GreenYes Digest V98 #78

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Fri, 22 Jan 1999 17:31:59 -0500


GreenYes Digest Sun, 29 Mar 98 Volume 98 : Issue 78

Today's Topics:
Alternative funding sources for state recycling program
Prostitution for Peanuts

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Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 13:59:56 EST
From: Jango <Jango@aol.com>
Subject: Alternative funding sources for state recycling program

Hi John,

Not sure if this is the right tree to bark up John, but PA's method of
supporting recycling is a $2.00 surcharge at all disposal facilities
(landfill and incinerator). After 10 years of success, it just got
reauthorized for another 5 years but the common wisdom right now is that
it will not pass again. That is a fight for the next millenium though.

As a waste importer (well over 30% of the material landfilled in PA comes
from out of state), we see close to $30 million a year go into the state
Recycling Fund. There are a number of special grant programs this money
goes to for basic local government support and a performance component
that is pegged directly to tonnage (a complicated formula). Generally,
every year a big chunk of this money goes to demonstration projects,
special research, and economic development and businesses related to
market development (glass plants, the ill-fated Lock Haven facility,
MRFs, rubber manufacturing, etc.).

A portion goes to pay recycling coordinator's salaries (66 counties);
another portion to planning projects; and another very big portion to
education and equipment investment by local government (usually matching
grants of various proportions).

In my opinion (for what its worth), $2.00 is far too low...especially
with falling landfill costs (here they are about 50% of what they were a
decade ago). As you know, a lot of the research in environmental
economics demonstrates that market-based pricing is the most successful
way to create lasting, meaningful conservation programs. It has been
demonstrated with energy, water, air and now solid waste. In states with
heavy trash imports you may not be able to establish higher import taxes,
but you certainly can tax everyone equally. Something more in the
neighborhood of $15 a ton here in PA could pretty much pay for all sorts
of things, push harder for more thoughtful local management of recycling,
present a clear econmic reason to be more waste reduction oriented and
limit at least to a certain extent imported waste. Would you ever see a
$15 a ton fee passed? Perhaps not , but the debate might shift from
whether to have a fee to whether it should be low or high.

The politics is sticky of course (both for the fee itself and for the
control of funds) but the program is managed by a blue ribbon advisory
group here in PA so it has credibility and has been extremely effective.

Contact Carl Hursh at DEP for more details:

717-787-7382
HURSH.CARL@a1.pader.gov or
hursh.carl@exchange.pader.gov both work
I think.

#####################################################################
You wrote:

"Dear List Members -

Wisconsin is currently developing recommendations for sources of
funding for its state recycling program, including state cost-
sharing of local recycling program costs; funding for market
development efforts, including grants and loans; and funding for
state agency staff, including public education, technical assistance
and enforcement programs.

Our statewide recycling association is planning to provide comment
on preferred sources of funding. First, however, it is developing a
list of criteria to be used to evaluate alternative funding sources.

I would appreciate any comments that people might have on the
following criteria to be used to evaluate alternative sources of
state funding, or other criteria that might be used:

- should be relatively easy to administer
- should encourage waste reduction and recovery
- should incorporate the "polluter pays" principle
- should discourage out-of-state waste from coming to Wisconsin
- should be a reliable source of income

Thanks much!!

John Reindl
Legislative Committee
Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin

reindl@co.dane.wi.us
(608)267-1533 - fax
(608)267-8815 - phone"

David Biddle
7366 Rural Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19119
215-247-2974 (voice and fax)
jango@aol.com

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Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 17:52:00 EST
From: Jango <Jango@aol.com>
Subject: Prostitution for Peanuts

For those who missed the Pepsi challenge in Coca Cola High School, in all
fairness to the Coke execs they didn't even know Mike Cameron was wearing
a Pepsi uniform. He was expelled by the school principal.

As a one time expelee for wearing a dress over my Levis to protest "no
slacks for girls" policy (it was purely political I assure you!) and then
a year later for dressing in Alice Cooper make-up and garb (1973), I must
say that those were formative years for me!

If we can figure out how to contact Mike Cameron, soon we'll probably
have one more zero waste advocate in the tribe...maybe even be able to
convince him to run the campaign to get Coke to use P-C plastic...or
better yet, to get Pepsi, that bastion of Republican-made sugar water, to
one up their arch rival.

David Biddle
jango@aol.com

bill_sheehan@mindspring.com

>PAT FRANKLIN WROTE
>>PS Check out the front page of yesterday's Washington Post for a
>Coke/Pepsi
>>story that is worth a few laughs. Coke Day at a school in GA backfired and
>>ended up being free advertisement for Pepsi.
>
>
>BILL SEZ
>This is not really a story about the beverage industry or the environment --
>but it is a breath-taking story of corporate infiltration of our public
>education system in America. The free-speech issue is bad enough -- two
>non-conformist boys were suspended for a day for wearing Pepsi shirts
>during a
>school function involving competition in a Coke-sponsored contest. But what
>is equally troubling is that a high school in Augusta, Georgia, had all
>1,200-plus of its students lined up to spell "COKE" for visiting Coke
>executives in order to compete for a $500 local prize from Coke and possibly
>go on to compete for a $10,000 national prize.
>
>A story a couple of weeks ago in the Post on the general subject of
>commercializing and consumerizing our public schools included a picture of a
>high school hallway with the Coke logo on the wall. Coke may be one of the
>worst offenders, but is hardly alone.

David Biddle
7366 Rural Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19119
215-247-2974 (voice and fax)
jango@aol.com

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End of GreenYes Digest V98 #78
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