St. Louis-based environmental and recycling groups are worried that a House bill could mean less money for local recycling efforts and environmental action.
The bill would dissolve solid-waste management districts across Missouri and is aimed at managing, remediating and testing solid-waste landfills. The state is divided into 20 solid-waste management districts that are funded by landfill user fees. The districts plan recycling and waste management services locally and primarily provide grant funding to local groups that help handle recycling and waste management capabilities.
With those districts removed, the responsibility of distributing grant funding would shift from a local to a state level and local groups wouldn’t be prioritized by the department, Earthday365 Executive Director Jessica Watson said.
“It seems that the likelihood of the groups being funded to do that stuff will be decreased really dramatically,” Watson said.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Brad Banderman, said he wrote the legislation because there wasn’t a way to deal with 29 abandoned landfills across the state like the Generally Hauling landfill in his Franklin County district.
“Landfills have been abandoned for all kinds of different reasons,” Banderman said. “In the last 30 years, some people have fled the country, sometimes there's a death and the family don't want to take over the responsibility. This issue moving forward will never happen again under our current regulatory framework.”
Banderman said the plan is to use unspent funding that was going toward the districts’ administrative costs to remediate the landfills.
“We can streamline the process,” Banderman said. “We can make it more efficient and with the money that we save from the administrative costs, we can issue potentially more grants and fix the landfills also.”
Watson said that she understands the need to remediate landfills but that it should be done on a federal level. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program offers assistance to contaminated and toxic properties.
“The amount of money that's generated by this fund would not be sufficient to address essentially the Superfund sites that we have across the state,” Watson said. “They can apply for funds from the EPA, from their Brownfields Program, and that's how they should be funding this.”
Banderman said federal authorities removed barrels of toxic waste from Generally Landfill before stepping away from the process. He said because many of the landfills are not officially closed by the Department of Natural Resources, they don’t qualify for federal grants.
Banderman said he will introduce a substitute bill Thursday. Changes include the removal of a $5 million limit from the Solid Waste Management fund that would go toward abandoned landfill assessment and remediation.
The substitute bill would still remove the 20 solid waste management districts across the state that provide grants to local groups.
Watson said the district funds about 30% of the EarthDay365 budget and helps support the salaries of about 20 workers. The organization also runs educational programs and festivals and diverts about 13 million pounds from landfills.
“That would be decreased dramatically if we lose the funding,” Watson said.
Other organizations across the region, including Perennial, St. Louis BWorks, Home Sweet Home, Passback and City Sewing Room, said in social media posts that they would be hit hard if the bill is passed.
City Sewing Room of St. Louis has received funding from the district since 2023. The nonprofit was able to purchase washing machines and dryers after the grant, Operations Director Rachel Lynch said.
“Before we received this grant, we had to throw away 10% of all donations because they were items that were unusual because they were stained, torn, smelly,” Lynch said. “But after our first grant and we bought that washer and dryer, we have decreased the amount that we have to throw away to 2%, so it really has made a significant impact in what we're able to keep out of landfill.”
Lynch said that without the districts, local groups would have to compete with other organizations across the state for funding.
Banderman said the grant process will not be adjusted. He also said that he understands those concerns from grantees and that the department would initially prioritize organizations that have received grants from the districts in the past.
“I don't think that concern is completely unfounded,” Banderman said. “But the idea that there won't be any opportunity for a seat at the table because we're making this at the state level, I have not experienced that so far with any level of department interaction.”
Watson worries that changing the system will make things more complicated, reduce the reliance on local governments and groups and take away jobs.
“It puts all of this program management onto nonprofits and city governments and the folks that really know the problem intimately,” Watson said. “They know how to address it, and it's working. We have lots of data on the tonnage that is being removed from our waste stream because of these programs.”
Banderman and Department of Natural Resources officials will hear testimony during a House Committee on Government Efficiency hearing at 8 a.m. Thursday.
