The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other associations in a letter to the chair and ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee urging them to move H.R. 8059, the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act and H.R. 8183, the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act. “We believe both bills would generate the important data and public-private partnerships to improve the accessibility of recycling infrastructure and solid waste collection in rural and underserved communities,” said NWRA President & CEO Darrell Smith. “NWRA wholeheartedly supports a program where rural communities can access the global recycling markets.”
The U.S. Senate passed NWRA-supported companion legislation earlier this year. In June, Reps. David McKinley (R-WV) and Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) introduced the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act (H.R. 8183) in the House, while the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act (H.R. 8059) was introduced by Reps. Joe Neguse (D-CO), Tim Burchett (R-TN) and Bill Foster (D-IL).
NWRA has been working with congressional leaders and their staffs on these pieces of legislation for over a year and provided information, data, and feedback on them prior to their introduction as well as testimony from NWRA’s then-Chairman Ben Harvey before the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee. The association also submitted a letter to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change in June supporting House passage of these bills.