April 30, 2010
Curbside recycling bill OK'd by Delaware Senate
Measure would mean end of bottle deposit law
The "universal recycling" measure -- a priority for Gov. Jack Markell's administration and environmental groups -- passed by a 17-3 vote after surviving a potential killer amendment and warnings of a possible constitutional challenge.
Sen. David B. McBride, D-Hawks Nest, who sponsored S.B. 234, said the bill caps decades of work to expand Delaware's low recycling rate and months of effort to reach a compromise on terms for the expanded service.
Critics said the bill would create a new tax by scuttling the state's 5-cent deposit for small bottles of carbonated beverages, while putting a new, nonrefundable 4-cent fee on the same containers.
The fee, earmarked for startup subsidies, education programs and administrative costs, would end after four years.
"We believe this is a fair bill," McBride said. He added that lawmakers "sent a clear signal last year, in my opinion, that the bottle bill should end."
The bill now goes to the House.
"It's certainly a strong endorsement by the Senate of a plan that would make universal recycling a practical reality in Delaware," said Brian Selander, Markell's chief spokesman.
Markell vetoed an attempt to scuttle the deposit law last year but said he would return with a better plan.
Recycling participation would remain voluntary for all residents. All private or municipal government waste haulers, however, would have to begin offering recycling pickups for all single-family home customers on Sept. 15, 2011.
The service requirement would extend to apartment buildings and other multifamily residences by Jan. 1, 2013, and commercial sites by 2014.
Supporters argued that increased recycling would pay for itself in the form of lower costs for landfilling wastes.
B.J. Vinton, who chairs Markell's Recycling Public Advisory Council, said the bill "represents an enormous step forward for Delaware."
Lawmakers rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, that would have extended the fee to all types of beverage containers, while dropping the charge to 1 cent. Peterson said that the broader charge would have been fairer to consumers and affected industries.
David Swayze, a lobbyist for the Glass Bottle Institute, said his group "was not at the table" for compromise talks and that the new fee may raise fairness and equal protection objections from those who have to pay.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100430/NEWS02/4300342/Curbside-recycling-bill-OK-d-by-Senate
