The bill clearly is a mandate, from a practical standpoint. And we think the Court might well reconsider, in a fully argued case. A major cost to communities is enforcing the ban. Granted the bill is written so that waste workers wouldn't have to open every trash bag. But it does require the facility to refuse to accept waste from repeated violators.
Proponents say there's no intent that the ban be strictly enforced.
This bill was requested by the Department of Environmental Services. They're desperate to reduce the solid waste stream. NHMA argued that the bill was too broad and imprecise, and would have interfered with state enforcement discretion, diverting limited state enforcement resources. We sincerely thank the Senate for hearing our concerns with this bill. We also thank all the local officials who contacted their Senators.