Evaluation of Recycling Legislation Pending before the 119th Session of the Ohio General Assembly

This Article summarizes and analyzes the recycling bills before the 119th Session of the Ohio General Assembly. Part I of this Article reviews the requirements and recommendations of H.B. 592 and the State Plan. Part II provides an overview of the recycling bills and identifies the three basic approaches to recycling represented by these bills. Parts III, IV, V, and VI summarize and evaluate the recycling bills. This Article uses three criteria to evaluate the recycling bills: (1) consistency with H.B. 592 and the State Plan, (2) effectiveness in preventing the disposal of solid waste in landfills, and (3) efficiency in promoting recycling. There are two premises to these criteria. First, it is poor public policy for a legislative body to frequently overhaul a substantive area of the law. Second, given the limited nature of public and private funds, the statutory structure should promote the greatest amount of recycling while resulting in the expenditure of the least amount of public and private funds. On the basis of these criteria, this Article concludes that S.B. 977 and S.B. 152, which would require most communities to establish curbside recycling programs and would provide for volume-based fees on non-recycled solid waste, are the most desirable of the eight recycling bills pending before the Ohio General Assembly