Universal recycling moves through Senate

by John Herrick vtdigger.org The Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee Wednesday unanimously passed a bill designed to prepare for the implementation of the state’s universal recycling law.
Under the law, mandatory composting for some large food producers begins July 1, and next year recyclables will be banned from the landfill.
The bill creates a special fund to support the infrastructure and capital costs of collecting and processing mandated recyclables, food scraps and leaf and yard debris. The Agency of Natural Resources will decide where the money will go, according to the bill. Lawmakers want to see more money go to rural waste districts that may already have insufficient infrastructure.
The bill increases the waste disposal franchise tax from $6 to $7. The tax, which has not changed since the 1980s, is placed on each ton of trash brought to a transfer station.
Some solid waste districts will need money to prepared for the increase flow of materials.
The bill included a provision that would have scaled back the state’s so-called “bottle bill,” the state beverage container redemption law. The provision was removed.
The construction industry raised concerns Wednesday as the committee rushed to move the bill forward. The Associated General Contractors of Vermont said the bill would increase costs for the industry, according to a letter from the trade association’s executive vice president Cathy Lamberton, who was not present at Wednesday’s meeting.
Committee Chair Sen. Bob Hartwell, D-Bennington, who was irritated by the last-minute issue, moved the bill forward unchanged. The bill will be taken up next in the Senate Finance Committee, he said.
The bill requires municipalities join a solid waste district, which are groups of towns that share waste disposal and recycling infrastructure. Towns that do not join a district will not receive any state funds to support the transition to the new recycling program. Currently, there are nine towns, often referred to as “rogue towns,” that do not any plan for dealing with waste.
Act 148, the state’s universal recycling law, aims to increase the state diversion rate, or the amount of material kept out of the landfill, from a stagnant 36 percent to 50 percent. The law sets a timeline to incrementally remove materials from the waste stream over the next several years.