Be Prepared for Spring 2026: 

Montgomery County Council is expected to hear from the County and the Department of Environmental Protection about the long-term plans for Solid Waste Management - to close the waste incinerator in Dickerson and using a landfill or to continue trash incineration.

In Spring 2025, the County Executive planned to continue trash incineration in Dickerson and invest $28.5 million to maintain/repair the facility in FY26 in addition to the regular operational cost of $33 million. In July 2025, the  DEP announced that they are now working on the Request for Proposals from contractors to transition from trash incineration to using a landfill within a year.

We support the DEP’s Zero Waste initiatives, and we strongly disagree with continuing to incinerate and putting another tens of millions into the trash incinerator for the next five years. Please tell your County council members that you support DEP’s Zero Waste initiatives and closing of the trash incinerator.

DEP Open House events and Survey: 

This is your chance to let your voice be heard about county solid waste plans to advance zero waste - recycling, composting, reuse, and waste reduction programs AND for us to shift away from burning our trash and food scraps--to waste management systems that are more environmentally responsible, better for our health and better for social justice!

Montgomery County Department of Environment (DEP) is hosting 3 Open House events to provide information on their plans to improve solid waste management with a path to close the incinerator (see information below).

It's critically important for us to register our opinions and let the County know that we oppose spending millions of dollars more to prop up a polluting incinerator that is 30 years old AND because of its age, recently had a major dioxin leak (the principal chemical in Agent Orange), and it could have been leaking for up to a year! (see link to DEP statement).

Please carefully answer these important questions in the Survey, and consider the additional information we provide:

• "Rate how safe you believe the Resource Recovery Facility is, as a way to manage our waste in the County on a scale from 1 to 5, where 5 is "extremely safe" and 1 is "extremely unsafe." Consider 3 to be neutral." 

  • It's extremely unsafe! The Resource Recovery Facility/Incinerator, when compared to landfills, pollutes twice as much Greenhouse Gases and multiple times worse the amount of toxic emissions than landfills. And remember our Incinerator leaked dioxins this past year!

• "Rate how effective you believe the Resource Recovery Facility is as a way to manage our waste in the County, on a scale from 1 to 5, where 5 is "extremely effective" and 1 is "extremely ineffective." Consider 3 to be neutral."

  • It's extremely ineffective! Using Incinerators for burning waste provides no incentives for us to ramp up our zero waste programs like composting. Even if we reduce our waste production, we have to continue to pay full price to burn it. Our zero waste goals include doing the least harm and burning waste is an ineffective way to meet those goals. Burning causes emissions that harm our community and a minority community in Virginia, which receives our toxic ash. Burning is one of the dirtiest ways to make electricity--instead, we should be investing in clean green energy production.

Note: The survey asks for your zip code. Let’s make sure we show that residents across the county are concerned. Have everyone in your household answer the survey! 

Here's the information from the DEP website:

"Join us at an upcoming open house and give us your feedback!

1. Monday, March 2, 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sidney Kramer Upcounty Regional Services Center (12900 Middlebrook Rd, Germantown)

2. Wednesday, March 4, 6 to 8:30 p.m. Isiah "Ike” Leggett Executive Office Building Auditorium (101 Monroe St, Rockville)

3. Thursday, March 5, 6 to 8:30 p.m. (Virtual). Register on Zoom.

Email by February 25 to request an interpreter: Openhouse@raftelis.com

Thank you for helping to improve our solid waste management and environment!