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Garbage is a money racket! The mob, once the garbage extortion leader of the nation, has taken a back seat to the likes of the circular economy and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals backed by big money and hidden behind jingoism by non governmental agencies. Who can argue that recycling and reducing waste is a bad thing? A clean and healthy place to live is something everyone wants. One would think this would be simple and we could have municipalities own and operate their own waste and recycling plants.
In a world of consultants and an endless stream of grant money and taxes why should a municipality do such a thing? Middletown, along with 14 other towns have signed on to use Waste Zero, a global company owned by a Mark Dancy. Financed by angel investors, venture capitalists, and funded with millions of dollars in multiple funds protected by private equity in “Limited Partnerships” it’s a free for all while the citizens continue to foot the bill. As inflation soars to uncomfortable levels for most households in the United States outside of the wealthy and political classes, times are hard. It is a modern day Charles Dickens’s environment with a much more nefarious and cynical feel.
The Mayor of Middletown, Ben Florshiem, with eyes aglow for a political future, was elected as Mayor at the tender age of 27. The youngest Mayor to be elected in the city’s history! Born a direct heir of Florsheim Shoes, now a multi billion dollar company built on fancy shoes known now as WEYCO Group, Inc. With millions of dollars at his finger tips, Florsheim ran a “grassroots campaign” with the help of his alma mater Wesleyan University. Florsheim easily swooped to victory with ideology built on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The hottest investments today are in Joe Biden’s climate change mandate with federal subsidies in the billions, it’s a green rush for the well connected. The people be damned! Nowhere is this more apparent than in Middletown’s garbage bins where the city makes millions in royalties from its Lisbon garbage facility known as, WIN Waste Facilities, don’t you just love the irony of an ACRONYM!? Meanwhile, residents in one of the city's most vulnerable districts are part of a program that they had no say in and they are being coerced into buying mandated high priced bags, or be punished for not complying.
The City of Middletown created the Eastern Connecticut Resource and Recovery Authority, which is a public, private partnership, in 1991, ECRRA and the Mayor is president. The Lisbon facility is owned and operated by the ECRRA and is a creation of the City of Middletown with the privilege of a private for profit company that takes care of the garbage and recycling for 12 towns, know as the, Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery Authority aka SCRRRA another public private partnership with a legislative alert page!
Isn’t that nice the city makes $52.92 dollars a ton for hauling and processing garbage, AND then they take that garbage and sell it to the power company!? Not one single person in the City of Middletown benefits from the city’s own energy-from-waste facility! Even more shocking is the that the City has hired Waste Zero to help ship Middletown’s waste to another plant who will also sell the waste converted to energy and yet again the citizen will be left holding the bag! Take a listen to my interview with two frustrated residents of the City of Middletown and hear first hand how life is under the Pay as you Throw unit priced garbage service.
Links and References:
SCRRRA
https://www.scrrra.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/10-SCRRRA-Final-FS-6.30.23-As-Issued.pdf
Co-Collection Save As You Throw Program
A Sustainable Solution With A Positive Environmental Impact
https://www.middletownct.gov/CivicSend/ViewMessage/message/215910
Mark Dancy
Ben Florsheim
https://en.everybodywiki.com/Ben_Florsheim
