Washington’s recycling system could be close to a major overhaul.
A bill dubbed the “Recycling Reform Act” has been working its way through the Legislature this session, with a shot at clearing the Senate and reaching the governor’s desk for final approval.
The fate of the act, years in the making, will come into clearer focus before the end of the session on April 27.
Supporters say the bill would standardize the state’s recycling system by creating a single list of materials accepted for recycling, boost recycling rates, lower costs for residents and expand access to curbside recycling.
It has long been on the wish list of environmental advocates, and this was the fifth year the Legislature has debated a version of it, said Sen. Liz Lovelett, D-Anacortes, one of bill’s sponsors.
Promoting more recycling is expected to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, according to the state Department of Ecology. That’s because manufacturing plastics, metals and glass from raw materials is often more energy intensive than using recycled materials, said Zero Waste Washington executive director Heather Trim, who has worked on the legislation.
At its core, the bill would shift the responsibility of managing how packaging gets recycled from consumers to brands and producers, she said.
The bill would require the producers of packaging to join a nonprofit “producer responsibility organization” and would be responsible for boosting recycling rates and overseeing the state’s recycling system, with additional oversight from Ecology.
The nonprofit organization would also determine how much each producer must pay in fees, depending on what materials they use in their packaging. Those fees would fund the program and eventually be used to reimburse cities, counties and service providers for their recycling programs, Trim said.
The program would be phased in over several years, with reimbursements to recycling service providers starting in 2030. The law would also require Ecology to publish two assessments by 2028 that would determine how much more infrastructure is needed, such as sorting facilities and trucks, for a statewide recycling system and how much it would cost.
These types of “extended producer responsibility” programs have been in place since the early 1990s in European countries and in the past 10 years in Canada, Trim said.
A few states including Maine, California, Oregon, Colorado, Minnesota and Maryland have also passed similar laws in the past few years, though Oregon is the first start to start implementing it, she said.
Ecology says the program will eventually decrease the cost of recycling for residents by 90%, boost the recycling rate to 66% of materials regulated by the bill, and expand recycling services to around 500,000 households by 2032.
Recycling programs vary widely across Washington. What materials can be recycled in a given area depends on the municipality. Some cities require recycling to be offered to all residents and either have their own municipal-owned recycling trucks or contract with a company, like in Seattle. In other places, residents pay a recycling company directly.
While nearly all households around Puget Sound have access to curbside recycling, only 23% of households in Central Washington have those services. While 11 counties have no recycling services at all, according to the Northwest Product Stewardship Council, which has helped develop the policies behind the law.
While Washington is ahead of most states when it comes to recycling rates, much of the state’s recycling is going to the landfill. Around 40% of consumer packaging materials like plastic, paper and aluminum are diverted from the landfill or incineration to recycling facilities, according to a 2023 Ecology report which studied different recycling policies.
The waste industry and Republicans have opposed the bill and expressed concern that the law would lead to higher costs for consumers without effectively increasing recycling rates.
In a statement, Washington Refuse and Recycling Association executive director Brad Lovaas said the organization is “disappointed that the Legislature is moving forward to toss aside our state’s affordable, effective and local recycling system in favor of an expensive, unproven approach run by multinational packaging companies.”
Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, said while he supports increasing recycling, he believes this complex issue is being rushed and ultimately ratepayers will have to bear the costs.
“The basic fundamentals of this is, is it up to the government to try to support a market that’s not really there?” he said.
Boehnke and other opponents of the bill have advocated for only conducting an assessment of the costs of a statewide recycling program before moving ahead with the rest of the bill.
Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, said while there isn’t much time left in the legislative session, Senate Republicans would like to kill the bill or at least strip it down.
