Michigan moves to overhaul solid waste laws

A package of bills recently introduced to the Michigan House of Representatives aims to rewrite the state’s solid waste laws to emphasize recycling and composting material over sending it to landfills, reports the Lansing State Journal.

"Currently, Michiganders spend over $1 billion to landfill nearly $600 million worth of materials every year," says Michigan Recycling Coalition Executive Director Kerrin O'Brien. "That's a lot of money."

O'Brien, lawmakers and waste industry representatives testified Monday in front of the House Natural Resources Committee about those bills, which aim to increase the state's recycling rate, provide curbside or drop-off recycling for almost every Michigander and strengthen oversight of landfill and composting facilities.

The proposed overhaul has been years in the making, starting in 2012 as an initiative to improve Michigan's recycling rate — which hovers around 15 percent — under former Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

Specifically, the five-bill waste overhaul package aims to:

• increase the recycling rate to 30 percent by 2025 and ultimately to 45 percent;
• expand residential recycling services;
• increase state oversight of landfills, recycling and composting facilities;
• use some of the money in the Solid Waste Management Fund, supported by fees levied on landfills, composting and waste processing facilities, to develop the Michigan recycling market; and
• require counties to rewrite their waste management plans, with state funding help, to increase recycling and composting in their communities. Those plans would have to be approved by the state.

The initiatives they propose would be paid for by the Renew Michigan Fund, created in 2018.