By Rachel Goff
In only a few years, "Every person in Vermont and every person visiting Vermont will be affected by the Universal Recycling Law," Cathy Jamieson of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) Solid Waste Management Program said. She came before representatives from Waitsfield, Warren and Fayston at the tri-town select board meeting on Thursday, November 13, to explain how the law will affect municipalities starting next summer.
In July of 2015, towns will be responsible for supplying recycling containers for public buildings, including state, county or municipal offices, airport terminals, bus stations and schools. Towns will also be responsible for supplying recycling containers on land that is owned by the state, county or municipality.
In short, "Wherever there's a trash can, there needs to be a recycling container," Jamieson said, explaining that the bins will be "the same size, if not larger" than the trash ones and the color blue to "help with messaging and consistency, no matter where you are in the state."
With the new law, the ANR aims to stop referring to plastic, paper, glass, food scraps and yard debris as "waste," Jamieson said, since "they can be collected and managed through infrastructure that we already have," she said, as well as "some that will be developed."
In the near future, for instance, "Every transfer station that accepts trash will also accept food scraps," Jamieson said, and the state's composting industry will continue to grow.
Supplying recycling containers in publicly owned buildings fulfills just one aspect of the Universal Recycling Law, which the state started phasing in this year and which sets a timeline so that all recyclable and organic material must be diverted from the landfill by 2020.
In addition to supplying recycling containers in public spaces, with the new law towns will be tasked with determining a "unit-based pricing" system for its facilities and haulers, Jamieson said, meaning they will set a base rate around which private companies will adjust their collection costs.
Several select board members, not fully understanding how the unit-based pricing system worked, agreed that the towns will look into it and determine a base rate that will be the same for Waitsfield, Warren and Fayston.
Up next, Mad River Resource Management Alliance director John Malter discussed how the Universal Recycling Law will affect costs. Enacting the new legislation "is going to be difficult, financially," Malter said, "but I think everyone wants to accomplish it," he said.
For its part, the resource management alliance will continue to expand its household hazardous waste collection program, which gives residents a way to safely dispose of mercury products, electronic waste and paint, among other things.
The resource management alliance's programs cost money, however, and this year Malter asked the towns to contribute $4 per capita, up from $2.75 in 2013. The increase comes in part because the Mad River Management Alliance is no longer receiving any tipping fees for hosting Moretown Landfill, after the Route 2 facility closed in 2012.
"The bottom line is, we have one landfill in the state of Vermont," Malter said. With that, programs like the household hazardous waste collection and legislation like the Universal Recycling Law are becoming all the more important, and "these are things that we as a society have to step up and pay for."
Waitsfield, Warren and Fayston approved Malter's request for $4 per capita, so that each town's total contribution to the Mad River Resource Management Alliance will be calculated based on its population.
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