Florida looks to roll back 100+ percent recycling rates

Florida looks to roll back 100+ percent recycling rates

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

A new permitting bill looks to keep Florida counties from claiming recycling rates above 100 percent, as they had been able to under a 2010 law.

Thanks to House Bill 7243 [1], passed in Sept. 2010, Florida counties could use tonnages of solid waste burned for electricity to count towards meeting the Sunshine State's 75-percent recycling rate goal by 2020. According to a 2010 report from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, using the garbage-burning credit would boost eight counties to above that 75-percent goal, leaving some with recycling rates above 100 percent [2].

As amended this week, HB 503 [3] would drop the amount of trash burned for electricity that could be counted as recycling. Under the new rules, the most that could be credited would be 71 percent [4].

"We're trying to avoid burning municipal solid waste," Sierra Club lobbyist David Cullen told the Florida politics website The Current. "And we are trying to promote the development of businesses that use recycled materials."

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here [7].