January 6, 2010
Markell proposal speeds up recycling
Haulers would offer curbside service
Curbside recycling would become a mandatory part of all trash hauler services statewide under a Markell administration proposal to cut through political snarls that have blocked recycling and bottle-deposit law reforms for decades.
Gov. Jack Markell said recycling would remain voluntary for homes and businesses under the proposal, unlikely to take full effect before late 2011. But the governor said he would seek approval this year, and said the state should tap proceeds from a dysfunctional bottle-deposit program to subsidize initial program costs.
"The plan I'm putting forward is comprehensive and practical. It's designed to significantly increase recycling, to reduce the burden on businesses, to create jobs and to minimize waste costs," Markell said as supportive legislators, waste haulers and environmental group representatives looked on.
Delaware's large private waste haulers and the http://www.dswa.com/">Delaware Solid Waste Authority have publicly endorsed the idea, as have some environmental group leaders. The show of solidarity capped more than 30 years of see-saw battling over waste and recycling policies and years of snail-paced gains in efforts to divert trash from landfills.
Delaware now has a 51 percent recycling goal, but currently recycles about 30 percent of its wastes.
"We are clearly a way from making that goal, and arguably our goal should be even higher," Markell said, adding that recycling efforts are justified by both economics and environmental benefits.
During the announcement, Markell also recommended changing the state's 5-cent bottle deposit into a nonrefundable environmental fee, earmarked for recycling program start-up subsidies. The fee eventually would shrink to a 2-cent charge.
Lawmakers would have to approve legislation to create a recycling service mandate and overhaul the current bottle bill. Retailers and distributors would be freed, meanwhile, from requirements to collect and return bottles.
Haulers and municipal governments that collect trash eventually would have a recycling rate target, with the possibility of penalties imposed for those that miss the mark.
"I think it's a good idea," said Nancy Craft, a New Castle resident whose interest in recycling includes regular posts on the topic on her Facebook page. "I do think what we have now isn't working very well, and we need to do better."
Administration officials said consumers should see no extra costs as a result of the change.
Landfill disposal costs rising
A looming increase in landfill disposal charges should make recycling more attractive in coming years. Costs for regular trash dumping at the state's three landfills are expected to increase by 50 percent or more starting July 1.
"The additional waste disposal costs that families will face with or without universal recycling could be offset by the reduced price of the alcohol or soda bottles that they purchase," Markell said.
Although the fee could eventually be cut to 2 cents, the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Beverage Association criticized the approach as harmful to business.
Ellen Valentino, the group's vice president, said state recognition of the deposit law's problems are encouraging, but "we are disappointed to learn that he is proposing a container tax as an alternative funding source."
Markell's actions come six months after his veto of a bill that would have repealed the state's 27-year-old bottle deposit law. At the time, Markell said his administration wanted to develop something better than the current system instead of just scrapping the limited, unenforced and widely maligned 5-cent deposit law.
Past studies have estimated that consumers pay about $3 million in unredeemed bottle deposits every year.
Collin P. O'Mara, secretary of http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov">Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, said competition among haulers should create pressure to pass along savings on disposal costs under the expanded recycling program.
"I think all the waste haulers together are very strongly behind this proposal. It provides us all with an opportunity to compete and provide a service on an equal basis," said Tom Houska, senior district manager for Waste Management of Delaware, the state's and nation's largest waste company. "It has the best chance of anything I've seen in a long, long time."
The Delaware Solid Waste Authority's curbside pickup service, now the state's largest, would eventually end under the plan, saving that agency millions each year.
The administration's statewide recycling measure follows nearly 35 years of on-again, off-again efforts to expand recycling under four different governors.
Municipal and household recycling rates in Delaware trailed most northeast states until recently, with some estimates putting municipal recycling rates as low as 4 percent, far off the national 35-percent target.
Although lawmakers repeatedly considered recycling measures in the past, waste diversions from Delaware's landfills rose substantially only after the DSWA developed its own curbside pickup service and offered it both to municipal governments and individual households statewide.
Wilmington's separately managed curbside recycling program also set a faster pace for the state, with the city program touted by Markell as a model during his 2008 gubernatorial campaign.
Pressure to step up recycling jumped in 2006, when DNREC imposed a 195-foot height limit on DSWA's Cherry Island Landfill after authority managers warned that space at the state's busiest waste site would run out as early as 2009.
State officials warned that northern Delaware would have to cut disposal and dumping rates to conserve space in Cherry Island and postpone a potentially bitter debate over construction of a new landfill.
As a first step, DNREC ordered DSWA to ban yard waste from Cherry Island, and said that it would eventually seek the same ban for authority landfills in Kent County and Sussex County.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100106/NEWS02/1060344/Markell-pr
