Talking trash: CLF launches the zero waste project to tackle Massachusetts's trash problem.

• Position: Conservation Law Foundation

On a Monday night in February, more than 100 people crowded into the Sturbridge, Massachusetts, town hall for an emergency meeting of the town's Board of Health. Nineteen wells in the Sturbridge neighborhood closest to the massive Southbridge Landfill had just tested high for lead--a dangerous neurotoxin proven to do irreversible harm to young children. Recent tests had also revealed a possible carcinogen, 1,4 Dioxane, in six wells in the same testing area.

The residents in the town hall that night were tired, frustrated, and angry. This wasn't the first time that wells near the landfill had tested positive for contamination; more than 15 dangerous toxins were found in home wells in nearby Charlton in 2015. Like their Charlton neighbors, these Sturbridge residents would now be forced to use bottled water for drinking, cooking, and brushing their teeth, while still having to bathe their children in the contaminated water.

Though the landfill's owner, Casella Waste, denied any links between its facility and the well contamination, residents knew of no other source of such industrial pollution near their homes. With Casella Waste now seeking approval from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to dramatically expand the state's largest landfill for the second time in 10 years, residents were fed up. One by one, they stood up that night to demand of the DEP's Regional Director, "What is it going to take for you to shut down the Southbridge Landfill?"

Among those standing up was Kirstie Pecci, a Senior Fellow with Conservation Law Foundation, whose own home--and those of many of her family members sits barely a mile from the landfill. Pecci has fought for nearly a decade to shut down the facility that is polluting her family's air and water. The fight to close this one landfill, however, has turned her into a crusader against all landfills--and with good reason.

While landfills hide garbage from plain sight, they are responsible for dangerous levels of pollution in the communities where they are located. All landfills inevitably release toxic gas into the air and leak contaminated water into the surface and groundwater. Even the best ones start to break down after 25 years--and landfill leaks can't be repaired. What's more, waste incinerators emit toxins, including cancer-causing dioxin, and climate-damaging greenhouse gases into the air.

The bottom line is that landfills harm people's health, the environment, and the...