Curbside recycling now part of state law in Delaware
Service to start by Sept. 2011, universal by 2014
Delaware will phase in a universal curbside recycling mandate starting next year under a landmark measure signed Tuesday by Gov. Jack Markell.
The law also spells the end of the state's long-maligned 5-cent beverage bottle deposit law. A 4-cent per bottle, non-refundable fee will take its place on Dec. 1, then expire in 2014, with proceeds used to support initial recycling work.
Republican critics have alleged that the new fee is a camouflaged tax that could face a court challenge.
Under the new law, all waste haulers statewide must begin offering every-other-week curbside recycling pickups by Sept. 15, 2011 as part of their regular services, starting with single family homes, restaurants and bars. Service must expand to multi-family dwellings by January 1, 2013, and remaining businesses by Jan. 1, 2014.
Recycling will remain voluntary for state residents, although state officials plan to step up public education programs and efforts to promote the environmental and economic benefits of not wasting.
"Recycling is going to help us save money, improve our environment and create new jobs," Markell said during a brief ceremony near the slopes of Cherry Island Landfill in east Wilmington, Delaware's busiest waste disposal site.
The program, Markell added, will "restrain the cost of waste, it will reduce burdens on businesses and it will significantly increase recycling."
Along with the curbside recycling mandate, the law set a 50 percent municipal waste recycling goal to be reached by Jan. 1, 2015, and a 60 percent target for Jan. 1, 2020 - higher than surrounding states and double the highest estimates of the state's current rate.
Proceeds from the new 4-cent bottle fee will be earmarked for grants, loans and other startup subsidies to offset equipment costs. Lawmaker's capped total collections from the recycling fee at $22 million, potentially forcing its cutoff before 2014.
Residents can continue to return bottles and reclaim 5-cent deposits from merchants until Feb. 1.
"I think it's going to be a big help. If it's something that's going to benefit this environment, yes, they should do it," said Judith Burris, a longtime resident of the Fairwinds community in Bear. "I know that it already has become more popular here. Not everybody is doing it, by any means, but a number of people do have their recycling picked up already."
DSWA will continue major landfill-based recycling programs and some Recycle Delaware drop off centers. Its own curbside pickup program - which grew to tens of thousands of customers - will end once private and municipal haulers are required to provide the service.
Sen. David R. McBride, D-Hawks Nest, who sponsored the Senate bill, said individuals and groups had been working for many of his 32 years in the General Assembly pushing for legislation to boost recycling.
The legislation cleared the General Assembly earlier this year after months of compromise talks launched by Markell last year. That effort picked up steam after Markell vetoed a bill last summer that would have simply repealed the state 5-cent bottle deposit, without provisions for keeping bottles out of landfills.
Lawmakers approved the plan just ahead of a planned 50 percent rate increase for much of the household waste disposed at the Delaware Solid Waste Authority's landfills in all three counties.
"This is a real good opportunity to do it right," said Tom Houska, who represents Waste Management Inc's Delaware operations. "It gives everybody plenty of time to plan a transition. There's a lot involved."
Houska said his company could expand its residential service workforce by as much as 50 percent once the law takes effect.
Markell said that competition should hold down costs, allowing customers to shop for haulers with the best rates. Steeped up recycling should meanwhile hold down disposal costs for haulers, giving them savings that can help keep customer rates down.
Some critics of the plan argued that abandonment of the bottle deposit in favor of a recycling fee amounted to a new sales tax on a minority of beverage containers. Delaware's 28-year-old deposit program covered only smaller bottles of carbonated beverages and excluded ubiquitous beverages like tea, sports drinks and water.
Republican lawmakers warned that the fee unfairly singled out some businesses, and predicted a court challenge after Markell's signature.
(article by JEFF MONTGOMERY, The News Journal, June 9, 2010)