Act 148
An act relating to establishing universal recycling of solid waste (H.485)

Act 148 Implementation Report

Final Study Design:
The study elements presented in this Final Study Design are a result of a legislative mandate contained in Act 148. The objective of the studies are to provide a thorough analysis of the existing solid waste system in Vermont. The mandate also requires an evaluation of the expenditures needed to increase the State's solid waste system capacity to manage the adjustments in the waste stream to account for the anticipated increases in diverted materials as they are phased-in over the next eight years.

More specifically, the Final Study Design seeks to obtain and evaluate data relating to:

1. Conduct a comprehensive and thorough cost analysis of the:
1. Existing and foreseeable expansion of the solid waste system to manage anticipated adjustments to the waste stream based on Act 148,
2. Expense and benefits related to diverting specific material types as seen by municipalities, manufacturers, and generators; and
3. Investment made, and return seen on the investment of diverting specific material types from the waste stream,
2. Infrastructure capacity needed to implement recently adopted solid waste legislation (Act 148).
3. Administration, operation, and cost of services for each type of municipal solid waste management entity. This shall include municipalities (including solid waste districts, solid waste alliances, and individual municipalities) with an approved Solid Waste Implementation Plan (SWIP), as well as municipalities that do not have their own, or are not part of a group of municipalities with a State approved SWIP.
4. Bottle Bill implementation costs and revenue and the existing single stream recycling program costs and revenue; and Bottle Bill expansion cost and revenue comparison between the two diversion systems.

Interim Status Report
The project status update includes brief discussions on:

1. Redemption center consumer surveys;
2. Materials recovery facility (MRF) residual data;
3. The Rumpke glass processing facility;
4. Analysis of redemption centers, retailers, distributors and contract collectors; and
5. Other tasks

DRAFT Bottle Bill and Single Stream Recycling Study
This draft addresses item D as it is discussed in the Act 148 Final Study Design. It is a data driven analysis of the bottle bill and single stream recycling in Vermont. The draft report focuses on material recovery rates for the existing bottle bill and materials recycling system and for three universal, parallel access single stream recycling systems. The first, a stand-alone system without a bottle bill; the second incorporates the existing bottle bill; and, the third incorporates an expanded bottle bill. A summary of the analysis of recovery rates, costs and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions savings are provided at the end of this draft report.