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Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection

    IN THE FLOODPLAIN

    Provincetown Weighs In as DEP Proposes New Coastal Protection Rules

    The rules are no problem for Old Reliable plan, but its expansion on coastal dune might be

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection has proposed revisions to its wetlands regulations aimed at providing better protection to coastal floodplains from the effects of climate change, sea level rise, increased rainfall, and more intense storms.

    The agency has been gathering public comments on the revisions, and Provincetown is among those with something to say. While officials here say they support the DEP’s goal, they fear the proposed changes might not be entirely possible in this town or could create significant economic hardship.

    The regulations would prohibit new development in areas designated as FEMA “velocity zones” — areas where waves reach 3 feet or higher and that are considered at highest risk for storm damage — and would allow reconstruction in those zones only on open pilings and as long as it does not extend beyond the original building’s footprint.

    In areas where waves are higher than 1.5 feet but under the 3-foot mark, designated the “moderate wave action zone,” the regulations would allow new development and redevelopment, provided the structures are built on open pilings.

    The adjustment to the rules will also update precipitation data, replacing the 60-year-old data currently in use, and create incentives for the deployment of natural solutions to stormwater management, including the use of trees and buffer zones to reduce expanses of pavement and pipes.

    Provincetown Can’t Retreat

    In a letter providing feedback on the proposed changes on behalf of the town, Town Manager Alex Morse wrote that those changes may work for other coastal communities with less dense development, but “in communities like Provincetown, where retreat and nature-based solutions are not possible due to limited land, lot size, and existing hard structures, many of these proposed changes would create significant economic hardship.”

    While Provincetown comprises 6,400 acres, 4,500 acres are in the Cape Cod National Seashore. The 1,900 acres under the town’s jurisdiction includes about 2,369 parcels. Of those, 1,355 parcels, or 57 percent, are entirely or partially in the floodplain, Morse wrote.

    The town’s year-round population density is 1,517 persons per square mile, and in summer that jumps to 25,000 persons per square mile, according to Morse, making Provincetown one of the highest-density towns in the region.

    “For communities like Provincetown, whose historic businesses, dwellings, piers, and infrastructure exist in close proximity to the waterfront and with no space to retreat, improvements to bulkheads and resource areas are often only done in conjunction with development or redevelopment of landward structures and hardscape,” Morse wrote.

    Morse also wrote that the proposed regulations could take away a local conservation commission’s ability to require mitigation and site improvements that could actually lessen impacts to resource areas or improve their resilience. At the very least, wrote Morse, the regulations should be more flexible, allowing for variances and exceptions for certain circumstances that would provide a net benefit to resource areas.

    Regarding proposed waterways resilience regulation changes, Morse asked the DEP to clarify what it would mean to “adequately consider” projected sea level rise with respect to new Chapter 91 licenses or license renewals. These licenses are needed for uses on the waterfront connected to water-related activities.

    He suggested that the agency allow property owners to make required capital improvements on a rolling basis. “It would be economically devastating if existing water dependent users had to replace all their facilities at once, at the time of Chapter 91 license renewal,” he wrote.

    Morse further suggested that the DEP allow communities to use their state-approved municipal harbor planning process to develop plans for guiding building on the coast.

    Old Reliable Gets Pier Review

    At least one major redevelopment project currently before the conservation commission — Christine Barker’s proposed complex at the Old Reliable Fish House site, which includes two hotels with a total of 50 rooms, 13 condominiums, two restaurants, and retail space spanning 227, 227R and 229 Commercial St. — will not be reviewed under the proposed changes to wetlands and waterways regulations because it was submitted prior to their promulgation.

    Barker has already secured approvals for the project from Provincetown’s planning and zoning boards and historic district commission.

    Barker also proposes to replace the original 264-foot pier on the site with a 700-foot pier that ends with a 570-foot floating marina. At a March hearing on Barker’s notice of intent, the conservation commission discussed the impact the pier would have on the eelgrass in the harbor. Barker has asked for several continuances to make adjustments to the plan. The project is now scheduled for discussion at the commission’s June 18 meeting.

    “We have significantly adjusted the design of the proposed pier to address concerns regarding potential effects to eelgrass,” Barker told the Independent in a text message on May 28.

    A Coastal Dune Problem

    Like other development on Provincetown Harbor, all of the proposed buildings in Barker’s project are in the floodplain. The dilapidated fish house sits on a coastal dune, the rise of land beyond the mean high-water mark, which also prompted concern from the commission. The footprint of the hotel planned for the site of the Old Reliable will be larger than the original building.

    An independent review of Barker’s notice of intent was done for the conservation commission by Bryan McCormack, coastal processes and hazard specialist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Sea Grant program and the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension.

    In his report, McCormack wrote that the plan to expand a building within a coastal dune would likely violate state regulations. “Provincetown has experienced significant flooding in recent years due to storm impacts, and all efforts to maintain dunes could help to prevent and mitigate the impacts of future flooding,” he wrote.

    If construction is permitted on the Old Reliable site, with a stipulation that an artificial dune be constructed seaward, it would be a sacrificial dune, McCormack wrote, quickly eroded in a storm event. The sand could bury offshore eelgrass beds with repeated nourishment for maintenance.

    Tim Famulare, Provincetown’s community development director, said finding solutions that balance redevelopment objectives and environmental protection will be a collaborative effort.

    “Regarding Christine Barker’s proposed development on the harbor, the Conservation Commission’s initial review raised concerns about impacts on the coastal dunes and beach on the site,” wrote Famulare by email. “I understand that the development team is giving careful consideration to these comments, consulting with environmental experts, and will be proposing revisions to the plan.”

    ENVIRONMENT

    Cleanup Underway After Oil Leak at the Mid-Cape

    So far, no evidence of the plume reaching Duck Creek has been reported

    By

    WELLFLEET — Cleanup is underway for an estimated 250 gallons of heating oil that was discovered to have leaked into the ground at Mid-Cape Home Centers on Commercial Street on Jan. 25. The extent of the spill appears limited to the property itself, according to Edmund Coletta, director of public affairs for the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP).

    Cleanup began quickly and is ongoing after an employee discovered on Jan. 25 that heating oil had leaked out of a tank at Mid-Cape Home Centers in Wellfleet. (Photo by William von Herff)

    The above-ground oil tank at the hardware store’s historic district location — just across the street from Duck Creek — was found empty by an employee, according to the initial DEP report. The tank, which is in a tight space behind the building, had leaked oil out of a hole in its bottom, the report said.

    The Wellfleet Fire Dept. and DEP were notified that day, and authorities covered the area with a tarp to prevent rain from pushing the oil deeper into the soil, Coletta wrote in an email to the Independent.

    The oil has “not gone anywhere near Mid-Cape Home Centers’ property limit,” said Susan Jason, the licensed site professional for the cleanup and a senior project manager at the environmental engineering and design consulting company Weston & Sampson. The company has been performing soil and groundwater testing, which so far confirms that the spread is limited, Jason said.

    Jason also noted on Feb. 23 in a “release amendment form” — a form used to log the test results with the state — that no oil had been seen in a monitoring well beneath the building, indicating that the oil had not traveled that far. A visual inspection of Duck Creek across Commercial Street from the site of the spill “did not reveal the presence of any oil sheens,” Jason wrote.

    Frank Corp. Environmental Services, a New Bedford-based environmental consulting and emergency response company that was hired to conduct the cleanup, installed six additional monitoring wells to sample groundwater for contaminants.

    Additionally, drinking water from a well on the property is being tested for contamination, Jason said. The samples were collected last week, she said, and the team is awaiting the results.

    Heith Martinez, Wellfleet’s health agent, noted that preliminary observations indicate that the groundwater beneath Mid-Cape Home Centers does not flow to Duck Creek but instead flows along Commercial Street parallel to the shoreline toward the pier. This pattern, he said, should mean that the oil is unlikely to end up in the tidal creek.

    Frank Corp. has also identified the locations of private wells in the area so that they can test their water if further spread occurs, Coletta said. Currently, “there is no indication of private well impact whatsoever,” Jason said.

    The cleanup process was initially inhibited by the location of the spill, according to Coletta. The tank is in a narrow space between the building and a retaining wall, so while excavation was approved on Jan. 26, it could not begin for three days because a structural engineer needed to “pin” the retaining wall to prevent it from collapsing. Another more complex pinning process was performed for the building using large timbers, Coletta wrote, which delayed soil removal from beneath the building until Feb. 19.

    Martinez said that Frank Corp. employees were able to dig a well adjacent to the tank to begin pumping out contaminated groundwater on Jan. 26. This process, he said, “slows or almost stops the plume movement,” mitigating the spread of the oil.

    The tank on the property had only one wall, which does not violate EPA and state regulations. The only above-ground storage tanks that require double walls are those that contain more than 10,000 gallons of liquid other than water, a regulation that was put in place in Massachusetts after the Great Molasses Flood in Boston killed 21 people in January 1919, according to the Mass. Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

    As of Feb. 16, Coletta wrote, 30 to 35 cubic yards of oily soil had been removed from the property.

    In a letter on the Mass. Energy and Environmental Affairs website, Jason wrote to the environmental and waste management company Clean Earth/ESMI to request approval to move 150 tons of contaminated soil to its recycling center in Loudon, N.H., where the soil would be treated with heat to remove harmful contaminants. Jason also submitted a bill of lading that indicated that contaminated groundwater will be transported to a treatment plant in Taunton run by commercial wastewater treatment and recycling company Global Cycle.

    Jack Stevenson, president of Mid-Cape Home Centers, is strictly liable for cleaning up the spill, according to the notice of responsibility that the DEP sent him on Jan. 29. Martinez noted in an email that Stevenson has been “very cooperative.” He also wrote that he has been impressed with the “quick response” by the team of environmental engineers onsite. He credited Jason and Frank Corp. with preventing further spread of the oil.

    Stevenson released a statement indicating that his company was working to “address and remediate the situation as quickly as possible.” Coletta and Jason both said they were unsure how long the cleanup process would take. A full report of the actions taken to mitigate and remediate the spill is due on March 25, and the notice of responsibility indicated that all waste must be removed by May 24.

    NITROGEN REMOVAL

    State Finalizes New Watershed and Septic Tank Regulations

    A tax credit for septic system overhauls could be expanded

    By

    The Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection released final regulations last week that give Cape Cod communities two years to opt in to a “watershed permit” to combat nitrogen pollution from wastewater.

    The regulations — part of an ongoing battle to reverse pervasive nitrogen pollution in Cape Cod’s waters — identify about 30 “nitrogen sensitive areas.” Local governments whose jurisdictions contain a nitrogen sensitive area have two years to secure a watershed permit, which lasts 20 years and allows municipalities to undertake a range of methods to reduce nitrogen pollution, including sewer systems, alternative septic systems, and nitrogen removal through aquaculture.

    If a town does not secure a watershed permit after two years, individual homeowners would have to upgrade septic systems with “enhanced nitrogen reducing treatment technology” within five years.

    This could, in theory, allow towns to forego applying for watershed permits and instead pass the problem along to homeowners. An individual septic tank upgrade can cost $20,000 to $40,000.

    But state Sen. Julian Cyr said that the requirement on individual homeowners would likely not come to pass. “Most homeowners are probably not going to face this, because the municipalities are going to comply and have those watershed permits,” said Cyr.

    Legislators are also poised to expand a tax credit for homeowners who live in the state to design and install new septic systems on their properties.

    The credit is currently worth $6,000 over four years. In her first budget, Gov. Maura Healey proposed doubling the credit, giving homeowners $12,000 over three years. The state Senate’s proposed budget would triple the credit to $18,000, in an initiative spearheaded by Cyr.

    The tax credit applies only to the primary residence of homeowners, excluding the many second homes on Cape Cod. Phineas Baxandall, policy director at the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, said this requirement was “advantageous” because “you’re ensuring that more of the money goes to those who might have problems with paying for the septic system.”

    The House and Senate are currently in negotiations to reconcile their proposed budgets to send to Gov. Healey’s desk.

    The nitrogen sensitive areas subject to the new DEP regulation are largely concentrated on the southern coast of Cape Cod and drain into Nantucket Sound. The Wellfleet Harbor Embayment System, however, will also be subject to the regulations once the Environmental Protection Agency finalizes its draft finding of acceptable nitrogen loading.

    Besides that watershed, which covers most of Wellfleet and touches parts of South Truro and North Eastham, no other watersheds on the Outer Cape will be subject to the regulations, according to DEP spokesperson Fabienne Alexis.

    Wellfleet already submitted a watershed permit application for its Targeted Watershed Management Plan last August. The $106.6-million plan includes constructing sewers in downtown Wellfleet, restoring salt marshes at Mayo Creek and Herring River, and switching private homes over to Innovative and Alternative (I/A) septic systems, which are far better at filtering nitrogen than typical Title 5 systems.

    Though the plan was submitted in August, DEP postponed approving it until the new state regulations were finalized, according to Curt Felix, a former member of the Wellfleet Clean Water Advisory Committee.

    Nonetheless, Felix and John Cumbler, who also served on the committee, said they were confident the state would approve the plan. Wellfleet has worked with the DEP for six or seven years to make the plan consistent with the state’s desires, Felix said.

    If Wellfleet’s watershed permit is approved, homeowners will not be required by the state to replace or upgrade their septic systems within seven years under the new regulations. But Wellfleet’s plan will almost certainly entail many homeowners obtaining I/A septic systems, albeit over a longer period of time.

    “My feeling is that, over 20 years, we need to get most homeowners who are outside of the sewer district onto the enhanced I/A system,” Cumbler said.

    Though many homeowners will be eligible for the soon-to-be expanded tax credit, installing or upgrading a septic tank could still be costly. The “$64,000 question,” Felix said in November and again this week, is how to pay for these upgrades — something he said the town is still figuring out how to do.

    Though Cyr noted the litany of funding sources for septic upgrades, including the tax credit and the Cape and Islands Water Protection Fund, he said it was inevitable that “taxpayers and homeowners are going to have to chip in something for this.

    “It’s regrettable,” Cyr added. “We could’ve gotten 90 percent of this paid for by the federal government a couple of decades ago, but that’s not the world we’re living in.”

    NONSTARTER

    Permit Logjam Keeps Builders at a Standstill

    Wellfleet hires a new building inspector but there is no start date

    By

    WELLFLEET — Building contractor John Fitzgerald spent more than a year obtaining state Dept. of Environmental Protection and local conservation commission approvals to renovate a home surrounded by waving marsh grass at the tip of Pleasant Point in South Wellfleet.

    The challenges that come with rebuilding a house in a flood zone are tough enough. But just as he was ready to go get the final building permit, Fitzgerald hit a wall. Wellfleet Building Inspector Paul Fowler resigned in the first week of July to become the building commissioner in Dennis, and for the next two months there was no one in the Wellfleet Building Dept. able to deal with the resulting logjam of permit applications.

    Fitzgerald said he submitted the application to renovate 400 Pleasant Point Ave. — the home of journalist Richard Cohen and television talk show host Meredith Vieira — on July 29. He said he did not even get a call back from the building dept. until Sept. 23.

    John Fitzgerald stands in the great room at 400 Pleasant Point Ave. in Wellfleet. He has been waiting more than two months to get a building permit to do construction work there. (Photo K.C. Myers)

    The state requires that building inspectors review permit applications within 30 days of their being submitted. But, Fitzgerald said, there is a lot of gray area there — during the Covid pandemic, especially, allowances have been made for staffing shortages and other problems.

    Fitzgerald waited it out, hoping he would be able to start building by Labor Day. The job will be a big one — the great room of the existing house is built around a thick chimney that must be removed and replaced with a new support structure. Construction should take the entire winter, and Fitzgerald had to line up a crew of two full-time and two part-time builders. But as the weeks ticked by, his crew members kept calling and Fitzgerald had to keep telling them there was no work yet.

    Two of the workers had been receiving unemployment benefits that were extended because of the pandemic, but those checks have now stopped and “they need to get back to work,” he said.

    Fitzgerald said he has turned down four smaller jobs because he expected to start working for Cohen and Vieira, who are longtime clients. He said he worked for Cohen’s father as the caretaker at that same Pleasant Point property when he was 19 and that he is committed to seeing this project through.

    “But it burns me up,” said Fitzgerald, who has been a builder in Wellfleet since the 1980s. “This is really affecting my life in a big way.”

    The town finally hired Victor Staley, recently retired as Brewster’s building inspector, to process building permits temporarily starting on Sept. 7, until a new permanent inspector can be engaged.

    By the time Staley started work in early September, about 35 permit applications had piled up, said Dareen Davis, the building dept.’s administrative assistant. The backlog is now down to about a dozen, said Staley on Oct. 1.

    “I feel really bad,” Staley said. “There is a construction boom going on right now. And I am trying to catch up and get these contractors off the streets and back to work.”

    There were six applicants for the permanent job of building inspector, said interim Town Administrator Charlie Sumner, and the town has hired Vincenzo Tirone, previously the building commissioner in Monson.

    But he has no start date yet because of the vagaries of trying to relocate, Sumner said. Reached by email, Tirone declined to answer any questions at this time.

    Tirone is a certified inspector — many town building inspectors have only provisional certification at first — and he has experience both as a commissioner in Monson and as a building inspector and code enforcement officer in Springfield, according to Assistant Town Administrator Rebecca Slick.

    Tirone served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1999 to 2007, said Slick. His credentials include an undergraduate degree from Westfield State University in 2014. He received graduate credits for a master’s in theology and for a separate master’s in divinity from Liberty University, and master’s degree credits from Harvard University in liberal arts with a concentration in religious studies, Slick stated.

    Fitzgerald, meanwhile, is still waiting for a building permit. When Staley checked out his paperwork, he found unstamped engineering plans from Felco, Inc. Fitzgerald went back to Felco to get the stamp. But the engineer who drew his plans, Varn Philbrook, is on vacation until Oct. 20.

    Assuming this snafu can be fixed by another engineer, Fitzgerald will be able to get started on the Cohen-Vieira job at last. But he worries that the new building inspector won’t stay long. Fowler lasted only eight months. Justin Post, who held the Wellfleet position before Fowler, left after three years to work for the town of Eastham.

    Wellfleet, like Truro and Provincetown, has had trouble retaining key staff, partly because of remoteness and the high cost of housing. Wellfleet is currently trying to hire a town administrator, a town accountant, a media coordinator, and an assistant director of the dept. of public works.

    ENVIRONMENT

    Outer Cape Gets First Taste of Septic ‘Layer Cake’

    Experimental leach field could reduce nitrogen in Nauset estuary

    By

     

    layer
    The “layer cake” leach field being installed at 999 State Highway in Eastham. (Photo courtesy Brundage Site Work)

    EASTHAM — The town and a volunteer property owner, Peter Dobyns, are participating in a wastewater treatment experiment that could alter the finances of controlling nitrogen contamination.

    The experimental Eastham site is the 15th “layer cake” leach field system to be permitted in a Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) pilot program, and the first of its kind on the Outer Cape.

    The layer cake design involves layering sand and wood chips in a septic leaching area. The carbon found in wood chips is a vital component of the denitrification process. Across all the layered systems installed thus far in the pilot program, there has been a 72-percent nitrogen removal average, with some systems removing more than 90 percent.

    The Cape Cod Area-Wide Water Quality Management Plan, known as the 208 Plan Update, requires all Cape Cod towns to document their actions to improve water quality and reduce pollution. In Eastham, all wastewater treatment takes place onsite in septic systems — there is no centralized town sewer system. As reported by the Independent last April, the layer-cake design is one of many projects Eastham has under way to reduce contaminants in the Nauset estuaries.

    The fragile coastal ecosystems of the Outer Cape depend on clean water and nutrients. In excess, however, beneficial nutrients can pollute the area’s interconnected groundwater, ponds, and estuaries.

    The Massachusetts Estuaries Project found that septic systems are responsible for 80 percent of the controllable nitrogen load on Cape Cod. The authors of a 2012 Barnstable County Dept. of Health and Environment report noted, “Cape Cod’s designation as a sole source aquifer means that all drinking water sources are part of a contiguous groundwater supply that hydraulically connects wastewater discharge sites to drinking water sources.”

    The Association to Preserve Cape Cod’s 2020 State of the Waters project found that “most of the Cape’s coastal embayments and many freshwater ponds and lakes are suffering from water pollution.” Excess nitrogen in coastal waters and phosphorus in fresh water cause eutrophication, a process that depletes oxygen from water and leads to microscopic algae blooms. Eutrophication can harm or kill aquatic life.

    The layered leach field was designed for the multi-unit Dobyns property at 999 State Highway Route 6 by J.C. Ellis Design and is being installed by Brundage Site Work. Both are Eastham-based companies.

    “We are excited to be chosen for this,” said Corey Brundage. “This opportunity is huge. It could open options to allow this design to be accepted into the wastewater management DEP code and be able to be used routinely outside the pilot program.”

    The town of Eastham is kicking in about $5,000 for monitoring and testing at the site. Dobyns, the property owner, is responsible for the cost of installation, estimated at $20,000 to $41,000. The layer cake is more cost-effective than other denitrification systems, said Dobyns, who lives in Duxbury. He was in the mountains of Colorado during the installation.

    The town chose the site, said Jane Crowley, director of health and environment, in hopes of benefiting the Nauset estuary by reducing nitrogen. If it is successful, she said, they will try to use the model on a wider scale.

    The layer-cake system, considered “innovative/alternative” (I/A) by the DEP, is not yet permitted for general use. Before any I/A system is approved, it must complete pilot and provisional phases.

    Funded by a DEP grant, the Mass. Alternative Septic System Testing Center (MASSTC), a division of the Barnstable County Dept. of Health and Environment (DHE), began experimenting with layer-cake leach fields in 2014.

    According to the Barnstable County Septic Management Program, there are 421 innovative and alternative septic systems installed on the Outer Cape. Besides being a research facility, MASSTC is also a third-party testing site for such systems.

    State regulations for the installation, use, and maintenance of onsite septic systems under Title 5 do not address nitrogen removal. Many I/A systems designed to reduce nitrogen output are at various phases of DEP approval, but most are proprietary and come with a hefty price tag.

    NitROE is one example of a patented I/A technology that, like the layer cake, uses wood chips to remove nitrogen. The NitROE tank supplements existing septic tanks and can cost anywhere from $18,750 to $55,000 for installation. NitROE is currently under provisional DEP permit status, which means it has completed the initial pilot stage of permitting but has not yet been granted a general-use permit.

    If they work, layer cakes are a simple amendment to a standard septic system, said George Heufelder, project specialist at MASSTC and former director of DHE. Compared to other alternative systems, layer cakes are simple to install and have lower operating costs, he said. Because the layer-cake concept is not proprietary, you don’t have to go through a specific company for materials and installation. Unlike most I/A technologies, there are few mechanical parts. You can buy wood chips anywhere, you can get the parts at any hardware store, and you can get any installer, said Heufelder. He estimated the added cost of the layer cake at “about $1,500 beyond a standard Title 5.”

    Loans are available through the county for home owners to replace failed septic systems with nitrogen reducing I/A systems.

    RECYCLING, PART 1

    Plastics Prove Difficult to Recycle

    Their costs in the environment and in waste streams is rising

    By

    Recycle
    In an effort to keep people separated while recycling, Wellfleet went to single-stream recycling after Covid struck. (Photo Tessera Knowles-Thompson)

    Garbage. It’s a story ripe with complexity. The Independent is dumpster diving into the subject to better understand where the Outer Cape’s garbage goes. In this first installment, we look at plastics, especially what’s recycled and what’s not.

    You order take-out dinner from a favorite restaurant. The food arrives in aluminum to-go containers with plastic lids. As an all-around do-gooder, you’re relieved the container is aluminum, one of the more recyclable materials. You rinse the container and toss it in the recycling bin. But what about the plastic lid?

    You remember that Recycle Smart, an initiative of Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection (D.E.P.) has a handy Recyclopedia. You type in “clear plastic take-out lid” and the answer is “You can recycle the whole thing!” Then, your partner points to the recycle triangle on the lid, which reads #6. Another quick search online tells you that polystyrene — a.k.a. #6 — is not recyclable in your community. In fact, polystyrene is banned from use in Provincetown restaurants.

    You toss the plastic lid in the trash and wonder whether recycling really works.

    Plastics Everywhere

    At town meetings this fall, Provincetown, Wellfleet, and Eastham (along with five other Cape Cod towns) adopted bylaws banning the sale of noncarbonated, nonflavored water in single-use plastic bottles under one gallon. These new bylaws join a growing list of other single-use plastic bans being adopted.

    But plastics are still everywhere — from the packaging on our online orders to our daily cups of hot coffee. This week, Science Advances reported that the U.S. produces more plastic waste per individual that any other country, and may also be the third largest contributor to marine plastic pollution.

    Over the past five years, the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Debris and Plastics Program collected over 48,252 pieces of debris — from balloons, to rope, to hunks of Styrofoam packaging — during beach clean-ups at Long Point and Herring Cove beaches in Provincetown.

    How much is getting recycled? Not a lot. It turns out that very few plastics are actually recyclable.

    The EPA estimates that in 2017 only 8.4 percent of all plastics were recycled. There are several reasons for that, said Kari Parcell, Barnstable County’s regional waste reduction coordinator. A lot, she said, “depends on where you live and what infrastructure is in place.”

    Recycling is handled differently in each town. Where it goes, how much it costs, and even which plastics are accepted vary by municipality.

    A Market Shift

    Provincetown, Truro, and, temporarily, due to Covid-19, Wellfleet, all have single-stream recycling programs, which means recyclable paper, cardboard, glass, metal cans, and plastic are comingled. They are transported to various Massachusetts-based materials recovery facilities (MRFs), where they are sorted, separated, and shipped in bales to various markets. This approach increases overall recycling.

    In Eastham (and pre-Covid, in Wellfleet), recycling is dual stream. These programs require residents to separate their materials on site. The recyclable materials are then sold to recyclers directly at a market rate. This approach is cheaper and introduces less contamination into the system.

    In both scenarios, the plastics are separated from our trash, which may reduce pollution. But the towns still must pay tipping fees to have the recycling removed.

    Up until two years ago, the majority of recycling from Eastern Massachusetts and nearly a third of recycling in the U.S. was exported to China. In 2018, the Chinese government announced a ban on imports containing more than 0.5 percent contaminants. According to Mass. DEP, the contamination rate at MRFs is about 15 percent. Suddenly, there were bales of recycling sitting at MRFs with nowhere to go.

    “The simplest message,” says Wellfleet Transfer Station Foreman Michael Cicale, in regard to recycling and solid waste, “is that your waste is a product now — someone has to want it.”

    Without the option of exporting to cheap international markets, the supply of recyclable materials is much higher than the demand. Since China’s ban went into effect, the cost per ton of recycling has more than doubled in most towns. Provincetown paid Casella Waste Systems $35 per ton of single-stream recyclables until June 2019; now, the town pays $100 to $125 per ton.

    Are We Wishcycling?

    Contamination is often the result of “wishcycling” — the act of tossing items into the recycling bin when they really can’t be recycled. Truro DPW Director Jarrod Cabral said the biggest contamination problem he sees is food scraps on plastic containers. “We would like to remind folks to clean their recycling,” he said.

    At the Wellfleet transfer station, white and blue plastic Amazon shipping envelopes are a common example of wishcycling, says Mike Cicale.

    Among other plastics that should not be included in your recycling: plastic bags of any kind, black plastic, plastic film or packaging, hot drink cups with plastic coating, plastic lids, straws, bulky rigid plastics, polystyrene or polyethylene foam (Styrofoam #6), containers with solid or liquid remnants, and anything smaller than a smart phone.

    As a guide for recyclability, the DEP’s Recycle Smart program and many MRFs go by size and shape rather than plastic resin number. All recycling programs in Massachusetts accept clean plastic bottles, jars, jugs, and tubs (most of which are PET #1, HDPE #2, or PP #5). Ninety to 95 percent of those are getting properly recycled, according to Edmund Coletta, a DEP spokesman.

    Forget about that tiny triangle symbol with a number inside, stamped on nearly all plastics. It is called the Resin Identification Code (RIC) and is a tool to identify the plastic polymer. The RIC is “a symbol that big industry petroleum/plastics started using to make people feel better about using their products,” said Parcell.

    A September NPR and PBS Frontline investigation found that the industry pushed for the symbols to appear on plastics — even if there was no way to economically recycle them.

    With limited markets and rising costs for recycling, calls for reducing use and outright bans are gaining traction.

    “Pretend we did recycle 100 percent of plastic,” said Laura Ludwig, the Marine Debris and Plastics Program coordinator at the Center for Coastal Studies. “What would that look like?” The quality of the plastic degrades after it is recycled, she explained, rendering it more likely to break down into micro-plastics.

    “Our focus,” said Ludwig, “should be on not making or using single-use plastics in the first place.”

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