March 25, 2010
Delaware's statewide
curbside recycling
proposal fine-tuned
Gov. Jack Markell's administration is circulating an ambitious draft proposal for "universal" curbside recycling pickup service, supported initially by proceeds from a recycled bottle deposit program.
Supporters say the draft bill, which could be introduced as early as this week, retains most of the features that Markell outlined when he announced plans for the statewide initiative in early January. Some provisions have changed to broaden support and move the state closer to an emerging "Zero Waste" goal.
The legislation sets Delaware's municipal waste recycling target at 50 percent for 2015, compared with 30 percent currently. The goal would then rise t o 60 percent by 2020. Total recycling rates, including those for business and commercial castoffs, would be set at 72 percent in 2015 and 80 percent in 2020.
"They're aggressive but achievable," Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin P. O'Mara said of the goals.
"In Wilmington, Newark, Dover and southern communities where they have implemented curbside recycling, they've seen large jumps in recycling virtually overnight" once services are easily available, O'Mara said. Recycling participation would remain voluntary for all residents. All private or municipal government waste haulers, however, would have to begin offering recycling pickup for all single-family home customers on Sept. 15. The service requirement would extend to apartment buildings and other multi-family residences by Jan. 1, 2013, and commercial sites by 2014.
"I hope this one flies," said Wallace Kremer, environmental chairman for the Council of Civic Organizations of Brandywine Hundred and a member of the state's Recycling Public Advisory Council. "I'm really pleased with it, because I think that it's simple and it has the least impact on citizens."
The bill would create a state Recycling Fund, supported for the first four years by a new recycling fee on bottles now covered by Delaware's long- maligned 5-cent deposit law.
Only a fraction of deposits are believed to be reclaimed each year, and lawmakers and successive administrations never provided for recovery of unclaimed balances or extension of deposits to other often-trashed containers, such as water, tea and sports drink bottles.
Under the administration's bill, the 5-cent deposit on smaller carbonated beverage bottles would be replaced by a 4-cent per bottle fee on Dec. 1. The new fee -- to be eliminated after four years -- is expected to raise about $5 million yearly for startup grants and loans to pay for trucks, pickup bins, educational programs and recycling alternatives.
"The question is: Is Delaware ready for a statewide recycling program?" said Sen. David B. McBride, D- Hawks Nest, a legislative leader of past curbside recycling proposals and a Senate sponsor of the current initiative.
"The question will be answered after the bill is introduced."
House Natural Resources and Environmental Control Committee Chairman Michael Mulrooney, D-New Castle, said residents appear supportive of the voluntary approach.
"Once it gets going and there's more education and marketing to make people aware, I think people are going to jump on board," said Mulrooney, who is expected to serve as one of the bill's prime sponsors. "We'd like to get it introduced before the spring break."
Markell's original proposal called for shifting the entire 5-cent bottle deposit into the Recycling Fund, then reducing and retaining the deposit at 2 cents after a startup period. Broad outlines of the plan were released soon after his veto of a bill that would have repealed the bottle deposit law entirely.
That proposal came under criticism from both sides.
Some environmental and citizen groups recommended retaining the deposit and expanding its coverage to include noncarbonated goods, cans and other beverage containers.
Business groups argued that the deposit had been a failure since its approval in 1982, and now serves only to put some state products at a disadvantage while pressuring retailers to manage returned bottles without compensation.
"It is a bold step, a good step," said Ellen Valentino, who directs the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Beverage Association. "We just have to review some of the elements he's laid out."
"One good thing for everyone is the repeal of the deposit law," Valentino said. "It has failed the citizens of Delaware. It's been a failed recycling system. To move away from that and stand up a comprehensive program statewide is good."
Julie Miro Wenger, who directs the Delaware Food Industry Council, said her organization supports the approach.
"Really, for the retailers, the big change is they no longer have to act as trash collectors. They no longer have to take back the bottles," Wenger said.
"Our residents have an opportunity to recycle the bottles at the curbside. We are a huge proponent of curbside recycling."
Lawmakers would vote on the measure just ahead of a massive 50 percent or more increase in state landfill disposal fees. Although the issues are not directly linked, curbside recycling advocates say the service could help blunt the effects of the Delaware Solid Waste Authority rate hikes.
DSWA officials authorized a three-year series of rate increases last year to begin on July 1. Authority members cited rising debt costs for landfill expansions, increased expenses for special programs -- including losses on recycling services -- and a recession-related drop in disposal traffic and revenues.
Although the authority now offers its own curbside pickup program, that operation would end on Sept. 15, 2011, with its 40,000 recycling carts shifted into service with other public and private haulers.
O'Mara said recycling offers residents a way to help control trash rates over the long term, by easing demand for dwindling landfill space and costly new landfills.
Expanded recycling programs, the administration has noted, also could create hundreds of new jobs around the state.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100325/NEWS02/3250352/0/NEWS/Curbside-recycling-proposal-fine-tuned
