Big change is coming to Delaware via House Bill 234, which began its implementation process in November 2010. The bill will affect residents, retailers and municipalities in Delaware as it continues its implementation over the next several months.
The bill is designed to make universal recycling a reality in the state, but some seem to be a little daunted about what the bill contains. This is because, when it comes to dollars and cents, residents in the opposing camps are often speaking two different languages. That is one reason for the divide in the debate over recycling Bill 234 that Gov. Jack Markell signed into law this past summer.
At the heart of the bill is eliminating the state’s 5-cent refundable bottle deposit and instead using that money to support universal recycling programs, which are going to be phased in to run through towns and private trash-hauling companies, rather than through the government or the quasi-governmental Delaware Solid Waste Authority.
The answer to the question of who foots the monetary bill for this environmentally forward-thinking legislation is pretty straight forward: individual communities. And that has led some people to be a bit angry. They don’t want the government dipping in their pockets while they are simultaneously privatizing recycling.
When it comes down to it, though, who should foot the bill for the trash that communities generate if not the people who create it in the first place? After all, recycling is not only good for the environment, but it is good for the future, and isn’t the investment in the future a collective responsibility?
Delaware leadership seems to employ a peppering of liberal and conservative concepts to get to an environmental end, and that sort compromise in the often all-too-partisan jumble of politics is something that is refreshing for residents.
Mayor Tony McClenny of Bethany Beach noted that the original estimated increase in the combined trash and recycling fee by $90 per year per household to fund the universal recycling program in their town was actually an overestimation. The cost included provision of recycling carts to the entire town, which currently offers recycling as an opt-in service.
The $90 increase projected for those who didn’t already pay for recycling (and just a few dollars more for those who did) had some residents a little upset. But, in fact, new recycling customers in Bethany Beach will likely only see an increase of about $45 per household – a number that is expected to be more manageable.
“I have heard no grumbling,” McClenny said of the revised figure, although earlier in the year some residents seemed to express distaste for higher prices. McClenny said he believes, though, that people are receptive to the message of recycling and responsibility.
It is important to understand that the Town of Bethany Beach has been handling their own recycling program for months now – and its trash disposal for years – unlike some towns, making it easier to transition there than it might be elsewhere.
McClenny also said that selling the bill to the residents of Bethany Beach went smoothly because the town contains many transplant residents who likely recycled in their former hometowns, in places like Washington, D.C.
The story is similar in South Bethany, where Mayor Jay Headman said they have had a recycling program in place for a few years now, provided to every home in the town and paid for as part of the town’s trash billing – initially through DSWA and now through the outside contractor the town uses for trash collection.
South Bethany’s trash hauling expense has been greatly reduced by the recycling program, and the town stands ready to implement changes associated with HB 234, but Headman said they are waiting for clarification on certain portions of the bill – something that more than a few town leaders expressed about the bill, which can be a little confusing.
The Town of Georgetown also has an implementation plan that strives to make the change easy on residents. Town Manager Gene Dvornick said he anticipates that there will be a small increase in the bills for Georgetown residents, but he also insists that it is not inflated to profit the town in any way.
Georgetown is currently using an independent disposal company, and they are preparing to roll out blue recycling bins to the townspeople. The town is also trying to keep their residents in the loop when it comes to the impacts of the legislation, and to that end they circulated a two-page newsletter that informed residents of the coming changes.
“More than likely,” said Dvornick, “we’ll see an increase in the number of people who recycle.”
And that can only be a good thing.
Logistically, though, towns like Bethany Beach and Georgetown seem to be in a better position for implementation than others, as they have pre-established systems for picking up waste, even if those systems include outsourcing the jobs to private companies.
But, on the flip side, towns like Frankford may have a harder time adjusting, because they did not have a recycling service already in place. That presents clear challenges for town officials, like Terry Truitt, town clerk in Frankford.
Truitt said, for a town like Frankford – which is already fiscally strained – HB Bill 234 doesn’t seem to be implementing itself evenly across the board, because of the clear economic differences between many of the towns.
While Frankford has garbage collection, the recycling end of the deal is still up in the air. Funds allocated from the bottle tax may help, since they will be available for grants and low-interest loans to help offset start-up costs for recycling service for both municipalities and private companies, but the amounts given to the towns in the long run probably won’t be enough to cover the mandated programs.
Truitt wholeheartedly agrees that recycling programs are necessary and relevant, but connecting all the dots for small towns still coming out of a severe recession remains a challenge.
It could be said that HB 234 is bold, and ushers in a new day in Delaware for the future of universal recycling. Sometimes change is difficult, however necessary it may be, but HB 234 seems to have a lot of support from the local town’s governmental systems, and where there is a will, the local leaders will find a way to make it work.
HB 234 may help to balance the state’s budget by mandating towns be responsible for their own waste, help to have more localized processes of disposal, and help families and businesses to be more environmentally conscious. Of course, not everyone will agree with every decision the government makes, but in reality, this may be doing everyone a big, green favor.
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