KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT BILL GRAVES, GOVERNOR Gary R. Mitchell, Secretary

December 30, 1997

Contact: Don Brown

785-296-1529

KDHE Report Calls for Continuation of Solid Waste Programs

A popular statewide program helping communities reduce the volume of trash entering landfills can continue beyond the year 2000 only if "tipping fee" levels are restored, concludes a report prepared for the 1998 Kansas Legislature.

The 41-page report and addendums detail the accomplishments of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's five-year-old solid waste program. The report recommends the state return the landfill tonnage fee, or tipping fee, to $1.50 per ton. In 1995, the legislature reduced the fee to $1 per ton.

"The report demonstrates that partnerships involving the state, communities, volunteers and private groups have been effective in solving the state's solid waste challenges," said Gary Mitchell, KDHE secretary. Recommendations in the report are consistent with comments received by the KDHE as part of an extensive public input process which took place during the summer and fall of 1997.

"A clear majority of the people who participated in the solid waste program evaluation believe current state program components should be continued and/or enhanced," Mitchell said.

Mitchell said local and regional solid waste programs have greatly benefitted from a series of grants that provide assistance with the implementation and enhancement of projects related to recycling, composting and other solid waste issues.

"Statewide we are experiencing major improvements in local and regional waste management systems and services," Mitchell said. "This is primarily because of the notable commitments and efforts of cities, counties and private companies."

However, according to Mitchell, current revenue from the dollar-per-ton tipping fee is inadequate to maintain state support for projects initiated at the local level. He said grants to establish and stimulate markets for recyclable materials -- a high-priority identified by the public input process -- would be jeopardized.

Since the Kansas Legislature first established the tipping fee in 1992, the KDHE has distributed nearly $10 million in grants to more than 150 programs in communities throughout Kansas as a proactive element of the solid waste initiative.

The grants have enabled local governments, public organizations and private sector interests to develop and enhance solid waste management practices ranging from recycling to composting to proper disposal of household hazardous waste. Grant recipients include:

• Regional projects such as the Nemaha County multi-county recycling program. KDHE grants have enabled six northeast Kansas counties to consolidate recycling efforts by constructing a building for the collection, storage and market preparation of recyclables. The Nemaha County center recycled more than 1 million pounds of materials in 1997.
• Kanza Composting near Salina, a private compost operation combining a dairy farm's animal wastes with the Salina area's yard wastes.
• Millennium Plastic Wood in Wichita, producer of "plastic lumber" from recycled plastic products.
• Bethphage Mission in Kanopolis where the Second Chance regional recycling center employs persons with developmental disabilities.

Kansas annually processes 5 million tons of waste -- nearly two tons for every resident in the state. As part of that total, Kansas accepts about one million tons of solid waste from neighboring states. Out-of-state haulers pay $1 million to Kansas in tipping fees each year

While the state's population is increasing, the good news is the amount of solid waste disposal in Kansas is actually decreasing. That fulfills one of the primary goals of the KDHE's solid waste program.

The flip side of the coin is that reducing the volume of trash entering Kansas landfills will ultimately result in a reduction in tipping fee revenues, the sole source of funding for administering the state's solid waste program. Combined with the legislature's 1995 lowering in the landfill tipping fee, the lowering of revenues threatens some key aspects of the state's solid waste program.

The KDHE's report to the legislature concludes that if the tipping fee remains at its current level, the agency's solid waste grant program will need to be phased out beginning in the year 2000. The report -- which included input from citizens, city, county and MSW (municipal solid waste) officials -- recommended increasing the fee to $1.50 per ton in order to maintain the solid waste grant program at its current level and to ensure continued input from out-of-state trash haulers who use Kansas landfills.

Bill Bider, director of the KDHE's Bureau of Waste Management, said it is important to continue the momentum created since the state's solid waste plan was implemented.

"State and local officials are striving to implement programs which reduce the amount and toxicity of waste that enters our landfills," said Bider. "The KDHE grants are crucial in helping to establish and encourage these local programs. That's especially true in small- and medium-size cities."

The landfill tipping fee not only financially supports the grants program, it also funds the entire solid waste program, including the processing of solid waste permits, enforcement, planning, technical training, public education and old dump monitoring and repair. The KDHE is responsible for ensuring wastes are managed in ways which do not impact human health or the environment.

In 1992, when the tipping fee was established, the KDHE monitored and regulated 280 permitted solid waste facilities. By 1997, two years after tipping fees had been reduced, permits had grown to 369. The KDHE's regulatory responsibilities regarding solid waste management have increased at the same time tipping fee revenues have gone down.

According to the KDHE's report, current revenue rates will cause 1999 to be the last year grants can be maintained without jeopardizing the integrity of the solid waste regulatory program.

"The KDHE's grants have been purposely and selectively distributed to local programs and private companies," said Sec. Mitchell. "By allowing communities to initiate their own solid waste programs in partnership with the state, good things have resulted across Kansas."

Copies of the solid waste report are available by calling the KDHE Bureau of Waste Management at 785-296-1600, or on the World Wide Web at: http://www.kdheks.gov/waste/.