10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan

News & Updates

  • August 18, 2023: Final Draft with MDE edits uploaded.

The Baltimore City 10 Year Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) is a regulatory plan submitted to the Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) to map operational needs, constraints and improvements for waste management within the City for the next 10 years. The plan consolidates goals for managing the City’s solid waste stream, assesses the existing solid waste collection systems, current and future disposal capacity needs, and how zero waste strategies like reuse, recycling, and composting are to be implemented.

Final Draft

The Bureau of Solid Waste submitted the final draft to MDE on May 8th 2023, and MDE responded with several technical edits. Download the SWMP Final Draft with MDE edits incorporated below.

Download the SWMP Final Draft Here (PDF)

Download Summary Report (PDF)

Upcoming milestones:

  • August-September 2023- Plan will be submitted to the Mayor & City Council for Adoption
  • January 2024- Plan goes into effect
  • May 2023- DPW submitted draft plan to MDE
  • May-August 2023- MDE reviews the Plan and provides edits
  • August 2023- DPW incorporated MDE edits and posts plan
  • October-November 2023- Plan will be submitted to the Mayor & City Council for adoption
  • January 2024- Plan goes into effect

The plan will be reviewed and updated every three years in accordance with the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR).



Planning Process

The Bureau of Solid Waste (BSW) lead SWMP planning with input from the Bureau of Water and Wastewater, the Office of Sustainability, the Departments of Health, Housing, Planning and more. BSW contracted with Geosyntec Consultants to write the plan, and incorporate feedback from stakeholders in accordance with the regulations set by MDE and with Gavin to support media outreach, comment tracking, and meeting facilitation.

Plan development was informed by population changes and estimates, historical solid waste data, tonnage reports, regulatory guidelines, city planning documents and public input.

The SWMP planning effort consisted of 4 stages for the 60%, 90%, 99%, and Final Drafts. Residents had the opportunity to submit written comments and/or provide testimony at a public meeting during each stage. The table below summarizes and provides resources for each stage:

Stage Summary Meeting Slide Deck Meeting Recording
60% Draft (PDF)
  • Draft sections 1- 4
  • Public Meeting (2/22/23-online)
60% Draft Slides (PDF) 2/22 Meeting Recording
90% Draft (PDF)
  • Completed with feedback from 60% considered
  • Draft Sections 1-5
  • Public Meeting (3/13/23-online)
90% Draft Slides (PDF) 3/13 Meeting Recording
99% Draft (PDF)
  • Plan and supporting documents completed, with feedback from 90% draft considered
  • Public Meeting (3/27/23-online)
99% Draft Slides (PDF) 3/27 Meeting Recording
Final Draft (PDF)
  • Plan completed with feedback from 99% draft considered
  • Two public final review meetings (online and in-person):
    • 4/10/23-Enoch Pratt Free Library SW Anchor Branch
    • 4/24/23- Arlington Elementary School
  • Plan sent to MDE for Review
4/10 Final Draft Slides (PDF)

4/24 Final Draft Slides (PDF)
4/24 Meeting Recording
Final Draft: MDE Preliminary Submission (PDF) Submitted for MDE’s review to ensure it meets requirements before submitting City Council for Adoption Submitted 5/8/2023 MDE responded with minimal technical edits which are incorporated in the most current Final Draft above.

Comments

The Bureau of Solid Waste received over 700 comments throughout the planning process. Comments were made on multiple platforms, including email, Konveio (a platform that allows you to add comments directly on the draft) and testimony at public meetings. All feedback was thoughtfully reviewed, compiled, and analyzed for common themes and priorities to include in the plan.

Read responses to common comment topics and a list of all comments on the SWMP Comment Webpage.

Outreach

Community input was an important part of the SWMP planning process, therefore BSW employed multiple outreach strategies to encourage public engagement:

Marketing
Accessibility

Equitable participation and representation was important to the SWMP Planning process, therefore BSW took the following steps to remove barriers to public engagement:

  • Public Meetings
    • Hybrid Structure- 5 out of 5 meetings offered online, 2 out of 5 offered hybrid online or in person
    • Closed Captioning- for all online and in person meetings
    • More accessibility strategies-
      • needs were logged during the registration process
      • information about physical accessibility was distributed prior to the events
      • alternative slide decks for low vision for in person meetings
      • printed copies of SWMP upon request for low-computer access individuals
  • Comments
    • Multiple platforms- to provide comment on the plan for stakeholders with different access to and comfort with technology.
      • email
      • Konveio (a platform that allows you to add comments directly on the draft)
      • USPS
      • testimony at public meetings.
Language Access

BSW took the following steps to make engagement in the SWMP planning process accessible to stakeholders with limited English:

  • Collaborated with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to distribute marketing materials (via social media and newsletter) translated into Baltimore City’s top five languages: Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Korean and French.
  • Provided interpretation at Public Review Meetings for individuals who indicated a need in their registration.
    • BSW provided French interpretation at the 3/27/23 public meeting and Spanish interpretation at the 4/10/23 and 4/24/23 public meetings.
  • Contract with Gavin (public relations firm) included interpretation and facilitation support for Spanish speaking attendees
  • Materials: