PRINTER'S NO. 1781
No. 1435 Session of 2003
INTRODUCED BY LEVDANSKY, STEIL, FREEMAN, BARRAR, BEBKO-JONES,
CAPPELLI, CAWLEY, CREIGHTON, DAILEY, DeWEESE, GILLESPIE,
GORDNER, GRUCELA, HENNESSEY, HESS, HORSEY, JOSEPHS, KIRKLAND,
LAUGHLIN, LEDERER, LEH, LESCOVITZ, MANDERINO, MANN, McGEEHAN,
McNAUGHTON, MELIO, MUNDY, O'NEILL, RUFFING, B. SMITH,
SOLOBAY, STURLA, TANGRETTI, E. Z. TAYLOR, THOMAS, TIGUE,
WALKO, WANSACZ, WASHINGTON, WOJNAROSKI AND YOUNGBLOOD,
MAY 12, 2003
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY,
MAY 12, 2003
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of July 28, 1988 (P.L.556, No.101), entitled
2 "An act providing for planning for the processing and
3 disposal of municipal waste; requiring counties to submit
4 plans for municipal waste management systems within their
5 boundaries; authorizing grants to counties and municipalities
6 for planning, resource recovery and recycling; imposing and
7 collecting fees; establishing certain rights for host
8 municipalities; requiring municipalities to implement
9 recycling programs; requiring Commonwealth agencies to
10 procure recycled materials; imposing duties; granting powers
11 to counties and municipalities; authorizing the Environmental
12 Quality Board to adopt regulations; authorizing the
13 Department of Environmental Resources to implement this act;
14 providing remedies; prescribing penalties; establishing a
15 fund; and making repeals," further providing for legislative
16 findings, declaration of policy and goals, for definitions
17 and for facilities operation and recycling relating to leaf
18 waste.
19 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
20 hereby enacts as follows:
21 Section 1. Section 102 of the act of July 28, 1988 (P.L.556,
22 No.101), known as the Municipal Waste Planning, Recycling and
1 Waste Reduction Act, is amended to read:
2 Section 102. Legislative findings; declaration of policy and
3 goals.
4 (a) Legislative findings.--The Legislature hereby
5 determines, declares and finds that:
6 (1) Improper municipal waste practices create public
7 health hazards, environmental pollution and economic loss,
8 and cause irreparable harm to the public health, safety and
9 welfare.
10 (2) Parts of this Commonwealth have inadequate and
11 rapidly diminishing processing and disposal capacity for
12 municipal waste.
13 (3) Virtually every county in this Commonwealth will
14 have to replace existing municipal waste processing and
15 disposal facilities over the next decade.
16 (4) Needed additional municipal waste processing and
17 disposal facilities have not been developed in a timely
18 manner because of diffused responsibility for municipal waste
19 planning, processing and disposal among numerous and
20 overlapping units of local government.
21 (5) It is necessary to give counties the primary
22 responsibility to plan for the processing and disposal of
23 municipal waste generated within their boundaries to insure
24 the timely development of needed processing and disposal
25 facilities.
26 (6) Proper and adequate processing and disposal of
27 municipal waste generated within a county requires the
28 generating county to give first choice to new processing and
29 disposal sites located within that county.
30 (7) It is appropriate to provide those living near
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1 municipal waste processing and disposal facilities with
2 additional guarantees of the proper operation of such
3 facilities and to provide incentives for municipalities to
4 host such facilities.
5 (8) Waste reduction and recycling are preferable to the
6 processing or disposal of municipal waste.
7 (9) Prompt payment and efficient collection of the
8 recycling fee created by this act are essential to the
9 administration of the recycling grants provided by this act.
10 (10) Authorizing counties to control the flow of
11 municipal waste is necessary, among other reasons, to
12 guarantee the long-term economic viability of resource
13 recovery facilities and municipal waste landfills, to ensure
14 that such facilities and landfills can be financed, to
15 moderate the cost of such facilities and landfills over the
16 long term, to protect existing capacity, and to assist in the
17 development of markets for recyclable materials by
18 guaranteeing a steady flow of such materials.
19 (11) Public agencies in the Commonwealth purchase
20 significant quantities of products or materials annually.
21 (12) By purchasing products or materials made from
22 recycled materials, public agencies in the Commonwealth can
23 help stimulate the market for such materials and thereby
24 foster recycling, and can also educate the public concerning
25 the utility and availability of such materials.
26 (13) Removing certain materials from the municipal
27 waste-stream will decrease the flow of solid waste to
28 municipal waste landfills, aid in the conservation and
29 recovery of valuable resources, conserve energy in the
30 manufacturing process, increase the supply of reusable
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1 materials for the Commonwealth's industries, and will also
2 reduce substantially the required capacity of proposed
3 resource recovery facilities and contribute to their overall
4 combustion efficiency, thereby resulting in significant cost
5 savings in the planning, construction and operation of these
6 facilities.
7 (14) It is in the public interest to promote the source
8 separation of marketable materials on a Statewide basis so
9 that reusable materials may be returned to the economic
10 mainstream in the form of raw materials or products rather
11 than be disposed of or processed at the Commonwealth's
12 overburdened municipal waste processing or disposal
13 facilities.
14 (15) The recycling of marketable materials by
15 municipalities in the Commonwealth and Commonwealth agencies,
16 and the development of public and private sector recycling
17 activities on an orderly and incremental basis, will further
18 demonstrate the Commonwealth's long-term commitment to an
19 effective and coherent solid waste management strategy.
20 (16) Operators of municipal waste landfills and resource
21 recovery facilities should give first priority to the
22 disposal or processing of municipal waste generated within
23 the host county because, among other reasons, the host county
24 is most directly affected by operations at the facility and
25 local processing or disposal of municipal waste saves energy
26 and transportation costs.
27 (17) The Commonwealth recognizes that both municipal
28 waste landfills and resource recovery facilities will be
29 needed as part of an integrated strategy to provide for the
30 processing and disposal of the Commonwealth's municipal
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1 waste.
2 (18) This act is enacted under the authority of
3 Amendment X of the Constitution of the United States of
4 America, under which the police power to protect the health,
5 safety and welfare of the citizens is reserved to the states.
6 (19) The Commonwealth is responsible for the protection
7 of the health, safety and welfare of its citizens concerning
8 solid waste management.
9 (20) All aspects of solid waste management, particularly
10 the disposition of solid waste, pose a critical threat to the
11 health, safety and welfare of the citizens of this
12 Commonwealth.
13 (21) Uncontrolled increases in the daily volumes of
14 solid waste received at municipal waste landfills have
15 significantly decreased their remaining lifetimes, disrupting
16 the municipal waste planning process and the ability of
17 municipalities relying on the landfills to continue using
18 them. These increases have threatened to significantly and
19 adversely affect public health and safety when municipalities
20 find they can no longer use the facilities. Uncontrolled
21 increases in daily waste volumes can also cause increased
22 noise, odors, truck traffic and other significant adverse
23 effects on the environment as well as on public health and
24 safety.
25 (22) By purchasing, processing and marketing obsolete
26 and other materials which would otherwise have been managed
27 as municipal or residual waste, the Commonwealth's existing
28 for-profit scrap processing and recycling industry has been
29 and remains essential to the efficient and effective
30 management of solid waste.
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1 (23) In carrying out their powers and duties under this
2 act, counties and other municipalities should:
3 (i) Ensure that the ability of the scrap processing
4 and recycling industry to continue purchasing, processing
5 and marketing recoverable materials is not thereby
6 impaired.
7 (ii) Utilize to the fullest extent practicable all
8 available facilities and expertise within the scrap
9 processing and recycling industry for processing and
10 marketing recyclable materials from municipal waste.
11 (24) Vehicle batteries are particularly difficult to
12 dispose of and potentially harmful if improperly disposed of,
13 and it is necessary to control disposal and promote recycling
14 of such batteries.
15 (25) Communities and homeowners have made substantial
16 efforts to compost yard wastes, creating significant
17 alternatives to disposal, so that preventing the disposal or
18 processing of yard waste will not represent an undue burden
19 on homeowners or communities and will preserve landfill and
20 processing capacity. In many communities, yard waste amounts
21 to over 15% of the waste stream.
22 (b) Purpose.--It is the purpose of this act to:
23 (1) Establish and maintain a cooperative State and local
24 program of planning and technical and financial assistance
25 for comprehensive municipal waste management.
26 (2) Encourage the development of waste reduction and
27 recycling as a means of managing municipal waste, conserving
28 resources and supplying energy through planning, grants and
29 other incentives.
30 (3) Protect the public health, safety and welfare from
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1 the short- and long-term dangers of transportation,
2 processing, treatment, storage and disposal of municipal
3 waste.
4 (4) Provide a flexible and effective means to implement
5 and enforce the provisions of this act.
6 (5) Utilize, wherever feasible, the capabilities of
7 private enterprise in accomplishing the desired objectives of
8 an effective, comprehensive solid waste management plan.
9 (6) Establish a recycling fee for municipal waste
10 landfills and resource recovery facilities to provide grants
11 for recycling, planning and related purposes.
12 (7) Establish a host municipality benefit fee for
13 municipal waste landfills and resource recovery facilities
14 that are permitted on or after the effective date of this act
15 and to provide benefits to host municipalities for the
16 presence of such facilities.
17 (8) Establish a site-specific postclosure fee for
18 currently operating and future permitted municipal waste
19 landfills for remedial measures and emergency actions that
20 are necessary to prevent or abate adverse effects upon the
21 environment after the closure of such landfills.
22 (9) Establish trust funds for municipally operated
23 landfills to ensure that there are sufficient funds available
24 for completing the final closure of such landfills under the
25 Solid Waste Management Act.
26 (10) Shift the primary responsibility for developing and
27 implementing municipal waste management plans from
28 municipalities to counties.
29 (11) Require all public agencies of the Commonwealth to
30 aid and promote the development of recycling through their
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1 procurement policies for the general welfare and economy of
2 the Commonwealth.
3 (12) Require certain municipalities to implement
4 recycling programs to return valuable materials to productive
5 use, to conserve energy and to protect capacity at municipal
6 waste processing or disposal facilities.
7 (13) Implement Article 1, section 27 of the Constitution
8 of Pennsylvania.
9 (14) Strengthen the department's existing authority to
10 regulate daily waste volumes that may be received at a
11 municipal waste landfill to protect against the unexpected or
12 unplanned loss of facilities and to ensure that the
13 facilities operate in a manner that protects the environment
14 as well as public health and safety.
15 (15) To protect landfill capacity and resource recovery
16 processing capacity and prevent the degradation of the
17 environment by prohibiting the disposal or processing of
18 certain materials which can and should be effectively
19 recycled and reused.
20 (c) Declaration of goals.--The General Assembly therefore
21 declares the following goals:
22 (1) At least 25% of all municipal waste and source-
23 separated recyclable materials generated in this Commonwealth
24 on and after January 1, 1997, should be recycled.
25 (1.1) At least 35% of all municipal waste and source
26 separated recyclable materials generated in this Commonwealth
27 shall be recycled by January 1, 2004.
28 (2) The weight or volume of municipal waste generated
29 per capita in this Commonwealth on January 1, 2002, should,
30 to the greatest extent practicable, be less than the weight
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1 or volume of municipal waste generated per capita on the
2 effective date of this act.
3 (2.1) The weight or volume of municipal waste generated
4 per capita in this Commonwealth on January 1, 2004, shall be
5 10% less than the weight or volume of municipal waste
6 generated per capita on January 1, 1992.
7 (2.2) The weight or volume of municipal waste disposed
8 per capita in this Commonwealth on January 1, 2004, shall be
9 10% less than the weight or volume of municipal waste
10 disposed in this Commonwealth per capita on January 1, 2002.
11 (3) Each person living or working in this Commonwealth
12 shall be taught the economic, environmental and energy value
13 of recycling and waste reduction and shall be encouraged
14 through a variety of means to participate in such activities.
15 (4) The Commonwealth should, to the greatest extent
16 practicable, procure and use products and materials with
17 recycled content and procure and use materials that are
18 recyclable.
19 Section 2. The definition of "leaf waste" in section 103 of
20 the act is amended to read:
21 Section 103. Definitions.
22 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
23 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
24 context clearly indicates otherwise:
25 * * *
26 "Leaf waste." Leaves, garden residues, shrubbery and tree
27 trimmings, and similar material, [but not] including grass
28 clippings.
29 * * *
30 Section 3. Section 1502 of the act is amended to read:
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1 Section 1502. Facilities operation and recycling.
2 (a) Leaf waste.--[Two years after the effective date of this
3 act, no] No municipal waste landfill may accept for disposal and
4 no resource recovery facility may accept for processing, other
5 than composting, [truckloads composed primarily] loads of leaf
6 waste.
7 (b) Drop-off centers.--
8 (1) [Two years after the effective date of this act, no]
9 No person may operate a municipal waste landfill, resource
10 recovery facility or transfer station unless the operator has
11 established at least one drop-off center for the collection
12 and sale of at least three recyclable materials. The three
13 materials shall be chosen from the following: clear glass,
14 colored glass, aluminum, steel and bimetallic cans, high
15 grade office paper, newsprint, corrugated paper and plastics.
16 The center must be located at the facility or in a place that
17 is easily accessible to persons generating municipal waste
18 that is processed or disposed at the facility. Each drop-off
19 center must contain bins or containers where recyclable
20 materials may be placed and temporarily stored. If the
21 operation of the drop-off center requires attendants, the
22 center shall be open at least eight hours per week, including
23 four hours during evenings or weekends.
24 (2) Each operator shall, at least 30 days prior to the
25 initiation of the drop-off center program and at least once
26 every six months thereafter, provide public notice of the
27 availability of the drop-off center. The operator shall place
28 an advertisement in a newspaper circulating in the
29 municipality or provide notice in another manner approved by
30 the department.
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1 (c) Removal of recyclable materials.--[Two years after the
2 effective date of this act, no] No person may operate a resource
3 recovery facility unless the operator has developed a program
4 for the removal to the greatest extent practicable of recyclable
5 materials, such as plastics, high grade office paper, aluminum,
6 clear glass and newspaper from the waste to be incinerated.
7 (d) Removal of hazardous materials.--[Two years after the
8 effective date of this act, no] No person may operate a resource
9 recovery facility unless the operator has developed a program
10 for the removal to the greatest extent practicable of hazardous
11 materials, such as plastics, corrosive materials, batteries,
12 pressurized cans and household hazardous materials from the
13 waste to be incinerated.
14 (e) Definition.--For purposes of this section, "load" means
15 a shipment of municipal waste for disposal at a municipal waste
16 landfill or for processing at a resource recovery facility,
17 regardless of the mode of transportation used.
18 Section 4. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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