The price of dumping trash in Pennsylvania is about to go up —
and so is funding for the state's Growing Greener program.
|
|
|
A dollar a month
Increased landfill tipping fees will help fund state's Growing
Greener Fund
July 10, 2002
|
By Dan Simon
A recent measure to increase landfill tipping fees to help fund the
state's Growing Greener initiative, has received broad support from
Pennsylvania residents, even though it might cost households an extra
$1 each month.
 An
April 2002 poll, commissioned by the Trust for Public Land in partnership
with a coalition of twenty Pennsylvania-based conservation groups,
showed that when informed of the potential cost of the measure, 63
percent of the respondents still approved of it. The survey described
a potential $5 increase in tipping fees, which would lead to an estimated
$12 a year in extra waste collection costs for the average family.
The recently passed initiative actually calls for a $4 increase in
the fees. It will also extend the Growing Greener program by eight
years.
The poll indicated the support for the measure reached across both
the state, and political parties. The increase was supported by 64
percent of registered Democrats and 62 percent of registered Republicans
participating in the poll. The sample was made up of 750 Pennsylvania
residents.
State budget shortfalls mean some of the revenue earned from the fee
increase will also go to general fund coffers. Growing Greener gets
the first $50 million, while all further revenue goes to the state,
at least for the next two fiscal years. After that, all the money
is supposed to go to the popular environmental initiative.
The Growing Greener program was created in 1999. It was set up to
help fund a number of programs ranging from preserving open space
and farmland, to reducing backlogs in state parks, cleaning up abandoned
mines and restoring watersheds and improving water and sewer systems.
Pennsylvania is one of the country's leading trash importers. A 1997
Congressional reported documented the state received more than 6.3
million tons of waste, more than double the next nearest importer,
Virginia, which received about 2.8 million tons. Only one other state,
Indiana, imported more than 2 million tons of refuse that year. Most
of the outside waste Pennsylvania accepted came from New York State
(44 percent) and New Jersey (38 percent).
 David
E. Hess, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary
noted that increase in tipping fees should be more palatable to state
residents because it also required residents from trash exporting
states to help pay for the Growing Greener funding.
"The financial impact of this new fee will be minor — 33
cents a week," Hess observed in a letter to Growing Greener partners.
"And, nearly half of the revenue will come from residents of
New York and New Jersey who dispose of their waste in Pennsylvania!
A good deal all the way around."
A 1996 survey by the DEP reported that average landfill tipping fees
for the state came to $44 per ton of waste, while waste to energy
landfills charged $74 per ton. Waste to energy landfills use a variety
of methods, including burning, to generate steam or electricity from
garbage.
|
|
|
|
