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Annual survey data provides latest
information on solid waste regulations, laws and funding that affect how states manage recycling and composting.
Part II
HEN BioCycle conducted the first State of Garbage In America survey in 1989, it was evident that if the solid waste "crisis" was to be overcome, individual states would be on the forefront of innovation - not the federal government. New Jersey and Oregon led the way into an era when recycling and composting would become significant with legislation and programs in solid waste management. Oregon passed its "Right to Recycle" legislation in 1983. That law ultimately established a framework giving every resident access to a recycling program. In New Jersey, where the solid waste crisis was close-at-hand, its 1987 law was the first in the nation to require citizens to recycle.
By the time our first survey was conducted in 1989, states had started to see the promise that recycling had to offer. Nine states, including Connecticut, Florida, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, had followed Oregon and New Jersey's lead, and had passed recycling legislation. Many more followed in the early 1990s.
Beyond edicts that proclaimed "thou shalt recycle," legislation also began to place prohibitions on how certain items could be disposed. The first ban aimed at potentially recoverable materials was passed by Minnesota in 1984, when it prohibited tires from going to landfills. New Jersey's 1987 recycling legislation was the first to include a provision that banned the disposal of yard trimmings. In this case, it was only leaves, but that legislation opened the flood gates for states to attack the other forms of yard trimmings -- recovering a significant portion of the municipal waste stream. Since then, disposal bans have become very popular - expanding into many other types of materials including tires, motor oil, batteries (first, auto batteries, then some types of dry cells as well), and white goods.
One approach that hasn't caught on is the "use ban," where products that are perceived as nonrecyclable or harmful in some fashion are prohibited from being sold. That isn't to say such bans weren't successful.
For instance, the "plastic can" that was tested marketed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi was loudly criticized as nonrecyclable and banned in Connecticut and Minnesota....