Establish a Stewardship Program for Packaging
| Category: | Environmental |
|---|---|
| Status: | Defeated |
| Sponsor: | Senator Jim Dill, Senate 5 - Penobscot County |
| Session: | 130 |
| Bill #: | LD 1471 |
Position:
Monitoring. This is the first of two proposals on this topic.
Summary:
This bill facilitates the establishment of one or more stewardship programs in the State for packaging material to be operated by a stewardship organization approved by the Department of Environmental Protection. Under such a program, the plan for which must be approved by the department and annually updated following a department review, participating responsible parties that sell, offer for sale or distribute for sale in or into the State certain products contained, protected, delivered, presented or distributed in or using packaging material are required to pay fees related to the packaging material associated with those products. Responsible party payments received by a stewardship organization are used to offset operational recycling costs incurred by entities meeting certain eligibility requirements, which may include municipalities, refuse disposal districts and regional waste management associations in the State. Responsible party payments are also used to fund grants to entities meeting certain eligibility requirements, which may include municipalities, refuse disposal districts, regional waste management associations and private entities in the State, to support improvements in recycling infrastructure in the State.