Some Rhode Island businesses might be surprised to find out that they’re breaking the law every day.
State regulations require virtually all organizations of any size – businesses, municipalities, schools and non-profit groups – to recycle. A list of “mandatory recyclables” includes office paper, newspaper, laser-printer toner cartridges, corrugated cardboard and several other materials.
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But, even though non-compliance can carry daily fines of up to $1,000, officials concede that perhaps even a majority of Rhode Island businesses don’t recycle at all.
“There are probably more companies that don’t recycle than do,” said Ed Connelly, former deputy director of the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corp. and now general manager of CleanScape, a for-profit recycling operation in South Providence.
“It’s just not on a lot of companies’ radar screens,” Connelly said. “If nobody is forcing them to recycle, a lot of them are not going to do it.”
The state’s residential recycling efforts – overseen by Resource Recovery Corp. – have received national accolades since 1986, when Rhode Island became the first state in the country with mandatory recycling.
Enforcement of recycling regulations for businesses began in 1989. But the state’s commercial recycling program essentially has been dormant, according to Jan Reitsma, director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, which is the state agency charged with enforcing the state’s recycling regulations.
“I’m not going to try to put a spin on it,” said Reitsma, who was appointed as director of DEM in 1999. “I am not under the impression that we have ever had an active commercial recycling program. It’s unfortunate, because I think it could make a big difference.”
According to state law, businesses can be fined $500 for disposing of loads of waste that contain more than 20 percent recyclables. Companies with at least 50 employees are required to get DEM approval for waste-reduction plans and must submit annual reports of recycling activity every March to avoid penalties of $1,000 a day.
But Reitsma said there “has not been active enforcement” of those rules. The DEM has no record of levying any recycling-related fines against businesses.
The commercial recycling program is supposed to be run by the DEM’s Office of Strategic Policy and Planning, Reitsma said, but it does not have enough staff to administer it.
The DEM is considering the transfer of oversight of the program to either its Office of Waste Management or to Resource Recovery Corp., which Reitsma said has done “an excellent job” with the state’s residential recycling program.
Meanwhile, companies have been forced to look to the private sector if they want to recycle their waste.
Cleanscape, founded in July 1999 as a for-profit subsidiary of the South Providence Development Corp., helps organizations set up recycling programs and provides comprehensive recycling services, from pickup and transportation to processing and marketing of recycled material.
Connelly said many of CleanScape’s 90-plus customers save money by recycling their waste – especially businesses that go through a lot of office paper, because CleanScape does not charge for collecting office paper.
An average office worker generates between 14 and 20 pounds of paper waste a month, Connelly said. For a large firm of 1,000 employees, that totals 10 tons of paper each month, which would cost an estimated $700 to $1,000 to collect and dump in a landfill.
“We emphasize to companies how easy this is to set up and that it will likely save a business money,” Connelly said. “And there’s also the environmental aspect. It’s part of being a responsible corporate citizen.”
Resource Recovery Corp. also will conduct waste audits and offers advice to businesses and schools on how to implement recycling programs. More information is available by calling Resource Recovery at 401-942-1430.
A handful of private Rhode Island companies also provide recycling services.
