us a note at info@aces-alliance.org

Meanwhile we invite you to stay updated on environmental matters by subscribing to our monthly newsletter on ACES’ website https://www.aces-alliance.org/. Please consider joining our community of stewards committed to Make Every Day Earth Day and subscribe to our Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/acesalliancenbpt/ and Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/ACESAlliance/  pages to stay informed.

This educational column was originally published by The Daily News of Newburyport on January 23, 2026.