NWRA Comments on Proposed SWEEP Municipal Standards

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) announced it has provided comments on the Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Protocol (SWEEP). The standards would evaluate various aspects of municipal solid waste services.

In its comments, NWRA pointed out inconsistencies between what was proposed and what was discussed at stakeholder meetings attended by NWRA and other industry trade groups. Most notably, according to NWRA, is that while the SWEEP standard makes landfill diversion a goal, it does not mention diversion from incineration; therefore, NWRA asks if the standard prefers incineration.

NWRA also mentioned in its comments that it is the Secretariat for American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards and urged “that the SWEEP Municipal Standard engage fully in the ANSI process.”

Though SWEEP did not specify whether it would accept comments from industry trade associations, NWRA and other associations filed comments ahead of the March 3 deadline.

“Due to the uncertainty, as to whether NWRA’s comments would be considered, the association has not developed a comprehensive set of comments,” said NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith in a statement.