James M. Jeffords: “hopefully we will be able to reconcile our differences that we have right now with respect to the pending bill. Vermont…”

“hopefully we will be able to reconcile our differences that we have right now with respect to the pending bill. Vermont, I think, is a pioneer in this area. Some years ago, it set up a methodology of trying to reach what we believed were national goals as well as our own State's goals, and that was to try and develop recycling to reduce the amount of solid waste that enters into our waste system. Thus, we organized districts throughout the State. And also to try to enhance the ability to recycle, we have allowed some tipping fees to be exacted in order to take care of the costs that are involved with recycling. If my memory serves me right, when I was on the committee that is handling this legislation, we had set or were going to set national goals that we ought to try to reach a 30-percent goal of recycling. Vermont right now is over 25 percent and moving toward 30 percent. What would happen, if this bill passes and if the existing Supreme Court decision is not changed, is that Vermont will have to move away from what is a very desirable situation, and that is to be able to reduce our flow of trash by over 25 percent. Mr. President, in 1987 the State of Vermont passed a solid waste management act which allowed small rural towns and cities to band together to solve their solid waste problems. Building a landfill which complies with EPA standards under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act is not cheap.”