Toscana At Odds With Town Over Emergency Regulation On Yard Waste At Landfill

Toscana, the large Nantucket-based construction company, has come out against a new town regulation capping yard waste delivered to the landfill at 100 tons per month.

The cap was instituted in January and extended last week to address what the town described as an “emergency” that could cost taxpayers well over $1 million But Toscana doesn’t believe that it will have any measurable impact on the amount of waste the town receives and will just make things more difficult for local contractors.

In 2021, Toscana began accepting leaf and yard waste from local contractors and composting it at its own facility. But late last year, due to space restrictions at its site, Toscana discontinued the composting operation, meaning it would have had to bring the waste to the landfill.

But the town balked at the potential volume of yard waste, instituting an emergency regulation specifically to block Toscana, though it did not name Toscana at the time.

“[The] solid waste facility has limited space, and storage, and processing capacity. Large volumes of unplanned or unannounced deliveries would disrupt normal operations and offset ongoing fire mitigation efforts at the solid waste facility,” solid waste manager Chris Lowe said in January. “Accepting this material would create a substantial budget issue, as leaf and yard waste in excess of 1100 tons in any given month carries a $93 a ton charge to the town of Nantucket.”

Town staff claimed that Toscana might singlehandedly deposit 14,000 to 20,000 tons of yard waste in a “short period,” and estimated the town’s financial liability at $1.2 million to $1.7 million. But Toscana says that it was only receiving around 625 tons of yard waste each month.

The town also alleged that the material composition of the waste was unknown and could prove a hazard.

“This situation constitutes an emergency due to misclassification of waste, unknown material composition, significant unanticipated volume, financial exposure, and risk of continued uncontrolled deliveries,” Lowe said.

Toscana owner Carl Jelleme told the Current that “the emergency order was asked for and granted based on information that was not accurate” and called Toscana’s yard waste “clean” and “safe.”

The Select Board voted unanimously to support the emergency cap in January, and last week it approved an extension of the regulation until May 1st.

As a result, Toscana has stopped accepting yard waste, meaning contractors who previously used the company’s yard will have to bring it to the landfill themselves.

“Providing a convenient, clean, and efficient location for our customers to dispose of leaf and yard waste has been a service we take great pride in,” Toscana wrote in a statement to its customers. “However, the proposed 100-ton per month landfill drop-off limit on contractors prevents us from continuing to offer this service at the scale our customers rely on.”

Toscana argues that ultimately, the town will be receiving the same amount of waste. It will either come from Toscana or from a collection of smaller contractors, but the total volume will be the same.

“The proposed monthly limit on contractor drop-offs at the landfill makes it unworkable for us to continue accepting leaf and yard waste at the volume our customers rely on,” Jelleme said. “As a result, our customers will need to bring leaf and yard waste directly to the landfill. It’s the same volume of material, just a matter of how it’s delivered.”

Toscana claims that the only difference will be a loss of convenience for the island’s contractors, and potentially an increase in traffic by turning what would be one load of yard waste into many smaller loads. The landfill closes at 3:00 p.m. during the week, which can make it challenging for contractors to drop off waste before closure and often leads to long lines. Toscana was open later, and customers said it generally had much shorter lines.

“In good faith I cannot charge my client all the wait time and find myself bypassing the dump for the ease of Toscana which of course has reasonable and extended hours for those of us who work a full day or would like to start work with an empty truck at a favorable time in the morning as well as dumping after work,” Toscana customer Jo Perkins said. “Toscana has the most efficient method of handling materials brought in, provides a safe and clean driving area, has knowledgeable and helpful staff, care for both their customers and employees and is one stop shopping for the highest grade materials on-island.”

A public hearing to discuss the town’s landfill tipping fees is scheduled for April 1st, and Toscana has asked supporters to speak against the cap at that hearing. Town staff suggested that waste could be accepted in excess of the cap on a case-by-case basis if town staff deems that the capacity exists to accept it.

For now, the delivery limit does not apply to brush over four inches in diameter, mixed excavation waste, or other materials for which the town charges tip fees, and Toscana is continuing to accept many of these materials from customers. However, town staff said at a recent Select Board meeting that “ideally” the cap would eventually be extended to all waste streams.

The emergency regulation claims that the “disproportionate use” of the landfill by private contractors delivering vast amounts of yard waste "has created and, if not discontinued, can continue to create, operational, environmental, and financial strains,” and “can risk exceeding facility capacity, interfering with residential access, and jeopardizing regulatory compliance.”

Violations could result in the denial of waste, revocation of access to town facilities, and financial penalties.