A few months ago, I began working with a coalition of organizations on a project aimed at getting the U.S. Congress to recycle properly. Believe it or not, they have one of the worst recycling programs in the country — one that allows millions of pounds of recyclable paper, cans, and bottles to be sent to landfills instead of being recycled.
In mid-September, our coalition (including me in my role as president of Sustain) participated in a press conference in Washington, D.C. that called on Congress to reform its practices. We were joined by twelve-year-old Aurora, Illinois resident, Becky Hollenbeck, national environmental and recycling leaders, and members of Congress in our call for major improvements in the recycling programs of the House and Senate. Findings from a months-long independent investigation of recycling and waste management in Congress were released, which document the millions of dollars in lost recycling revenue and unnecessary landfill disposal expenses this boondoggle has cost taxpayers over the past five years.
Becky was clearly the star of the event when she read a letter that she had sent to Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. "If you can help Congress start a good recycling program, it could save taxpayers like my parents a lot of money and help preserve the environment," said Becky, who has always recycled with her family and school in Aurora. Speaker Hastert is her Congressional Representative and had responded to Becky’s letter with a form letter that completely ignored her request and referred to unrelated legislation.
Hastert’s inattention to this issue is symbolic of the overall anti-environmental behavior of Congress in recent years. Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder asked, "When the House and Senate fail to run an effective recycling program, can Americans trust them to protect our precious natural resources and assure a healthy environment?"
The GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN) report documented that Congress received no money last year for 71 percent of the paper it recycled, because more than five millions pounds of paper were contaminated by food waste, metals, glass, plastics, and medical waste. "More than 150 million Americans recycle every day at home and at work because they know that recycling is an easy way to protect the environment by conserving resources. Congress seems to think that the rules that apply to the rest of America do not apply to them," said Bill Sheehan, network coordinator of GRRN.
Congressman Sam Farr (D-Carmel, CA), a champion of recycling, welcomed the independent analysis. "We have been trying for years to improve the congressional recycling program with little success. Frankly, Congress is the most stubborn bureaucracy around. I hope that by exposing these problems to the light of day the House Leadership will join in an effort to reform the recycling program before Congress adjourns," Representative Farr said.
A video produced by Sustain (available in streaming video format at www.recycle congress.org) shows contaminated bales of paper collected for recycling, for which Congress receives no money. Sustain also produced a series of advertisements on the issue which are appearing in the Washington Post, the New York Times, Roll Call, and The Hill.
Congressman Farr is the sponsor of H.R. 146 to require mandatory recycling by the House. His resolution enjoys bi-partisan support, with sixty-three co-sponsors, but has not been given a hearing in the Committee on House Administration. An effort by Farr to include recycling requirements in the Fiscal Year 2000 Legislative Appropriations Bill was approved by the Appropriations Committee, but the language was struck from the bill in June 1999 during House floor debate, based upon a procedural "point of order."
Joan Mulhern, legislative counsel for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, said "This is one more stark example of anti-environmental action by this Congress. Already this year, over four dozen provisions called‘riders’ that are used to weaken environmental laws have been tacked on to various spending bills. The House is doing a double whammy on the environment, on one hand allowing violations of procedure to pass‘riders’ to roll back federal protections, and then on the other, using these same procedures to eliminate even modest improvements to Congressional recycling programs."
If you are as appalled as I am about actions of this Congress, go to recyclecongress.org on the Web. There you can send a letter to your Congressman and ask that they support recycling on the Hill. You can also examine the voting records of senators and representatives on environmental issues.