In the final hours of lame duck, the Michigan legislature passed a historic bill package that updates the state’s waste law to incentivize recycling. The law goes into effect March 29, but it’s still unclear what its implementation will mean for the state.
News director Amy Robinson and reporter Teresa Homsi sat down to talk about the update to Part 115 - the state's statute on waste management.
Robinson: Teresa, can you give us a picture of what recycling currently looks like now and what the law hopes to change?
Homsi: Michigan ranks pretty low in recycling – less than 20% of the state’s waste is currently recycled. That's largely due to a lack infrastructure.
Michigan developed its current waste law in the 90s, and it required counties to develop a plan and make sure they have the capacity to dispose of their waste for the next 5 or so years. This inadvertently created a lot of landfills and made the cost of waste super low. It's why Michigan has such a low tipping fee and why Michigan imports so much waste from out-of-state.
But throwing things away that could be recycled and sold on the market is not very smart... It doesn't make much sense for our environment, and it doesn't make much financial sense either.
So the state recently passed legislation to “modernize” state policy to be more inclusive of other opportunities like recycling, composting, and different ways to be more resourceful with our materials.
Robinson: So the state wants to boost its recycling rate to 45% by 2030. That’s more than double of what it currently is. How do we reach that goal?
Homsi: Well, that’s the big question. In theory, it’s what this updated law aims to support.
So some of the key impacts of this new policy is that it's going to require counties to redo their waste management planning and basically take inventory of what facilities they have, what their waste picture looks like, and identify opportunities to fill in the gaps.
And so, the state already has a decent pool of funding for recycling infrastructure. But there's been no statements as to whether this policy will increase that funding.
It's really difficult to gauge what this will look like. When I was trying to read and learn about this update, I was personally confused, but then realized that I’m in good company.
In fact, EGLE – that's the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy – which is overseeing the implementation has sent out some communications essentially saying to county planners, “if you’re confused, just sit tight and wait.”
Robinson: Why is there so much uncertainty about implementation?
Homsi: The legislation was pushed for by recycling advocates, who said, "Michigan’s solid waste law is outdated, overdue for an update, and we need to prioritize recycling and composting, over landfills."
This is something they've been asking for a long time. This policy was developed seven years ago, and then it lived in the legislature for four years.
The Michigan Recycling Coalition told me that no one expected it to pass, so the state just wasn’t prepared. Until the election, that's when things changed. Republicans saw the writing on the wall and passed the bill package on their own terms.
So EGLE wasn't necessarily expecting this, and now they're tasked with rewriting an entirely new policy framework to deal with waste. And I think it's kind of an open secret that they're scrambling to figure out what that framework should be.
Besides that March 29 date when the law goes into effect, no timeline has been announced for what those changes are and when they'll actually be implemented. So we're just sitting and waiting like they told us to!
