This bill, the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act, directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to collect data, prepare reports, and work with States, local governments, and Indian Tribes to improve recycling and composting programs. It defines terms like "compost," "compostable material," "recyclable material," and "recycling." Key tasks include a national report on composting and recycling infrastructure, a national inventory of materials recovery facilities, data on recycling and composting systems and contamination rates, and reports on end markets for recyclables and compost. The bill also requires the EPA to develop a metric and study on the share of recyclable materials diverted from a circular market. The Government Accountability Office (Comptroller General) must publish periodic reports on Federal agencies' recycling and procurement of recyclable or compostable products. The bill includes confidentiality protections for certain collected information and a prohibition on creating unfunded mandates for States, local governments, or Indian Tribes.
If enacted, the EPA would ask States, units of local government, and Indian Tribes for information and may contract for studies to produce several public reports. Those reports will describe existing composting and recycling programs, estimate costs and land needs for expanding composting, inventory materials recovery facilities and the materials they handle, and provide data on end-market sales of recyclables and compost. The GAO will make public estimates of Federal agencies' recycling and purchasing of recyclable and compostable products. States, local governments, and Tribes may be asked to provide voluntary information and could receive technical assistance from the EPA based on the data collected.
The bill authorizes $4,000,000 to be appropriated to the Administrator of the EPA for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029 to carry out the Act and its amendments. No publicly available information on other costs or budget estimates is included in the bill text or provided metadata.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.