Missouri bill sparks debate over trash, recycling management changes

A proposed bill in Missouri would eliminate 20 local solid waste management districts to fund the cleanup of 29 abandoned landfills across Missouri, sparking debate over its potential impact on waste management in the Kansas City region.Lee’s Summit Solid Waste Superintendent Chris Bussen, who also leads the state’s Solid Waste Advisory Board, testified before the Missouri House Committee on Government Efficiency on Thursday, expressing skepticism about the bill’s approach to manage grants for solid waste diversion programs from Jefferson City instead of local communities.”From an ivory tower, maybe it looks good on paper to say, ‘Oh, we’ll just do administration here and look at all the savings,’” Bussen said. “If you had the expertise, maybe you could take a shot at it, but I just, I just can’t see that happening.”Bussen highlighted Kansas City’s Solid Waste Management programs that help pay for recycling, household hazardous waste cleanup and staff to connect with local agencies who can help diversion efforts.Missouri House Bill 2761 aims to allocate $5 million from the state’s solid waste fund to pay for remediation and management of abandoned landfills. It would also increase the tipping fee at landfills and transfer stations to help pay for abandoned landfill management.Kurt Schaefer, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, testified on Thursday that the solid waste management districts are less effective than they should be at diverting waste, noting that DNR can and does distribute grants across the state.He said DNR already manages grants for other federal programs that flow directly to local communities across Missouri.”Do you want to continue to allow so much money to go to overhead when it really, as a matter of public policy, should go to something different, to essentially a middle man?” Schaefer said.The bill’s sponsor, Brad Banderman, R-Franklin County, testified about an abandoned landfill in his county that is currently leaking. Banderman said money spent on solid waste districts could go toward the problem of other landfills across Missouri.”This will maintain the important core functions of solid waste management in our state and empower DNR to address the environmental disaster that is the abandoned landfills of Missouri,” he said.Dianna Bryant, who leads Kansas City’s Solid Waste Management District through the Mid-America Regional Council, voiced concerns about the bill’s impact on local waste management efforts.”We’re going to take services away from people throughout the state to solve a problem that affects a few people,” Bryant said.She emphasized the importance of local communities in waste diversion, rather than centralized efforts from Jefferson City, and suggested that abandoned landfills are a problem that could be addressed with a different bill.”People want local government to meet local needs,” she said. “And the trust in state or federal government now is not where they trust them to provide and have understanding for what these local needs are.”