Maine draft packaging rules could hurt rural communities [Video]

The rules are intended to incentivize infrastructure development to make it easier and more financially attractive for rural communities to divert from landfills.

ELLSWORTH, Maine — Regulators were up to their ears in trash talk on Thursday morning as they deliberated over a draft of rules intended to increase recycling, reduce the amount of material going to landfills and ultimately reduce the amount of packaging that’s coming into the state.

It’s been five years since Gov. Janet Mills signed a resolve directing the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to come up with the rules. I remember the first meeting I sat in on where they were explained, on a chilly January afternoon at a community center in Ellsworth.

The room was packed, and then-state Rep. Nicole Grohoski, who had long been championing the concept, was trying to get residents on board.

Ellsworth was a particularly interesting place to be reporting on trash at the start of 2020. …