2009 has already been a much more active legislative year for the solid waste industry than the previous two years. With any luck, it will be more productive as well.

As of mid-April, more than 1,500 bills related to solid waste and recycling had been introduced in state legislatures. Seventy of those bills have already been signed into law.

Most are minor. Arkansas, for instance, exempted litter collected during Keep Arkansas Beautiful cleanup days from its trash tax. However, some are significant. For example, Connecticut added water bottles to its container deposit law and “seized the escheat” by directing that unclaimed deposits be sent to the state treasury.

Recycling remains the most popular waste-related topic for state legislatures. At the federal level, climate change legislation, with its potential impact on recycling programs and landfill gas recovery, will dominate congressional interest. However, city and county governments will be the busiest areas for recyclers and solid waste managers as local governments struggle with the holes left in their budgets by the recession.

The following is a brief look at some of the solid waste and recycling issues our elected officials will be debating this year.

Congress

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the federal solid waste and recycling law, makes it clear that solid waste and recycling are local issues. As a result, Congress tends to pass little in the way of legislation affecting either subject. Last year, however, Congress passed the Recycling Incentives Save Energy (RISE) bill as part of the budget package. RISE gives a tax break to purchasers of recycling processing equipment. Promoted by a coalition of recycling groups, RISE was the first recycling incentive passed by Congress in years.

This year, Congress has already used the stimulus package to help recycling and solid waste programs. The new law extends the provisions of RISE; sets up energy efficiency grant money that is available to local recycling programs; establishes the Diesel Engine Recovery Act, which includes a grant program to help local governments switch to alternative fuel trucks; and creates tax relief that could give recycling companies help in riding out the consequences of last fall's collapse of recycling markets.

Electronic products recovery also will be debated by Congress. A House committee has already approved a bill to establish a grant program for electronic device recycling programs. Legislation limiting the ability to export discarded electronics to overseas recyclers has also been introduced and is likely to move forward.

However, unless product manufacturers, retailers and the recycling community can agree on a way to pay for electronics recycling, Congress is unlikely to establish a funding mechanism. As of this writing, the funding logjam remains unbroken.

The previous Congress closed a loophole in federal law that prevented states and local governments from having regulatory control over waste transfer stations located at railyards. However, the Surface Transportation Board, which has regulatory authority over railroads, must still enact its own regulations for these facilities. The same public-private coalition that was effective in getting last year's legislation passed will be working to ensure that the new regulations realize the law's potential.

Finally, Congress will spend a great deal of time debating climate change. Recyclers will try to benefit from such legislation. The problem is that collecting and processing recyclables slightly increase greenhouse gas emissions. The key for recyclers is to find ways to reward industries that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions when recyclables are used as a raw material.

Landfill managers will be looking for opportunities to promote landfill gas recovery because those disposal facilities are the second biggest source of anthropogenic methane emissions. One key issue will be Congress' responsiveness in encouraging the use of landfill gas as a renewable energy source.