Industry Opposes California Plan to Raise Landfill Fees

Date: September 17, 2010

Source: News Room

California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery known as CalRecycle is planning to impose a new annual regulatory fee on hundreds of landfills arguing that it is necessary to sustain agency programs in the wake of the recession's impact on their funding in recent years. Industry officials will likely oppose the plan especially given the timing of the fee in a tough economic environment. CalRecycle, which announced the "landfill closure, post-closure maintenance and financial assurance fee" at a Sept. 13 public meeting, says it is comparable to regulatory fees already in place for state water board and toxics department programs. It also coincides with the department's recently adopted "financial assurance" rules aimed at protecting the state from paying for landfill cleanups where operators default or go bankrupt. Some environmentalists, including Nick Lapis of the recycling advocacy and environmental group Californians Against Waste, see the fee helping the state reach its 75% waste diversion goal by imposing a "polluter-pays approach."

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