Municipal Recycling

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has released the state’s new solid waste management plan that calls for reducing the amount of waste generated in part by dramatically increasing the rate of recycling.

The state is hoping that putting in place a number of programs could boost the recycling rate from 30 percent to 58 percent.

The steps the state recommends are establishing a recycling program for electronics; adding certain plastics as well as magazines to the list of mandated recyclables; increasing the volume of material available for recycling by expanding the bottle bill to include plastic water bottles; and continuing to support environmentally preferable purchasing by state government.

"Here’s the bottom line: Simply recycling that stray soda bottle and newspaper is no longer enough," DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy says. "We must radically and quickly ‘change the balance’ in favor of waste reduction, recycling and reuse over disposal. If you look at the amount of waste we generate and then look at the available places there are for it to go, something has to give. If we dramatically increase our recycling rate, we can avoid the need for additional disposal facilities."

The goals of the state’s Solid Waste Management Plan are:

The DEP worked extensively with the public and the specially created DEP Solid Waste Management Plan External Stakeholders Working Group to develop the plan.

The state of Oregon has reported that the recycling rate for rigid plastic containers in the state declined in 2005 to 24.3 percent. Further, according to a report by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the recycling rate is expected to remain below 25 percent in 2007.

This is the first time the state has reported a rigid plastic container recycling rate of less than 25 percent since it began calculating the figure in 1993.

Because of the decline, recycling related requirements on some companies’ bottle and container packaging could come into play unless the state is able to increase the plastic recycling rate to more than 25 percent by next year.

According to a state law, any rigid plastic container sold in Oregon must contain at least 25 percent recycled content; be made of plastic that is recycled in Oregon at a rate of at least 25 percent; or be reusable (refillable for at least five times).

According to Peter Spendelow, DEQ solid waste specialist, the decline can be attributed to two main factors. First, he says, is the increasing sale of water and juice in plastic bottles, which have a lower recycling rate. Soft drink sales are declining, though they have a historically higher recycling rate. Second, Spendelow says, increasing amounts of plastic are being used to make tubs, trays and other types of non-bottle containers. Most curbside recycling collection programs collect only plastic bottles, so the tubs, trays and clamshells often are not recycled.

To increase the plastics recycling levels, Spendelow says many local governments and recycling collectors are considering adding tubs and other plastic containers to their curbside programs as well as providing customers with large roll-carts for storing and recycling all of their materials.

Legislative proposals to add water and other beverages to Oregon’s Bottle Bill could push the plastic recycling rate close to 30 percent, the DEQ projects.