Client Alert: Recycling Fund Extended
Municipal recycling departments across the state received a boost last week when lawmakers extended the life of landfill fees that fund recycling programs. Governor Ed Rendell signed a bill that extends a mandatory $2-per-ton tipping fee on all waste taken in at municipal landfills through 2020. The revenue from that fee is used to provide grant funding for municipal recycling programs.
The tipping fee had been set to expire at the end of 2011 and the PA Department of Environmental Protection had begun reducing available recycling grant funding until the fee program was extended. The Governor’s office said the fees generate approximately $35 million per year. The bill authorizes an annual $1.25 million transfer from the recycling fund to a waste tire cleanup fund for four years to help pay for high-priority cleanups.
Many local municipalities rely heavily on that funding to pay costs associated with their recycling programs since recycling was mandated for most municipalities in 1988. DEP says the recycling industry is directly responsible for more than 52,000 jobs with an annual payroll of about $2 billion. More than 11 million Pennsylvania residents have access to recycling.