[L]awmakers have abandoned plans to raise money for the implementation of a universal recycling law, despite concerns from solid waste districts that the law will be costly to implement in rural areas.
The House Natural Resources and Energy Committee decided by a straw poll Thursday to shelve proposals to place a fee on disposable bags and to collect unclaimed container deposits from beverage distributors. Both proposals were floated as a way to raise money for Act 148, which will ban recyclables from landfills by July 1. Organic matter will be banned from landfills by 2020.
Committee Chair Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, said the state needs to find a sustainable source of funding for the solid waste systems. But he said the two proposals would not have raised a lot of money, and revenue generated from a bag fee were expected to diminish over time.
Klein said his committee will not raise any money for solid waste in 2017. He also said he will not add deadline extensions or exemptions to the current law.
According to a February report by the Solid Waste Infrastructure Advisory Committee (SWIAC), which was commissioned by the Legislature, the cost of achieving the state’s goals under Act 148 is $45.5 million over the next five years. This includes costs for planning and capital investments, such as trucks and carts.
A 5 cent fee on disposable plastic bags would have raised $1.5 million to $2 million annually, but in less than two years the revenue would begin to decline. Some environmental groups support the tax as a way to raise money for solid waste and change consumer behavior.
Some retailers say they are encouraging customers to use reusable bags and others say the fee might appear unfriendly to tourists.
“Retailers really don’t want to advocate for new fees on their customer,” said Jim Harrison, president of the Vermont Retail & Grocers Association.
Lawmakers were also considering raising money by collecting the 5 cent deposit on unredeemed beverage containers. Currently, beverage distributors do not pay the deposit when consumers fail to return their containers to redemption centers. Some say the state should collect these unredeemed deposits from distributors. That would raise about $1.4 million, according to the report.
The deposits are part of the state’s beverage redemption law, known as the bottle bill. The law costs the beverage industry money. Distributors pay to haul the empty bottles and they cover handling fees to redemption centers, according to Andrew MacLean, a Montpelier lobbyist representing the Beverage Association of Vermont.
MacLean said distributors keep the unclaimed nickels to cover the costs of the bottle bill. He is also seeking to repeal the bottle bill with another system that achieves the same diversion rate. Using the unclaimed nickels as a source of revenue “cements the state into the (bottle return) system,” he said.
Environmental advocates say placing a fee on disposable bags and redeeming the unclaimed nickels served a dual purpose.
“They’re looking at helping promote recycling while finding money at the same time,” said Taylor Johnson of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.
