AN ACT CONCERNING PRIVATE, MUNICIPAL AND STATE RECYCLING.

This bill requires the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner to establish and evaluate two pilot recycling programs for municipalities. It requires her to provide grants for the programs from available resources, and to report her findings to a commission the bill creates. It requires state agencies, within existing resources, to develop sustainability plans to increase energy efficiency and encourage recycling, and allows them to pattern these plans on a sustainability plan the commission must develop.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except for the provision creating the commission, which takes effect July 1, 2008 and the provision concerning the sustainability plan which takes effect January 1, 2009.

The bill requires DEP to create and evaluate a (1) single stream or enhanced dual stream recycling program and (2) pay-as-you-throw program.

The bill requires municipalities receiving grants for the pay-as-you-throw pilot 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 households that meet certain recycling goals.

For each program, the commissioner must provide grants to at least one municipality with 70,000 or more people; one with between 10,000 and 70,000 people; and one with than 10,000 or fewer people. Populations must be determined according to the most recent edition of the Connecticut Register and Manual. The pilot programs end on November 1, 2009, or one year after the grant funds are disbursed, whichever is later.

The commissioner must fund the programs from available appropriations, and a grant may not exceed 50% of the estimated costs to implement a program. She may give preference to municipalities without curbside recycling programs. Trash haulers serving a municipality that does not offer municipal collection service may apply for grants to take part in the programs.

If a trash hauler or municipality receiving a grant for either program already has such a program, grant funding is limited to reimbursement for the costs related to gathering the data needed to evaluate the program and providing it to the commissioner.

The commissioner must establish the pilot programs by October 1, 2008. Interested municipalities and eligible trash haulers must apply to the DEP by October 15, 2008 on a form DEP prescribes. 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 either program must submit a plan for her approval that includes:

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.

The commissioner must evaluate the results of the pilot programs using the methodology developed by the commission the bill creates. She must submit her evaluation to the commission by January 1, 2010 or three months after the pilot programs terminate, whichever is later.

COMMISSION TO EVALUATE PILOT PROGRAMS AND DEVELOP A MODEL SUSTAINABILITY PLAN

DEP must establish a commission to (1) develop a way to evaluate the pilot programs, (2) recommend ways to implement them, (3) recommend future recycling initiatives, and (4) by December 1, 2008, develop a model sustainability plan for state agencies to use as the bill specifies.

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 DEP commissioner; and

9. one member appointed by the Tunxis Recycling Operating Committee.

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. Appointments must be made by August 1, 2008, and any vacancies must be filled by the appointing authority. Members serve without compensation. The DEP commissioner must select the chairperson from the commission members. The chairperson must schedule the first meeting by September 1, 2008.

The commission must summarize the results of the pilot programs in a report to the Environment Committee. It must submit the report, with the commission's findings and recommendations, by February 1, 2010, or one month after the DEP commissioner submits her evaluation of the pilot programs to the commission, whichever is later.

The bill requires each state agency that occupies or manages a state building, facility, or park to, within existing resources, develop and carry out 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. Each state agency may base its plan on the model sustainability plan developed by the commission the bill creates. Agencies must file their plans with DEP by March 1, 2009. Under the bill, a state building means buildings and real property the state owns.

In single stream recycling, all containers and paper fibers are mixed together in a collection truck, instead of being sorted by the resident and handled separately throughout the collection process. In a typical dual stream system, the homeowner puts bottles and cans in one container and newspaper, mixed paper, magazines, and cardboard in another.

The House referred the bill (File 465) to the Appropriations Committee, which, among other things, eliminated provisions (1) requiring municipalities and private trash haulers that offer customers curbside trash collection to also offer these customers curbside recycling, (2) requiring public places to provide accessible recycling receptacles, and (3) appropriating funds to implement several of the bill's provisions.

The committee also eliminated a pilot program on accessible recycling, made a number of changes to the remaining pilot programs, and made several changes to the state agency sustainability plan provision.

Yea

Nay

(03/14/2008)

Yea

Nay

(04/15/2008)