I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2286
To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require States to provide an
opportunity for their citizens to participate in comprehensive recycling
programs, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 26, 1993
Mr. TAUZIN (for himself, Mr. HAYES, Mr. RAVENEL, Mr. BISHOP, Mr.
PENNY, Mr. WHEAT, Mr. CALLAHAN, Mr. LEWIS of Florida, Mr. COX,
Mr. TALENT, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. WILSON, Ms. BYRNE, Mr. SARPALIUS,
Mr. PORTER, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. CAMP, Mr. HASTERT, Mr. LEWIS of
California, Mr. VOLKMER, Mr. EWING, Mrs. MEYERS of Kansas, Mr.
HOBSON, and Mr. SOLOMON) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Solid Waste Disposal Act to require States
to provide an opportunity for their citizens to participate
in comprehensive recycling programs, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
The Act may be cited as the ‘‘Comprehensive Recy-
cling 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 mate-
rials.
(5) The failure to recycle and reuse materials is
a significant and unnecessary waste of important na-
tional energy and material resources.
(6) Comprehensive, multimaterial recycling pro-
grams 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 na-
tional 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, includ-
ing individual households, municipalities, and com-
mercial 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 imple-
ment 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 munici-
pal 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, includ-
ing the development of the elements for an effective com-
prehensive State recycling program. Such a program shall
include, at a minimum, the following elements:
(1) Proven approaches to separation and collec-
tion of municipal waste according to material, in-
cluding 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 partici-
pate 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 sep-
aration of recyclable materials from other municipal
waste generated at residential, commercial, indus-
trial, 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 den-
sity polyethylene (HDPE).
(2) YARD WASTE.—Persons at residential, com-
mercial, and institutional establishments shall sepa-
rate yard waste from other municipal waste gen-
gram 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 Envi-
ronmental 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 imple-
ment 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 appro-
priated pursuant to sections 4008 and 4009, the Adminis-
trator shall make grants, subject to such terms and condi-
tions as the Administrator considers appropriate, under
this section to such State for the purpose of assisting the
State in implementing the comprehensive recycling pro-
gram developed by the State and approved by the Admin-
istrator under the Comprehensive Recycling Act of 1993,
including activities to promote the use of recycling tech-
niques by businesses, local governments, and regional
waste management authorities. In reviewing grant applica-
tions, the Administrator shall give specific consideration
to the needs of rural areas regarding the collection, sepa-
ration, 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 follow-
ing 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, com-
mercial, and institutional wastes.
(3) The term ‘‘institutional waste’’ means non-
hazardous solid waste originating from services pro-
vided 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 residen-
tial, commercial, institutional, and industrial waste.
The term does not include source-separated mate-
rials.
(6) The term ‘‘recycling’’ means (A) the collec-
tion, 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 ac-
tivity or action, or a combination of activities or ac-
tions, 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 in-
clude land clearing debris such as tree trunks and
stumps.