The state of Pennsylvania reached a recycling rate of 35 percent, one year earlier than initially planned.
David Hess, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said, ”In October 1997, then Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker challenged Pennsylvanians to recycling 35 percent of our municipal waste by January 2003. “Through lots of hard work and by building partnerships with counties, local government, private recyclers and many others, we are proud to have achieved our goal a year early.”
In 2001 preliminary numbers show that more than 3.9 million tons of municipal waste were recycled in Pennsylvania bringing our recycling rate to 35.7 percent.
The announcement was made during the annual meeting of the Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania Conference this week.
Secretary Hess also presented diplomas to the first graduates of the recycling cooperative professional certification program funded by DEP. The program was started as a cooperative project between PROP and DEP three years ago. There are currently 322 recycling professionals from across the state enrolled in the program. Penn State University certifies the continuing education units and maintains the academic integrity of the program.