Recycling Competition Bill in Senate Judiciary TODAYA couple of weeks ago, we described how recycling in West Virginia is challenging, in part, due to the lack of competition between recyclers. There is a regulated monopoly with recycling and if a company gets the go-ahead from the WV Public Service Commission (PSC), it is nigh impossible for someone else to get the right to pick up recyclables, if they want to charge a fee for the service. CAG has been working with the WV Sustainable Business Council (WVSBC) to find a way to increase competition in recycling. The method that has garnered the most support is to allow for nonprofit recycling cooperatives in SB 352. The bill gets around the onerous “certificate of need” process at the PSC by allowing small, nonprofit recycling cooperatives to form without having to get permission from the PSC. CAG and WVSBC have worked with several experts to avoid the new cooperatives harming existing successful recycling programs and avoid unintended consequences. The waste industry is replete with characters who do not operate with good intentions and it is our goal to create a way to grow the recycling rate, not create ways to scam the system. We have helped forge a very strong bill, but need your help keeping it moving.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking up the bill TODAY, Sunday, February 22, 2015 at 6pm. We need you to contact the committee and voice your support for the bill.

Let the Senate Judiciary Committee members know:
1. You think there need to be more choices in recycling in West Virginia so families and businesses have the option to responsibly deal with their waste,
2. That allowing for some small nonprofit cooperatives to increase recycling rates helps grow the local economy, and
3. That you support SB 352.

Below are the email addresses of the committee members:
charles.trump@wvsenate.gov, david.nohe@wvsenate.gov, bob.beach@wvsenate.gov, art.kirkendoll@wvsenate.gov, ronald.miller@wvsenate.gov, corey.palumbo@wvsenate.gov, mike.romano@wvsenate.gov, herb.snyder@wvsenate.gov, bob.williams@wvsenate.gov, mike.woelfel@wvsenate.gov, Mitch.Carmichael@wvsenate.gov, ryan.ferns@wvsenate.gov, ed.gaunch@wvsenate.gov, robert.karnes@wvsenate.gov, Kent.Leonhardt@wvsenate.gov, Mark.Maynard@wvsenate.gov, jeff.mullins@wvsenate.gov

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