The County’s BIG Trash Overhaul Project
What You Need to Know

Montgomery County plans a major overhaul of its waste management systems over the next decade. It’s an ambitious, laudable project. If all goes well, the county could become a regional leader in environmentally sound waste management.

The plan envisions enhancements to recycling and a reduction in the volume of garbage that enters the “waste stream”—including by urging residents to be more trash conscious. It also includes major proposed changes at the county’s compost facility and trash incinerator in Dickerson.

SCA has advocated for years that the incinerator be shuttered. It’s the county’s largest single source of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, and is an aging out-of-date facility. Incineration and its by-products are harmful to human health and the environment. County leaders have largely agreed the incinerator needs to be shut down.

But the incinerator continues to operate. There are many reasons for that. The primary one is that the county must find other ways to dispose of the trash it burns—now about 550,000 tons a year.

Legal agreements SCA reached in the 1990s with the county (following several lawsuits) grants SCA oversight of the compost facility. The county has recently asked SCA to expand the facility to include food scraps, which comprise almost one quarter of the county’s total volume of garbage.

Initial work would begin on the expansion in 2025. Food scraps would start being shipped to the facility in late 2026 or early 2027. The scraps would be mixed with existing yard trim (now some 58,000 tons a year) that is efficiently collected and composted. The mix would be made into a nutrient-rich soil additive—an enhancement to Leafgro, the county’s current popular commercial product made from leaves and yard trim.

SCA fully supports the idea of composting rather than burning or burying food waste. But we do not support the incinerator’s operation for years to come. There are viable alternatives. SCA has therefore indicated to the county, in preliminary discussions, that we would welcome food scrap composting in Dickerson if and only if the county agrees to shutter the incinerator by a date certain in the near future. We are currently in active negotiations with the county.

Every Montgomery County resident will be affected by the county’s trash overhaul plans.

We invite you to read the update on this issue on our website. Let us know your thoughts in the comment box on that page or by email at info@sugarloafcitizens.org. We’ll keep you informed as our discussions with the county continue.

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