Section 4000.102 - Legislative findings; declaration of policy and goals(a)Legislative findings.--The Legislature hereby determines, declares and finds that: (1) Improper municipal waste practices create public health hazards, environmental pollution and economic loss, and cause irreparable harm to the public health, safety and welfare.(2) Parts of this Commonwealth have inadequate and rapidly diminishing processing and disposal capacity for municipal waste.(3) Virtually every county in this Commonwealth will have to replace existing municipal waste processing and disposal facilities over the next decade.(4) Needed additional municipal waste processing and disposal facilities have not been developed in a timely manner because of diffused responsibility for municipal waste planning, processing and disposal among numerous and overlapping units of local government.(5) It is necessary to give counties the primary responsibility to plan for the processing and disposal of municipal waste generated within their boundaries to insure the timely development of needed processing and disposal facilities.(6) Proper and adequate processing and disposal of municipal waste generated within a county requires the generating county to give first choice to new processing and disposal sites located within that county.(7) It is appropriate to provide those living near municipal waste processing and disposal facilities with additional guarantees of the proper operation of such facilities and to provide incentives for municipalities to host such facilities.(8) Waste reduction and recycling are preferable to the processing or disposal of municipal waste.(9) Prompt payment and efficient collection of the recycling fee created by this act are essential to the administration of the recycling grants provided by this act.(10) Authorizing counties to control the flow of municipal waste is necessary, among other reasons, to guarantee the long-term economic viability of resource recovery facilities and municipal waste landfills, to ensure that such facilities and landfills can be financed, to moderate the cost of such facilities and landfills over the long term, to protect existing capacity, and to assist in the development of markets for recyclable materials by guaranteeing a steady flow of such materials.(11) Public agencies in the Commonwealth purchase significant quantities of products or materials annually.(12) By purchasing products or materials made from recycled materials, public agencies in the Commonwealth can help stimulate the market for such materials and thereby foster recycling, and can also educate the public concerning the utility and availability of such materials.(13) Removing certain materials from the municipal waste-stream will decrease the flow of solid waste to municipal waste landfills, aid in the conservation and recovery of valuable resources, conserve energy in the manufacturing process, increase the supply of reusable materials for the Commonwealth's industries, and will also reduce substantially the required capacity of proposed resource recovery facilities and contribute to their overall combustion efficiency, thereby resulting in significant cost savings in the planning, construction and operation of these facilities.(14) It is in the public interest to promote the source separation of marketable materials on a Statewide basis so that reusable materials may be returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials or products rather than be disposed of or processed at the Commonwealth's overburdened municipal waste processing or disposal facilities.(15) The recycling of marketable materials by municipalities in the Commonwealth and Commonwealth agencies, and the development of public and private sector recycling activities on an orderly and incremental basis, will further demonstrate the Commonwealth's long-term commitment to an effective and coherent solid waste management strategy.(16) Operators of municipal waste landfills and resource recovery facilities should give first priority to the disposal or processing of municipal waste generated within the host county because, among other reasons, the host county is most directly affected by operations at the facility and local processing or disposal of municipal waste saves energy and transportation costs.(17) The Commonwealth recognizes that both municipal waste landfills and resource recovery facilities will be needed as part of an integrated strategy to provide for the processing and disposal of the Commonwealth's municipal waste.(18) This act is enacted under the authority of Amendment X of the Constitution of the United States of America, under which the police power to protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens is reserved to the states.(19) The Commonwealth is responsible for the protection of the health, safety and welfare of its citizens concerning solid waste management.(20) All aspects of solid waste management, particularly the disposition of solid waste, pose a critical threat to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of this Commonwealth.(21) Uncontrolled increases in the daily volumes of solid waste received at municipal waste landfills have significantly decreased their remaining lifetimes, disrupting the municipal waste planning process and the ability of municipalities relying on the landfills to continue using them. These increases have threatened to significantly and adversely affect public health and safety when municipalities find they can no longer use the facilities. Uncontrolled increases in daily waste volumes can also cause increased noise, odors, truck traffic and other significant adverse effects on the environment as well as on public health and safety.(22) By purchasing, processing and marketing obsolete and other materials which would otherwise have been managed as municipal or residual waste, the Commonwealth's existing for-profit scrap processing and recycling industry has been and remains essential to the efficient and effective management of solid waste.(23) In carrying out their powers and duties under this act, counties and other municipalities should: (i) Ensure that the ability of the scrap processing and recycling industry to continue purchasing, processing and marketing recoverable materials is not thereby impaired.(ii) Utilize to the fullest extent practicable all available facilities and expertise within the scrap processing and recycling industry for processing and marketing recyclable materials from municipal waste.(24) Vehicle batteries are particularly difficult to dispose of and potentially harmful if improperly disposed of, and it is necessary to control disposal and promote recycling of such batteries.(b)Purpose.--It is the purpose of this act to:(1) Establish and maintain a cooperative State and local program of planning and technical and financial assistance for comprehensive municipal waste management.(2) Encourage the development of waste reduction and recycling as a means of managing municipal waste, conserving resources and supplying energy through planning, grants and other incentives.(3) Protect the public health, safety and welfare from the short- and long-term dangers of transportation, processing, treatment, storage and disposal of municipal waste.(4) Provide a flexible and effective means to implement and enforce the provisions of this act.(5) Utilize, wherever feasible, the capabilities of private enterprise in accomplishing the desired objectives of an effective, comprehensive solid waste management plan.(6) Establish a recycling fee for municipal waste landfills and resource recovery facilities to provide grants for recycling, planning and related purposes.(7) Establish a host municipality benefit fee for municipal waste landfills and resource recovery facilities that are permitted on or after the effective date of this act and to provide benefits to host municipalities for the presence of such facilities.(8) Establish a site-specific postclosure fee for currently operating and future permitted municipal waste landfills for remedial measures and emergency actions that are necessary to prevent or abate adverse effects upon the environment after the closure of such landfills.(9) Establish trust funds for municipally operated landfills to ensure that there are sufficient funds available for completing the final closure of such landfills under the Solid Waste Management Act.(10) Shift the primary responsibility for developing and implementing municipal waste management plans from municipalities to counties.(11) Require all public agencies of the Commonwealth to aid and promote the development of recycling through their procurement policies for the general welfare and economy of the Commonwealth.(12) Require certain municipalities to implement recycling programs to return valuable materials to productive use, to conserve energy and to protect capacity at municipal waste processing or disposal facilities.(13) Implement Article 1, section 27 of the Constitution of Pennsylvania.(14) Strengthen the department's existing authority to regulate daily waste volumes that may be received at a municipal waste landfill to protect against the unexpected or unplanned loss of facilities and to ensure that the facilities operate in a manner that protects the environment as well as public health and safety.(c)Declaration of goals.--The General Assembly therefore declares the following goals:(1) At least 25% of all municipal waste and source-separated recyclable materials generated in this Commonwealth on and after January 1, 1997, should be recycled.(2) The weight or volume of municipal waste generated per capita in this Commonwealth on January 1, 1997, should, to the greatest extent practicable, be less than the weight or volume of municipal waste generated per capita on the effective date of this act.(3) Each person living or working in this Commonwealth shall be taught the economic, environmental and energy value of recycling and waste reduction and shall be encouraged through a variety of means to participate in such activities.(4) The Commonwealth should, to the greatest extent practicable, procure and use products and materials with recycled content and procure and use materials that are recyclable. 1988, July 28, P.L. 556, No. 101, § 102, effective in 60 days.