The state Department of Environmental Conservation is recommending that the ban on landfilling food scraps, set to go into effect in July, be pushed back to January amid the coronavirus pandemic. And the department is recommending that haulers not have to collect recyclables during the state of emergency so they can focus on moving trash. The state recommendations come after some haulers made similar calls.
Vermont lawmakers passed the Universal Recycling Law in 2012, banning the disposal of recyclables into landfills starting in 2015 and leaf and yard debris in 2016. Businesses that generate over one-third of a ton of food scraps a week are currently banned from throwing away food scraps. Starting this July, all Vermonters would be banned from trashing food scraps.
Peter Walke, DEC commissioner, told members of House Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife Tuesday that while many businesses, solid waste districts, residents and haulers are ready for that ban to go into effect this summer, some were in the “final throes” of preparation when the outbreak happened. Pushing the ban back six months should give businesses and others a cushion after the pandemic to be ready for that ban, said Walke, stressing that this is “not a change we advocate lightly at all.”
DEC is also recommending that lawmakers grant Agency of Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore the authority to temporarily lift the ban on recyclables being landfilled, and to allow haulers not to collect recyclables during the state of emergency. Walke said DEC recommended those changes so haulers, some of whom are facing staffing shortages, would not have to have separate trucks out collecting waste and due to concerns about how long the virus could last on different types of recyclables.