Proposed bills in state of Washington address recycling problems

Several groups and individuals in the state of Washington have released proposed legislation to help address some of the major challenges in recycling and solid waste management in the state. The Washington state Department of Ecology introduced some of those proposed bills—Senate Bill 5545 and House Bill 1543—which will look to address the recycling industry problems caused by China’s import restrictions.

“Ecology wanted to address the problem caused by the collapse of the recyclable commodities market in Washington,” says Laurie Davies, program manager for solid waste management at the Washington Department of Ecology. “Because of Washington’s proximity to ports on the West Coast, we have become dependent on markets in China and other Asian countries. When the government of China placed restrictive new rules on recycling imports, valuable commodities in Washington started piling up without sufficient alternative markets to handle the materials. Also, we wanted to address the ongoing problem of contamination in recycling and help improve the quality of the materials collected.

“Our dependence on these markets has grown over the past two decades. A result is that we have not grown domestic recycling infrastructure.”

Also on the recovered fiber side of things, Davies adds that the state of Washington lacks access to domestic paper mills. “The Southeast [U.S.] has more operating mills these days. Our number of [paper] mills has gone down dramatically. So, getting mills to want to take mixed paper and recovered fiber has become more difficult.”

Davies says she hopes SB 5545 and HB 1543 could help to alleviate some of the new problems in recycling for the state of Washington. SB 5545 specifically aims to create a Recycling Development Center in order to research, incentivize and develop new markets for recyclable commodities in Washington. 

“Having local markets will help Washington take care of their waste and create jobs locally,” she says. “Our hope is the updated plan requirements will help local government develop a recycling system that works for their jurisdiction and is economically viable and environmentally sustainable.” 

The Recycling Development Center would be made up of a small team of staff members within the Department of Ecology who would work alongside the state’s Department of Commerce. Davies says the center would provide research and development, marketing and policy analysis to develop markets for recycled commodities. The center would assist businesses that transform or manufacture materials into products or marketable materials. Additionally, the center would conduct research to help the industry understand the waste stream supply chain and strategies that would help retain and attract recycling business. 

Both SB 5545 and HB 1543 were drafted in part on some of the ideas of the Clean Washington Center from the 1990s. Currently, HB 1543 has 14 representatives signed on, and SB 5545 has eight senators signed on. 

“Many people are supportive,” she adds. “But I would say that we’ve had a mixed response to it. It’s been good response from recyclers and the environmental community. The local governments, it would be a new workload for them—they’re not necessarily opposed, but they would have to find resources to commit to this.”

She adds that many in the state of Washington are looking to solve some of its recycling problems as a number of other groups have introduced proposed legislation.

“All the different ideas have elements that will be very helpful in dealing with the issues,” she says. “I think the challenge is going to be to get a bill that passes that meets everyone’s goals and wants. I think all these ideas have both good elements and challenges.”