My name is Matthew Davis, the Advocate for Environment Maine, and I would like to testify in opposition to LD 526. Environment Maine advocates for clean air, clean water and open spaces on behalf of 3,000 members statewide. Eliminating the Recycling Assistance fee on car tires would eviscerate the Department of Environmental Protection’s ability to assist towns in disposing of solid waste, recyclables and sludge, monitor facilities to protect the surrounding environment and public health, and administer programs to reduce the generation of waste. This germane fee provides funding for core operations of a very important program essential to all residents in the state who flush the toilet, produce trash and buy tires.
The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the State Planning Office (SPO) provide essential services for reducing and disposing of solid waste. The DEP and the SPO create and administer programs that reduce solid waste in the state, encourage recycling, and take hazardous chemicals, such as mercury, out of the waste stream. For example, DEP licenses and monitors landfills, incinerators, transfer stations and composting facilities. Additionally, the Department provides technical assistance to these same solid waste facilities - over 700 across the state. The DEP staff works with sewage treatment plants to run safe programs to compost and dispose of sludge. Diverse education programs within DEP and SPO help the general public dispose of waste properly and help municipal employees operate solid waste facilities more effectively.
A fee on tires to fund part of the solid waste program makes sense. These products have created environmental problems in the past when disposed of improperly. The continued need for education and assistance when disposing of these products and others necessitates that we keep this funding source. Expanding the recycling assistance fee to other products would more broadly spread the funding source and might provide better services for reducing and dealing with waste.
All of these functions and others that DEP and SPO carry out as part of the solid waste program are essential to the state, its environment, and its citizens. Maine citizens get their money’s worth, perhaps unknowingly, when paying the fee on tires and batteries. Cutting this funding source would create a hazardous gap in critical programs that we all depend upon.
Again, Environment Maine opposes LD 526, because the solid waste program housed within DEP and SPO is essential to preserving our environment and public health, and the fee is germane to the program it funds.
