Dive summary:
- Missouri Senator, Kurt Schaefer, has pre-filled a bill that would eliminate the 20 solid waste management districts in Missouri.
- Each management districts run the finances for multiple counties, getting grants for recycling or other diversion programs, and, as Sen. Schaefer points out spends huge amounts of money on unneeded bureaucracy.
- In Schaefer’s plan, the Department of Natural Resources would direct all of the money collected for landfill fees to a central fund that would distribute grants.
From the articles:
“Twenty, 30 years ago, you certainly needed to provide some incentives to get people to recycle and promote some programs and that kept things from going to landfills," he says, "but that is such a mature market now, and landfill space is so expensive.”
Deanna Trass is the Executive Director of the Mid Missouri Solid Waste Management District, which covers 8 counties. She says it’s unrealistic for the DNR to pick up the organizational duties of the 20 management districts in the state. ...
