Comprehensive Recycling Act of 1993

Summary: Comprehensive Recycling Act of 1993 - Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to provide technical assistance and guidance to States on recycling methods and opportunities. 
Directs States to develop and implement comprehensive multimaterial recycling programs.  Requires such programs to be designed to provide at least 20 percent of a State's population with an opportunity to participate in such programs within two years of this Act's enactment.  Provides that such programs must be available to an additional 20 percent of a State's population every two years, until the entire population is provided with such opportunity. Requires States to include recycling programs in the solid waste plan required by the Solid Waste Disposal Act.  Makes States with approved plans eligible for Federal grants for recycling programs. 
Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require the Administrator to make grants to States for implementing recycling programs.

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    The Act may be cited as the ``Comprehensive Recycling Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds and declares the following:
            (1) The United States failure to manage its solid waste has 
        resulted in critical regional and national problems.
            (2) Successful solid waste management requires creative use 
        of the entire hierarchy of solid waste management, including 
        waste reduction, recycling, waste-to-energy operations, and 
        landfilling.
            (3) Recycling can play a significant role in reducing 
        municipal waste.
            (4) Recycling can prevent depletion of valuable landfill 
        space, save energy and natural resources, and provide useful 
        products from discarded materials.
            (5) The failure to recycle and reuse materials is a 
        significant and unnecessary waste of important national energy 
        and material resources.
            (6) Comprehensive, multimaterial recycling programs 
        represent the most cost-effective and efficient method of 
        meeting recycling goals.
            (7) Limited or selective approaches to recycling may work 
        to the detriment of a comprehensive national recycling effort 
        by imposing additional costs and creating inefficiencies in the 
        overall program.
            (8) The responsibility to recycle should be shared by all 
        consumers of recyclable goods, including individual households, 
        municipalities, and commercial and institutional 
        establishments.
            (9) All Americans should be provided with an opportunity to 
        recycle in their community, including at home and at their 
        place of employment.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are as follows:
            (1) To require each State to develop and implement a 
        comprehensive, multimaterial recycling plan to provide its 
        citizens with the opportunity to recycle.
            (2) To require each State, under its plan, to eventually 
        recycle at least 25 percent of its municipal waste stream.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL POLICY.

    The Congress hereby establishes as a national goal the recycling of 
municipal waste to the maximum extent practicable, consistent with 
market demand for recycled materials.

SEC. 4. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.

    For purposes of assisting States in carrying out this Act, the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall provide 
technical assistance and guidance to the States on recycling methods 
and opportunities, including the development of the elements for an 
effective comprehensive State recycling program. Such a program shall 
include, at a minimum, the following elements:
            (1) Proven approaches to separation and collection of 
        municipal waste according to material, including metals, glass, 
        paper, plastics, yard waste, used oil, used tires, and used 
        batteries.
            (2) Guidance on local or regional drop-off centers for 
        municipal waste separated at home or business.
            (3) Planning and information exchange services on 
        successful strategies for municipal, commercial, and industrial 
        recycling programs.
            (4) Planning and information exchange services on the 
        creation of State and regional information clearinghouses on 
        markets for secondary materials and recycled goods.

SEC. 5. RECYCLING PROGRAMS.

    (a) Requirement for State Programs.--
            (1) Within 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, 
        each State shall develop and implement a comprehensive 
        multimaterial recycling program to provide its residents with 
        an opportunity to participate and engage in recycling.
            (2) Each State program shall be designed to provide at 
        least 20 percent of the State's population with an opportunity 
        to participate in the program within 2 years after the date of 
        enactment of this Act. Every 2 years thereafter, such program 
        must be available to an additional 20 percent of the State's 
        population, until such time that 100 percent of the population 
        is provided an opportunity to participate in the recycling 
        program.
    (b) Program Components.--Each State recycling program under this 
section shall include, at a minimum, each of the following elements:
            (1) Material separation and recycling.--Provisions, as 
        determined by the States, for the separation of recyclable 
        materials from other municipal waste generated at residential, 
        commercial, industrial, and institutional establishments. The 
        types of recyclable materials covered shall be designated by 
        the State and may include metal cans, glass bottles and jars, 
        paper, and containers made of plastic such as polyethylene 
        terephthalate (PET) and high density polyethylene (HDPE).
            (2) Yard waste.--Persons at residential, commercial, and 
        institutional establishments shall separate yard waste from 
        other municipal waste generated at those establishments, unless 
        those persons have provided for the composting of their yard 
        waste.
            (3) Notice.--Each State or its political subdivisions shall 
        establish a comprehensive and sustained public information and 
        education program concerning recycling program features and 
        requirements.
            (4) Preference.--In implementing its recycling program, a 
        State or its political subdivisions shall accord consideration 
        for the collection, processing, and marketing of recyclable 
        materials to persons engaged in the business of recycling.
    (c) Alternative Programs.--A State or its municipalities, or both, 
shall be deemed to comply with this section if it has in place an 
existing program for the collection of separated materials which may 
provide for curbside collection, drop-off centers, regional collection 
centers or similar methods of collection which, in its discretion, best 
meets the needs of the State and its political subdivisions and which 
comply with the intent and requirements of this Act.

SEC. 6. PROGRAM APPROVAL.

    Within 2 years after the date of enactment of this Act, a State 
shall include its comprehensive recycling program in the State solid 
waste management plan required by subtitle D of the Solid Waste 
Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6941 et seq.). Upon approval of the recycling 
program component of the plan by the Administrator of the Environmental 
Protection Agency, the State shall be eligible to apply for Federal 
grants under section 4011 of the Solid Waste Disposal Act, as added by 
section 7, to implement the recycling program.

SEC. 7. STATE GRANTS FOR RECYCLING.

    (a) Grants.--Subtitle D of the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 
6941 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
section:

``SEC. 4011. RECYCLING GRANTS.

    Upon application of a State and from funds appropriated pursuant to 
sections 4008 and 4009, the Administrator shall make grants, subject to 
such terms and conditions as the Administrator considers appropriate, 
under this section to such State for the purpose of assisting the State 
in implementing the comprehensive recycling program developed by the 
State and approved by the Administrator under the Comprehensive 
Recycling Act of 1993, including activities to promote the use of 
recycling techniques by businesses, local governments, and regional 
waste management authorities. In reviewing grant applications, the 
Administrator shall give specific consideration to the needs of rural 
areas regarding the collection, separation, and transportation of such 
materials and the availability and maturity of the region's recyclers 
and markets.''.
    (b) Technical Amendment.--The table of contents for such Act 
(contained in section 1001) is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 4010 the following new item:

``4011. Recycling grants.''.

SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act:
            (1) The term ``commercial, non-hazardous solid waste'' 
        means waste which originates in private, commercial 
        establishments or enterprises.
            (2) The term ``industrial waste'' means all non-hazardous 
        solid wastes other than residential, commercial, and 
        institutional wastes.
            (3) The term ``institutional waste'' means non-hazardous 
        solid waste originating from services provided by governmental 
        entities to the public.
            (4) The term ``metal cans'' means aluminum cans, bimetal 
        cans, and ``tin'' food cans.
            (5) The term ``municipal waste'' means residential, 
        commercial, institutional, and industrial waste. The term does 
        not include source-separated materials.
            (6) The term ``recycling'' means (A) the collection, 
        processing, and marketing for reuse of metals, glass, paper, 
        plastics, used oil, yard waste, and other materials which could 
        otherwise be disposed of or processed as municipal waste, or 
        (B) the mechanized separation and treatment of municipal waste 
        (other than through combustion) and creation and recovery of 
        reusable materials other than a fuel. Such term includes 
        composting.
            (7) The term ``residential waste'' means solid waste 
        originating from private households.
            (8) The term ``solid waste'' has the meaning given such 
        term by section 1004(27) of the Solid Waste Disposal Act.
            (9) The term ``waste reduction'' means an activity or 
        action, or a combination of activities or actions, that result 
        in less generation of waste from production, use, and disposal 
        of a product than would have been generated in the absence of 
        such activities or actions.
            (10) The term ``yard waste'' means leaves, grass clippings, 
        garden residues, shrubbery, tree trimmings, and similar 
        material, but does not include land clearing debris such as 
        tree trunks and stumps.