AN ACT CONCERNING PRIVATE, MUNICIPAL AND STATE RECYCLING.

This bill requires (1) municipalities and private trash haulers that offer customers curbside trash collection to also offer these customers curbside recycling, and (2) the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to (a) establish, fund, and create a commission to evaluate, three pilot recycling programs and (b) encourage residents to use biodegradable products.

It requires public places, such as hotels, supermarkets, sports arenas, restaurants, and movie theaters, to provide accessible recycling receptacles. It prohibits cleaning and janitorial service employers from combining trash with recyclable items that should be kept separate, and implements a penalty for violators. It also (1) requires state agencies to develop sustainability plans to increase energy efficiency and encourage recycling; (2) sets minimum size requirements for recycling codes on plastic bottles; (3) authorizes conservation officers to enforce the provisions dealing with agency sustainability plans, curbside recycling, public recycling receptacles, and the commingling of trash and recyclable items; and (4) appropriates $ 12 million to fund DEP's public education and pilot grant programs. It also appropriates unspecified amounts to hire eight additional conservation officers and implement the sustainability plans.

The bill requires municipalities that provide curbside trash collection to residents and businesses to offer curbside recycling to these customers. Each trash hauler that offers curbside solid waste collection for residential, business, commercial, or other establishments in a municipality must offer curbside recycling to each of its customers at no additional charge. But the trash hauler may determine and adjust its fees for combined curbside collection services.

Under the bill, curbside recycling means the collection, by either municipal or private recycling vehicles, of presorted glass, plastic, paper, cans, newspapers, magazines, and cardboard left for collection by residents and businesses in front of their homes or businesses, respectively. It does not include bulk items such as furniture, demolition waste, or trees.

The bill requires DEP to create, fund, and evaluate three pilot recycling programs: (1) single stream or enhanced dual stream recycling; (2) a pay-as-you-throw program; and (3) a program to encourage recycling by placing recycling receptacles in municipally owned or leased public areas. The commissioner must provide grants to up to six municipalities for each program, two rural (fewer than 10,000 people), two suburban (between 10,000 and 70,000 people), and two urban (70,000 or more people). Populations must be determined according to the most recent edition of the Connecticut Register and Manual. The bill appropriates $ 10 million from the General Fund for FY 09 for the three programs.

The commissioner must fund the single/dual stream and pay-as-you-throw programs from available appropriations. For these two programs, she may give preference to municipalities without curbside recycling programs, but may not award grants to more than one such town in each population category per program. Trash haulers serving a municipality that does not offer municipal collection service may apply for grants to take part in both the single/dual stream and pay-as-you-throw programs.

The commissioner must establish the pilot programs by October 1, 2008. Interested municipalities and trash haulers, as appropriate, must apply to the DEP by October 15, 2008 on a DEP form. The commissioner may reject a grant application she finds is incomplete. If she rejects an application, the commissioner must promptly notify the applicant to explain why she did so. The applicant may resubmit its application no later than 15 days after receiving this notice.

Each municipality or trash hauler the commissioner selects to receive a grant for this program must submit, for the commissioner's approval, a single stream or dual stream recycling plan for her approval. The plan must include:

1. an estimate of the operational and capital expenses and income required to implement the plan for two years;

2. recycling goals;

3. an estimate of the savings in tipping fees, if applicable;

4. a method to track the program's actual cost;

5. a method to track its actual savings; and

6. any additional information the commissioner requires.

Municipalities must use grants from this program to establish a system in which households and businesses pay (1) nothing for material they recycle and (2) for trash removal based on the volume or weight of the solid waste they generate. The program also may establish other incentives, such as offering retail coupons to those that meet certain trash reduction or recycling goals.

Each municipality or trash hauler the commissioner selects to receive a grant for this program must submit a plan for her approval for establishing a recycling incentive program. The plan must include the same information as the single/dual stream program, above.

Municipalities must use grants for this program to (1) place recycling receptacles in public areas the municipality owns or leases, including parks and municipal buildings, and (2) recycle the contents of the receptacles.

Each municipality the commissioner selects to receive a grant for this program must submit, for her approval, a plan to provide recycling receptacles in public areas it owns or leases. The plan must include an estimate of the operational and capital expenses and income required to implement the plan for two years, a method to track the program's actual cost, and any additional information the commissioner requires.

DEP must establish a commission to (1) develop a way to evaluate the three pilot programs, (2) recommend ways to implement them, and (3) recommend future recycling initiatives.

1. one member of an environmental advocacy group, appointed by the Connecticut Recyclers Coalition;

2. one member from an environmental advocacy group, appointed by the Sierra Club;

3. one member appointed by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities;

4. one member appointed by the Connecticut Food Association;

5. one member appointed by the American Beverage Association;

6. one member appointed by the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority;

7. one member appointed by the state chapter of the National Solid Waste Management Association;

8. one member representing recycled material end users, appointed by the commissioner; and

9. one member appointed by the governor.

Commission members must be selected from environmental advocates, grocers, bottlers, trash haulers, recycled material end users, and municipal leaders or other representative interests the appointing authority deems appropriate. Commission members must be appointed by August 1, 2008. Vacancies must be filled by the appointing authority. The House speaker and Senate president pro tempore must select the chairperson from the commission members. The chairperson must schedule the first meeting by September 1, 2008. Members serve without compensation, but are reimbursed for actual expenses incurred while doing the commission's business.

The commission must report to the Environment Committee on its findings and recommendations by February 1, 2010.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except for the provision establishing a commission to evaluate the program, which takes effect July 1, 2008.

Each public place must provide recycling receptacles wherever they have publicly accessible trash receptacles. Under the bill, public places include any privately owned area or building, or portion of an area or building, open to the public during normal business hours. These include (1) a building that provides facilities or shelter for public assembly; (2) an inn, hotel, motel, sports arena, supermarket, transportation terminal, retail store, restaurant, or other commercial establishment that provides services or retail merchandise; and (3) museums, hospitals, auditoriums, movie theaters, and university buildings. But it does not include a building owned or leased by the state or its political subdivisions.

Anyone who violates this provision faces a civil penalty of up to $ 1,000 for each offense. Each violation is a separate and distinct offense. In the case of a continuing violation, each day's continuance is a separate and distinct offense. The attorney general, on the commissioner's request, must sue in Hartford Superior Court to recover the penalty.

The bill requires each state agency that occupies or manages a state building, facility or park to develop and carry out, in consultation with the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), a sustainability plan for the building, facility, or park. The plan must include (1) methods to increase energy efficiency, (2) provision of a sufficient number of recycling receptacles, (3) a preference for the use of biodegradable products when feasible, and (4) appropriate disposal of recyclable materials. Under the bill, a state building includes buildings and real property the state owns or leases.

The law prohibits trash collectors from knowingly mixing solid waste with items designated for recycling (CGS § 22a-220a (f)). Violators are subject to a civil penalty of up to $ 2,500 for each violation and up to $ 10,000 for a subsequent violation. The bill prohibits cleaning and janitorial service employers from combining recyclable items with trash. Under the bill, an employer is one or more individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, or other entity that employs people.

It subjects violators to a civil penalty of $ 500 for each offense. Each violation, of the bill is a separate and distinct offense. In the case of a continuing violation each day's continuance is a separate and distinct offense. The attorney general, on the commissioner's request, must sue in Hartford Superior Court to recover the penalty.

The bill sets a minimum size for plastic bottle recycling identification codes. Starting October 1, 2008, each code must be at least three-quarters of an inch high and five letters per inch wide.

Besides the $ 10 million it appropriates for the three pilot recycling programs, the bill appropriates (1) $ 2 million from the General Fund for FY 09 for the public education program; (2) an unspecified amount from the General Fund in FY 09 to DAS to implement the sustainability plans, and (3) an unspecified amount from the General Fund for FY 09 to hire eight additional conservation officers to enforce the bill's provisions concerning agency sustainability plans, curbside recycling, public recycling receptacles, and the commingling of trash and recyclable items.

The bill requires the commissioner to develop a public education program to encourage state residents to (1) use (a) biodegradable products and (b) environmentally safe alternatives to plastic bags or packaging, and (2) recycle.

The bill authorizes conservation officers, special conservation officers, and patrolmen the DEP commissioner appoints to enforce the provisions of the bill concerning agency sustainability plans, curbside recycling, public recycling receptacles, and the commingling of trash and recyclable items.

Single stream recycling is a system in which all containers and paper fibers are mixed together in a collection truck, instead of being sorted into separate commodities (newspaper, cardboard, plastic, glass, etc. ) by the resident and handled separately throughout the collection process.

In a dual stream system, the homeowner puts bottles and cans in one container and all newspaper, mixed paper, magazines, school papers and cardboard in another container.

These codes help plastic recyclers to sort plastic bottles by resin type. The codes use a triangular-shaped symbol composed of three arrows with a specific number in the middle to indicate the material from which the container is made. The codes include 1 for PETE or PET (polyethylene terephthalate), 2 for HDPE (high density polyethylene), and so forth.

Yea

Nay

(03/14/2008)