Prince George's Lawmakers Weigh Recycling Overhaul
Failure to meet proposed targets could bring about mandatory recycling in the county.
The Prince George's County Council is set make a final decision Tuesday on a plan that would raise recycling targets over the next eight years, the Washington Examiner reports.
The proposal would fix the county's waste diversion rate at 45 percent for 2015, 55 percent for 2018, and 60 percent for 2020. The rate measures how much of the county's total collected refuse is recycled.
Failure to meet those targets could bring about mandatory recycling for county residents and businesses, according to the paper.
Prince George's is well above the state-imposed minimum of 20 percent for a county of its size, the Examiner writes, but behind neighboring Montgomery County, whose mandatory program has helped lift it to a 47 percent rate.
John Floyd II
7:02 pm on Monday, November 19, 2012
We've had mandatory recycling in the City of Laurel for over two decades now and the system works beautifully.
NoGames52
10:37 pm on Monday, November 19, 2012
I see a lot of folks who have NEVER put out the recycling bin. Their trash cans however are overflowing with so much trash that they leave the tops off. I don't understand. When the program first started we had those small yellow buckets. Then we went to yellow bins. I asked for extra yellow bins. Then we got the wonderful large can with wheels. I have more recycling than trash. I could put the recycling bin out more frequently than the trash can. I don't need twice a week trash pick up. It's such a waste not to use the can the county gave us. How difficult can it be? Mandatory recycling may be an easier way to get citizen compliance. Wake up and get with it before we get that awful bag tax like everybody around us.
John Floyd II
9:57 am on Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Quite right! As for the bag tax, I agree there too as I have recycled my plastic grocery sacks for decades by filling them with used cat litter each day. Paper sacks are useless for that nasty cargo and being forced to buy sacks for the "daily do" would be the same as a tax, especially if an outright ban on plastic sacks were enacted as some have advocated.
Jacob Wadsworth
9:55 am on Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Good that several states are practicing to improve their recycling stats every year. Recycling has so many benefits. Aside from the most important being the safety of the environment, it can also help save energy and gain profits for these states. The more they recycle the more they realize that they are saving the planet and making it a better place to live. - http://www.ohiobaler.com/