Recycling reform bill passes Maine House – Mount Desert Islander
AUGUSTA — The Maine House of Recurrentatives voted 86-57 late Wednesday night to advance LD 1541, a invoice sponsored by Rep. Nicole Grohoski (D-Ellsworth) That is meant to stabilize recycling packages, collect greater knowledge and strain huge corporations to pay for the recycling of their packaging, a program Usually acknowledged as prolonged producer obligation for packaging, or EPR.
“Our current recycling system isn’t truthful and it isn’t working,” Grohoski wrote in a Fb submit on her Website late Wednesday night. “Maine taxpayers are paying an estimated $16 million yearly to handle packaging supplies and, at biggest, solely 36 % Of these supplies are being recycled. I am grateful to a tripartisan majority of my colleagues Inside The house for recognizing that, for the sake of our taxpayers and Our environment, we can’t afford to primarytaInside the established order. As we’ve seen in Canada and Europe, creating an EPR for Packaging program would enhance municipal recycling at no further value to consumers.”
Municipalities Throughout the county and state have struggled with their recycling packages In current occasions, with many opting To close them alcollectively, citing rising prices. Gouldsboro suspended its recycling program in 2018, hoping To start out it up as quickly as extra as quickly as prices acquired here down, which has but to happen. Coastal Recycling, which served 5 Hancock County cities, closed its doorways in 2019. A pair of of the cities it served deliberate to convey waste and recycling to The earlier Fiberight plant in Hampden, which opened briefly After which closed and has been out of fee since spring of 2020. Officers have said they hope to have the plant up and working as quickly as extra by 2022.
Grohoski’s invoice would create a stewardship group, overseen by the Maine Division of Environmental Safety (DEP), to handle costs paid by producers, Which might differ Counting on the design, quantity And Sort of packaging, said Grohoski, with the group’s administrative costs furtherly paid by producers. Maine already has producer obligation packages in place for completely different gadgets, collectively with digital waste, previous paint and mercury thermostats.
The money collected from producers Can be Utilized Partially To assist municipalities offset The worth of recycling. There Can be a tiered, flat payment selection for low-quantity producers, People who “ship[ed], current[ed] or distribut[ed]” between 1 and 15 tons of packaging yearly, To not exceed Higher than $500 per ton of packaging And fewer than $7,500 Annually. Producers making Decrease than $5 million in complete gross income Can be exempt for The primary three years of This method (that threshprevious would drop to $2 million thereafter), as would 501(c)(3) nonprofit groups.
Some retail recurrentatives have expressed cas quickly asrn about how such a program would have an effect on retailers, And the method a lot of The worth Can be handed on to consumers, As properly as to The measurement of exempt groups and the feasibility of amassing An inventory of producers collaborating (or not) in This method.
“We’re significantly involved that such An inventory might ever probably be compiled,” said Curtis Picard, president and CEO of the Retail Affiliation of Maine, at a listening to in April, “which places retailers in A very troublesome place, To purpose To Search out out which of the merchandise they’re carrying are complying with this regulation or not complying with this regulation.”
However amassing greater knowledge on The type and quantity of packaging Getting into the state and the place that packaging Goes would assist information the Maine DEP in figuring out gaps and serving to communities make selections about recycling packages, Sarah Nichols, Sustainable Maine director On the Pure Assets Council of Maine (NRCM), tprevious The American in April.
“To get reimbursed,” said Nichols, “municipalities Want to current The information that reveals whOn they’re amassing. That’s An limitless win, simply that.” Although They’re inspired to report every two years, The information that comes into The deptis woefully incomplete — in 2018, solely 104 municipalities submitted reviews, out of 487 that have been notified, Based mostly on the DEP.
“It’s a system change,” said Nichols. “Proper now, we’re approaching recycling all incorrect.”
The invoice faces extra votes earlier than it reveryes the desk of Governor Janet Mills.
Kate is the paper’s Digital Media Strategist, Responsible for all issues social, and the occasional story too! She’s a former reporter for the paper And will be reveryed at: [e-mail protected]