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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT:
Lauren Rooney |
State Rep. Barb
McIlvaine Smith |
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McIlvaine Smith working to save local recycling programs
At risk: household hazardous waste collections, recycling of electronics and tires, drop-off centers
HARRISBURG, June 11 – State Rep. Barb McIlvaine Smith, D-Chester, is working to save local recycling programs that are at risk because a court ruling threatens their funding.
“Recycling is working in Pennsylvania, but local communities may be forced to dump their recycling programs if they can’t get enough green to keep them out of the red,” McIlvaine Smith said.
Many counties across the state provide supplemental recycling services to their constituents, including household hazardous waste collections, recycling of electronics, recycling drop-off centers and tire recycling. Grants from the state Department of Environmental Protection help defray some costs. Communities had made up the difference by charging waste haulers an administrative fee on trash collected in the county.
But in 2005, Commonwealth Court ruled that the General Assembly had not given counties specific authority to collect such a fee. McIlvaine Smith is introducing legislation that would remedy that situation by allowing counties, or municipal authorities created by the county to operate recycling programs, to collect a reasonable administrative fee from waste haulers.
“By allowing our local government bodies to collect a reasonable fee, we would eliminate the danger of these programs being cut or eliminated due to lack of money,” she said. “These programs provide valuable services. For example, collecting household hazardous wastes keeps those chemicals from reaching our water supply through groundwater, and tire recycling removes a source of standing water where disease-carrying mosquitoes can breed.”
State law requires all counties to develop municipal waste management plans. McIlvaine Smith noted that recycling is working in West Chester.
“In 2006, West Chester Borough’s recycling rate reached 23 percent, the highest percentage ever achieved in the history of the borough’s recycling program. And the amount of municipal waste collected was 671 tons less than the previous year,” she said.
In Pennsylvania, recycling is a $23 billion business, providing $2.9 billion in wages to more than 81,000 people statewide. Recycling and re-use businesses have annual sales of $18.4 billion and generate $305 million in state tax revenue each year.
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