SAUGUS – Several members of the activist group MASSPIRG (Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group) gathered in front of the Wheelabrator trash-burning facility in Saugus Thursday to announce the collection of 20,000 signatures on a petition calling for the state to better enforce its waste bans.MASSPIRG Executive Director Janet S. Domenitz said the petition calls on Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell to crack down on violators, saying a “significant amount of what is filling up landfills is actually banned under DEP?s own regulations.”However, on Friday, Kimmell said the DEP is already doing this and called MASSPIRG?s claims “misleading.”Kimmell acknowledged that the DEP had to reduce the amount of landfill and incinerator inspections due to past budget cuts, but said he just hired three full-time inspectors.?As MASPIRG knows, but hasn?t made clear, we just committed to hiring three full-time people whose job will be do go out to these landfills and incinerators to do inspections,” he said. “We?ve also put together a regulation that requires all landfills and incinerators and large transfer stations to pay for independent third parties to inspect these facilities on a regular basis and report back to us on compliance.”Kimmell went on to say that in his view, the DEP has already addressed the concerns raised by MASSPIRG “in a very clear and effective way,” noting he has received thanks from two environmental group.A letter from Lynne Pledger of Clean Water Action and Staci Rubin of Alternatives for Community & Environment dated June 7 thanks Kimmell for his “recent action to hire new waste ban inspection/enforcement staff” and says the three new positions “will be significant.”?MASSPIRG seems to be an outlier on this issue,” said Kimmell.A press release from MASSPIRG states that research shows that enforcing DEP?s waste bans would divert anywhere from 35 percent to 58 percent of annual waste from incinerators and landfills. The release goes on to say that there is “significant evidence of gross violations of the bans” and claims that the DEP has only issued a handful of penalties over the past few years.?If we are truly committed to reducing our waste, we must decrease disposal and increase recycling, and enforcing the waste bans would do just that,” said Domenitz. “They?re already there. They?re on the books. If we don?t enforce them, we are simply moving backwards – not forwards.”Domenitz said MASSPIRG started the petition after the DEP announced in May it would be modifying its 23-year ban on incinerator construction to allow for new technologies.The DEP announced its new solid waste master plan in May, which aims to reduce waste by 30 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050, according to a press release from the DEP.Part of the master plan includes a modification of the current 23-year-old incinerator moratorium to “encourage the development of innovative and alternative technologies for converting municipal solid waste to energy or fuel on a limited basis.”But while landfill space may be running out, Domenitz said a significant amount of what is fillingup landfills is actually banned under DEP?s own regulations.?Bay Staters agree that increasing incineration is the wrong solution,” said Domenitz. “If you were obese, your doctor wouldn?t prescribe you bigger pants. But the DEP seems content to tell us that we need more incineration capacity, not less waste.”Kimmell noted that MASSPIRG?s is relying on old data and said that while the DEP only issued five penalties, it also issued 125 notices of non-compliance.?Of those 125, those people have come into compliance after they got our notice so there was no reason to issue a penalty,” said Kimmell. “But with the three new full-time inspectors, and the independent third-party inspectors, we do expect to obtain a lot more evidence about what?s going on to the extent that if we see significant non-compliance, we?re going to enforce that vigorousl