Click here or the image above to watch Ranking Member Capito’s questions for witnesses.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee held a hearing on legislative proposals to improve domestic recycling and composting programs. Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) questioned witnesses about how her draft legislation, The Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act, would address recycling accessibility in underserved areas. She also asked about how The Recycling and Composting Accountability Act would improve data collection on recycling and composting rates across the country.
HIGHLIGHTS:
UNIQUE RECYCLING CHALLENGES FOR RURAL AREAS: “Your family’s company operates and provides recycling services in rural areas within New England. Can you explain why certain regions within New England have the infrastructure, geography, or special characteristics that enable curbside recycling and why other areas in that region may not have that?...Investments in transfer stations and other mechanisms for increasing collection and transportation would be long-term solutions—you think those would be long-term solutions for rural communities then?”
DATA COLLECTION OF RECYCLING INFORMATION: “The most recent Recycling Economic Information report from the EPA was released in November 2020 but relied on eight-year-old data from 2012. I know in my own community, the ebbs and flows of recycling have been very apparent, a lot of it depending on the age of the facility that can recycle, the will of the municipal government, the available funds, the participation of the residents, all kinds of things. If this legislation were to become law and improve EPA’s recycling data, what insights do you think we would be able to gain from analyzing that data?”
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