nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
I hope Maine enacts this law.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/13/maine-recycling-producer-responsibility/
TRENTON, Me. — At the height of tourist season, the recycling bins at this coastal town used to swell with glass and plastic, office paper and piles of cardboard from the local boatyard. But the bins are gone, and their contents now join the trash, destined either for an incinerator to generate electricity or a landfill.
Trenton is one of many Maine towns that had to cut back or close their recycling operations after events both global and local. In 2018 China, which used to take much of America’s plastic waste, banned most of those imports. Last year, a plant in Hampden, Me., that promised to provide state-of-the-art recycling for more than 100 municipalities shut down.
With mountains of boxes and bubble wrap from online pandemic shopping now going in the trash, lawmakers are trying to make Maine the first state to shift some of the costs of its recycling onto companies — not taxpayers. If the bipartisan bill passes, Maine will join several Canadian provinces, including neighboring Quebec, and all European countries, which have for decades relied on so-called extended producer responsibility programs, or EPR, for packaging.
“It’s good that the bottom fell out,” said Rep. Nicole Grohoski (D-Ellsworth), the bill’s Democratic sponsor, whose district includes Trenton. She doesn’t believe the old system of shipping products halfway around the world to China made sense as countries try to reduce their carbon footprints.
“We have to face this problem and use our own ingenuity to solve it,” Grohoski said.
The proposed legislation, which is vehemently opposed by representatives for Maine’s retail and food producing industries, would charge large packaging producers for collecting and recycling materials as well as for disposing of non-recyclable packaging. The income generated would be reimbursed to communities like Trenton to support their recycling efforts. EPR programs already exist in many states for a variety of toxic and bulky products including pharmaceuticals, batteries, paint, carpet and mattresses. At least a dozen states, from New York to California and Hawaii, have been working on similar bills for packaging.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/13/maine-recycling-producer-responsibility/
TRENTON, Me. — At the height of tourist season, the recycling bins at this coastal town used to swell with glass and plastic, office paper and piles of cardboard from the local boatyard. But the bins are gone, and their contents now join the trash, destined either for an incinerator to generate electricity or a landfill.
Trenton is one of many Maine towns that had to cut back or close their recycling operations after events both global and local. In 2018 China, which used to take much of America’s plastic waste, banned most of those imports. Last year, a plant in Hampden, Me., that promised to provide state-of-the-art recycling for more than 100 municipalities shut down.
With mountains of boxes and bubble wrap from online pandemic shopping now going in the trash, lawmakers are trying to make Maine the first state to shift some of the costs of its recycling onto companies — not taxpayers. If the bipartisan bill passes, Maine will join several Canadian provinces, including neighboring Quebec, and all European countries, which have for decades relied on so-called extended producer responsibility programs, or EPR, for packaging.
“It’s good that the bottom fell out,” said Rep. Nicole Grohoski (D-Ellsworth), the bill’s Democratic sponsor, whose district includes Trenton. She doesn’t believe the old system of shipping products halfway around the world to China made sense as countries try to reduce their carbon footprints.
“We have to face this problem and use our own ingenuity to solve it,” Grohoski said.
The proposed legislation, which is vehemently opposed by representatives for Maine’s retail and food producing industries, would charge large packaging producers for collecting and recycling materials as well as for disposing of non-recyclable packaging. The income generated would be reimbursed to communities like Trenton to support their recycling efforts. EPR programs already exist in many states for a variety of toxic and bulky products including pharmaceuticals, batteries, paint, carpet and mattresses. At least a dozen states, from New York to California and Hawaii, have been working on similar bills for packaging.
