Delaware bottle bill to go bye-bye?
Delaware Governor Jack Markell may have saved the Blue Hen State’s bottle redemption system in 2009, with his veto of then-House Bill 201, which looked to repeal the program. However, this time around, it’s not looking so promising for the state’s 28-year-old bottle deposit program, as the Delaware General Assembly has passed a measure that eliminates the program in favor of curbside recycling, and those close to the situation believe Markell will have no quarrels with enacting the bill.
Senate Bill 234 ends the state’s returnable bottle deposit program, replacing it with a four-cent charge imposed on all plastic beverage containers (which would be eliminated after four years), and implements recycling for single-family residences and commercial businesses. Monies generated from the four-cent fee, scheduled to be imposed on December 1st and last until December 1, 2014, would be used to establish the curbside system, an amount estimated to be around $22 million over four years. Fees would be distributed to a newly-created Delaware Recycling Fund and Recycling Grants and Low-Interest Program, both of which would be used to defray the costs of implementation.
As for the curbside collection portion of the bill, it requires the Delaware Solid Waste Authority to cease its collecting of curbside recyclables as of September 15, 2011; instead, requiring municipalities and waste haulers to implement comprehensive recycling programs for the residential sector, by 2013, and the commercial sector, by 2014. The state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control would provide grants to municipalities in control of their own trash collection, as well as to private waste hauling businesses, with the intentions of balancing the costs involved in increasing the amount of trucks and bins needed to ensure program success.
Another notable provision in the bill sets Delaware’s municipal waste recycling target at 50 percent for 2015, rising to 60 percent by 2020. Total recycling rates, including those for business and commercial castoffs, would be set at 72 percent in 2015 and 80 percent in 2020.
Cited by Plastics Recycling Update
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