County eyes revenue for recycling program

By Joe Pinchot
Herald Staff Writer
November 16, 2006

MERCER COUNTY— The state Supreme Court has refused to review a case that stripped counties of the use of a tipping fee to fund recycling programs.
In Mercer County, the decision, handed down Tuesday, leaves the issue of funding open-ended.
The court case originated in Lycoming County when Pennsylvania Independent Waste Haulers Association and Lycoming County sued four other counties and a solid waste authority over the so-called tipping fees, which are charged to waste haulers based on the tonnage of garbage they dump in landfills.
A Lycoming judge ruled that state law does not authorize collection of tipping fees by counties or municipalities, only for statewide recycling efforts. A three-judge panel of Commonwealth Court backed the judge in an Oct. 14, 2005, decision.
“I kind of expected that wasn’t going to go anywhere,” county Commissioner Olivia M. Lazor said of the appeal to Supreme Court.
With the Commonwealth Court decision, the county stopped collecting the $2-a-ton tipping fees, a loss of $1 million in annual revenue. Mercer County Solid Waste Authority continued to run its voluntary recycling program, but laid off administrative staff.
Two drivers hired through Mercer County Regional Council of Governments collect recyclables from nine recycling depots.
“They are managing to manage,” Mrs. Lazor said of the authority.
The county came through with $5,000 at the end of last year to keep the program going through the end of the year. Commissioners granted another $27,913 in the spring, said fiscal administrator John Logan.
The authority requested $15,531 for 2007, an amount included in the proposed county budget, Logan said.
County officials are looking for ways to generate steady revenue for administrative costs. State legislators could be asked to authorize the old tipping fees. Ms. Lazor said it is clear occasional grants from the state will not provide enough to run a year-round recycling program.
Ms. Lazor said she will work through County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania to try to generate a strategy for funding county recycling programs.
The county could contract with a private waste hauler to run the program, something authority members have resisted.
The county hired Nestor Resources Inc. of Valencia, Pa., to study the county’s recycling program and recommend changes and ways to perpetually fund it.
Ms. Lazor said she is committed to finding a way to keep recycling in Mercer County.
“I’m a big environmental type of person,” she said. “We should be able to recycle as much as we could.”