DEP Solid Waste, Recycling Committees To Review 25 Recommendations For Changing Act 101 Recycling, Waste Program Nov. 5

DEP’s Solid Waste Advisory and Recycling Fund Advisory Committees will hold a joint meeting November 5 to review a final set of draft recommendations for changing and strengthening the Act 101 Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and Waste Reduction Act.

The Committees have been working with a variety of stakeholders on the recommendations since June of 2017.  The goal of this meeting is to see if the Committees can come to a consensus on the recommendations.

A 3-page summary of 25 recommendations will be reviewed by the Committee.  Among the recommendations are--

-- Require curbside recycling in any community of 5,000 or more with no exceptions;

-- Any municipality of less than 5,000 must have a recycling program feasible for them;

-- All persons must separate, municipalities must collect ALL materials listed in the Act (now it’s 3 out of 8 materials-- clear glass, colored glass, aluminum, steel and bimetallic cans, high-grade office paper, newsprint, corrugated paper and plastics);

-- Add mixed paper to the list of items that must be recycled;

-- All state agencies must recycling listed materials;

-- All state agencies must default to purchasing products with recycled content;

-- Ban aluminum, steel/bi-metal cans from being landfilled or going to resource recovery facilities;

-- Add provisions to facilitate universal access to waste management, recycling services;

-- Authorize counties to adopt fees to support recycling programs;

-- Authorize municipalities to adopt fees to support recycling programs; and

-- Expand/create specific recycling public education requirements.

Click Here for a copy of the draft recommendations.

The meeting will be held in Room 105 of the Rachel Carson Building starting at 10:00.

For more information and available handouts, visit DEP’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee/ Recycling Fund Advisory Committee webpage.  Questions should be directed to Laura Henry, 717-772-5713 or send email to: lahenry@pa.gov.

Background

Pennsylvania’s curbside/drop-off recycling program celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and now reaches 94 percent of the state’s population.  

In those 30 years recycling in Pennsylvania has turned into a $22.6 billion industry, but the program now faces challenges in terms of marketing collected materials, an electronics waste recycling effort that is foundering and a recycling funding model that may be out of date. Click Here for more.

To learn more about the recycling program, visit DEP’s Recycling In Pennsylvania webpage.
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