A state Assemblyman wants New York state to adopt a goal to reduce, reuse, recycle or compost no less than 85% of solid waste in New York state by 2030.

Assemblyman Steve Englebright, D-East Setauket, recently introduced A.9832 to amend the state Environmental Conservation Law. Not only would Englebright’s goal establish the 85% reduce, reuse, recycle or compost goal, the legislation also authorizes the state Department of Environmental Conservation to work with municipalities to achieve the state’s goal and requires a DEC report to the state Legislature and Gov. Andrew Cuomo by Jan. 1, 2023.

The legislation has been referred to the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation committee. A companion bill has not yet been introduced in the state Senate.

“By reducing or diverting waste from landfills the harmful effects of pollution can be mitigated,” Englebright wrote in his legislative justification. A state commitment to source reduce, reuse, recycle or compost no less than 85% of generated solid waste by 2030 will help provide greater focus on those worthy goals. California has a statewide approach to decrease reliance on landfills and set a goal of 75% for recycling, composting and solid waste reduction by this year. The European Union also has targets for recycling 65% of municipal waste, 75% of packaging waste and reducing municipal waste in landfills to a maximum of 10% by 2030.”

The legislation, as proposed, states there are no financial implications for state and local governments, though that seems unlikely given the current state of recycling locally.

The Jamestown BPU created a recycling incentive for its customers by charging a lower rate for customers who use new bins with RFID chips. Those who aren’t using the bins while throwing items that should be recycled away with garbage bound for the Chautauqua County Landfill pay a higher rate. Even with that incentive, not everything in Jamestown recycles.

Last July, the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities changed its recycling from dual stream to single stream, meaning customers no longer combine paper and cardboard and plastic and metal into one recycling bin. Dave Leathers, BPU general manager, told BPU board members at the time that the recycling market changed for the utility in 2018 when China implemented a new policy restricting the importation of foreign recyclables. The utility was paying about $38 a ton to have paper and cardboard taken for recycling during recent months. That rate jumped to $88 a ton.

It’s hard to know what to make of Englebright’s desire to increase composting, too, given the inability of at least one local businessman to open a food recycling and composting facility in Sherman. Greg Rater, owner of Slab City Organics in Sherman, put an end to his composting business and gave up his permit in 2016 after more than seven years of work to begin operations. Rater said regulations over food waste intake and surface water were never resolved with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and local officials, leaving his business with no direction. Rater registered his 85-acre solid waste facility with the DEC in August 2008 and obtained a permit to expand five years later. The facility sat idle since October 2014 before Rater ended his business in 2016.