Rhode Island is lagging behind in recycling - could a 5 cent fee help? - The Providence Journal

Rhode Island is lagging behind in recycling - could a 5 cent fee help?

Tons of recyclables end up in the landfill. What experts say is needed to fix the problem.
Alex Kuffner

PROVIDENCE – About a third of all the bottles, cans and other beverage containers that Rhode Islanders threw away last year never made it into the recycling stream.

All told, more than 13,000 tons ended up in the Central Landfill in Johnston instead of going to the nearby Materials Recycling Facility, where at least some of that trash would have been cleaned up and had a chance at being sold for reuse.

“Although we do have significant tonnages of material that are getting recycled, there are still way more quantitites that are not getting recycled,” Jared Rhodes, director of policy and programs at Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, said Monday at a meeting of a special legislative commission on plastic bottle waste. “This is due to people throwing them in their trash instead of in the recycle bin.”

Will Rhode Island ever pass a bottle bill?

Even as Resource Recovery has rolled out public education campaigns and handed out grants to help cities and towns up their recycling rates, the statewide average for material recycled at the MRF hasn't budged much over the years.

It’s part of the reason why some critics say the state’s system to handle solid waste needs to be reformed. They’ve won victories with bans on single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam food containers and other measures to keep items out of the waste stream altogether, but they’re still fighting for passage of a “bottle bill” that’s aimed specifically at increasing the amount of beverage containers that get recycled.

The bill would create a program similar to what’s already in place in 10 other states and dozens of countries. Consumers would pay a small fee on beverage containers at the point of sale. When people return their empty bottles and cans, they’d be refunded the fee. Bottle manufacturers would be responsible for collecting the used containers and recycling them.

Versions of the legislation have come and gone without moving forward in the General Assembly, and though the bill that came before lawmakers this past session met a similar fate as its predecessors, it had broader support than past efforts.

In its wake, the General Assembly created the special commission that’s looking specifically at the issues surrounding a bottle bill but also at wider questions about recycling and waste disposal in Rhode Island and beyond.

How to handle plastic waste is a problem for everyone

Rhode Island isn’t alone in facing problems with plastic garbage. While many types of plastics are recyclable in theory, generally only a handful are in actuality. It means that only 9% of plastics worldwide are processed into new materials, said Terry Gray, director of the state Department of Environmental Management. The vast majority of plastic waste is landfilled.

Some of it also ends up alongside streets and in parks and waterways. About three-quarters of beach litter is plastic, Gray said. A recent University of Rhode Island study estimated that the top two inches of sediment at the bottom of Narragansett Bay contains 1,000 tons of microplastics.

Jed Thorp, Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action and a member of the legislative commission, said the numbers presented by Rhodes at Monday’s meeting don’t include littered beverage containers, including nips, the tiny alcohol bottles that have been the focus of so much ire from environmental groups.

“It’s not capturing what doesn’t get into the waste stream,” said Thorp, who couldn’t make it to Monday’s meeting but watched the livestream.

Legislators will try again on a bottle bill for Rhode Island

Despite the challenges facing Rhode Island’s recycling system, it still compares favorably to those elsewhere around the country. By one measure that accounts for all containers and packing, Rhode Island ranked 12th in the nation for recycling compared to other states, according to a 2021 analysis by the consulting firm Eunomia. By another measure that excluded cardboard, the firm ranked Rhode Island 16th.

In both measures, one thing was clear.

“Even though Rhode Island is doing a great job compared to a lot of other states in recycling overall, almost every single state that has a redemption program is doing better than Rhode Island,” said Sen. Bridget Valverde, a North Kingstown Democrat and member of the commission.

More: There is a 'shocking' amount of microplastics in Narragansett Bay. Here's what that means.

In fact, states with bottle bills occupied the top five places on both rankings. They include other states in New England. Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut were among the highest-ranking states on one or both of the lists.

The commission still has a long way to go. Monday’s was only its second meeting. But Sen. Mark McKenney, the Warwick Democrat who co-chairs the commission, said the hope was to wrap up its work early in the next legislative session.

No matter what the commission recommends, another iteration of the bottle bill will be introduced, said Thorp.

“It’s generating a good conversation,” he said of the commission’s work. “It will inform whatever form the bottle bill takes.”