In coming up with a plan to save polar bears from climate change, students at Colfax Upper Elementary School decided to encourage recycling. But Springdale, where their school is located, doesn’t provide recycling to residents at their homes 鈥� nor does any municipality within the Allegheny Valley School District 鈥� because the state’s 30-year-old recycling law says they don’t have to. Some say it’s time to rethink that.
The law 鈥渁s it exists today sets a very low bar, because that bar was a very high bar in 1988,鈥� said Justin Stockdale, regional director of the Pennsylvania Resources Council, a grass-roots environmental organization.
鈥淭hat’s the nature of public policy. It was a very progressive, cutting-edge piece of legislation back then, the first of its kind in the nation.鈥�
Under the state’s recycling law, Act 101 of 1988, municipalities with fewer than 5,000 residents are not required to provide at-home, curb-side pickup of recyclables. As a result, only 18 percent of the state’s more 聽than 2,500 municipalities are mandated to provide recycling, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
At-home recycling is popular, state officials say, especially in larger communities such as Hempfield Township, which in 2016 began picking up recyclable trash every week instead of every other week.
鈥淭hat seems to have gone over very well,鈥� township Manager Andrew Walz said. 鈥淭his is a lot better. We can recycle more.鈥�
Preventing a Fee Sunset
The looming expiration of a $2-per-ton fee on waste to support recycling programs could provide an opportunity to modernize the act. The fee is scheduled to sunset on Jan. 1, 2020, and advocates such as the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania are calling for its renewal before the end of 2017 so applications for future grants aren’t affected.
The fee raises more than $36 million each year to promote waste reduction and recycling. 鈥淪hould the funding sunset, grant programs will be discontinued, yet the requirements set forth in Act 101 will continue,鈥� the recyclers’ association says.
Leaders of the legislative committees that would tackle the issue have differing views. Adam Pankake, executive director of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, wants to focus only on renewing the fee. 鈥淕enerally, people are supportive of Act 101. It’s done a lot of great things across the state for recycling and seems to be working,鈥� he said. 鈥淩eauthorization (of the fee) is palpable for a lot of people.鈥�
Meanwhile, state Rep. John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair, chairman of the House committee, said the fee’s expiration offers an opportunity to open the act to updates. 鈥淪ometimes you need an element within the greater subject that creates a sense of urgency,鈥� Maher said. 鈥淚t’s time for us to revisit and update this law. If we’re going to have the fee, it becomes a question of, 鈥榃hat’s the fee for? What are we trying to accomplish?’鈥�
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