mmac-report-approved-7-1.pdf

Illinois Materials Management Advisory Committee Report to the General Assembly

July 1, 2021

I. Introduction

A) Executive Summary

B) Recommendations

C) Acknowledgements

II. Background

A) Overview of Illinois Environmental Laws and Regulations

1) Illinois Environmental Protection Act

2) Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act

3) Solid Waste Management Act

4) Material-Specific Laws

5) Pollution Control Board Regulations

B) House Bill 3068 (101st Legislative Session)

C) Definitions

D) Acronyms

III. Overview of Solid Waste and Materials Management in Illinois

A) Materials Generation in the United States

B) Materials Management Strategies in the United States and Illinois

C) Statistical Overview of the Illinois Materials Management Landscape

1) Methodology

2) Annualized Waste Disposal, Diversion, and Generation Figures

3) Composition of Landfilled Material in Illinois

4) Existing Markets for Divertible Materials Generated in Illinois

5) Overview of Illinois Solid Waste and Materials Management Infrastructure

IV. Discussion and Committee Actions

A) Education and Outreach

B) Infrastructure

C) Market Development

D) Measurement

E) Local Government Support

V. Findings

A) Existing Waste Management and Materials Management Infrastructure

1) Landfills with Available Capacity

2) Waste Transfer Stations

3) Landscape Only Waste Transfer Stations

4) Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling Facilities

5) Permitted Compost Facilities

6) Materials Recovery Facilities

7) Drop-Off Recycling Locations

8) Scrap Metal Recycling Facilities

9) Household Hazardous Waste Collection

B) Existing Infrastructure Challenges

1) Geographic Concentration

2) Expanded Program Participation

3) Market Enhancement

4) Local Funding for HHW Expansion

C) Findings Related to State Financing

1) State landfill tipping fee revenues have been sufficient to support a state-administered market development grant program, but future revenues are uncertain

2) Historic State Financial Support for County Solid Waste Planning

D) A coordinated statewide market development grant program is a critical component of a successful long-term materials management strategy

E) Minimum recycled content policies are an important element of market development and ultimate landfill diversion

F) Data collection and tracking are critical elements to evaluate county materials management program success that requires additional statewide support

G) The existing Solid Waste Plan reporting structure does not provide sufficient flexibility for all counties or guarantee that information is consistently reported at the state level

VI. Statewide Recommendations

A) Statewide Diversion Goals

B) Materials to Target for Diversion

C) Necessary Actions to Achieve Diversion Goals

1) Recommendations Related to State Funding

2) Supporting Markets for Diverted Materials

3) Statewide Education Program Enhancements

4) Asset Mapping

VII. Local Planning Recommendations

A) Standard Local Solid Waste Plan Elements

B) Revised Plan Submission Flexibility

C) Coordination with State Government

VIII. Appendices

Appendix A- Text of House Bill 3068

Appendix B- Committee Meeting Agendas

Appendix C- Summary of Formal Actions Adopted by the Committee

Appendix D- County Solid Waste Plan Update Template

Appendix E- Resources Examined by the Education and Outreach Subcommittee

Appendix F- Materials Management Metric Strategies of Various States

Appendix G.1- Table 6: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Municipal Landfills with Available Capacity)

Appendix G.2- Table 7: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Waste Transfer Stations)

Appendix G.3 Table 8: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Landscape Waste Transfer Stations)

Appendix G.4 Table 9: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling Facilities)

Appendix G.5- Table 10: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Permitted Compost Facilities)

Appendix G.6- Table 12: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Materials Recovery Facilities)

Appendix G.7- Table 13: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Drop-Off Recycling Locations)

Appendix G.8- Table 14: Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Scrap Metal Recycling Facilities)

Appendix G.9- Supporting data and individual site information for asset maps (Household Hazardous Waste Collection)

Appendix H- Diversion Matrix

Illinois Materials Management Advisory Committee Report to the General Assembly

I. Introduction

A) Executive Summary

On July 12, 2019, Governor J.B. Pritzker signed House Bill 30681, which created the Materials Management Advisory Committee (the Committee). The Committee was directed to accomplish an ambitious collection of goals, chief among which was to establish achievable landfill diversion goals for 2025, 2030, and 2035. To achieve that end, the Committee was tasked with evaluating the existing state of waste, recycling and organics management opportunities in Illinois, educational opportunities to enhance landfill diversion, surveying the waste management and materials management infrastructure in Illinois, evaluating the existing markets for materials diverted from Illinois landfills, and providing units of local government tools to simplify the process for satisfying statutory requirements related to materials management planning and reporting.

The Committee is comprised of members from an expansive range of professional backgrounds, each of whom represents unique public policy interests related to materials management in Illinois.

These members are:

Position Member

Member representing a municipality with a population of more than 1,000,000

Christopher Sauve

Member representing a county with a population of more than 1,000,000

Deborah Stone

Member representing counties with a population of at least 200,000 but not more than 1,000,000

Walter Willis, co-chair

Member representing a county with a population of at least 200,000 but not more than 1,000,000

Jennifer Jarland

Member representing a county with a population of at least 85,000 but not more than 200,000

Susan Monte

Member representing a county with a population of at least 85,000 but not more than 200,000

Karen Raithel2/Adena Rivas

Member representing a county with a population of less than 85,000

Kerri Gale

Member representing a county with a population of less than 85,000

Sarah Mummel

1 Public Act 101-0074 2 Ms. Raithel resigned her position in November 2020.

Member representing the solid waste industry Lisa Disbrow

Member representing the solid waste industry John Pausma

Member representing the recycling industry Kris Kaar

Member representing the recycling industry Josh Connell

Member representing providers of general construction and demolition debris recycling services

Brian Holcomb

Member representing providers of general construction and demolition debris recycling services

Eve Pytel3/Ron Tazelaar

Member representing environmental interest groups Kay McKeen

Member representing environmental interest groups Shantanu Pai

Member representing manufacturers in the state Donovan Griffith, co-chair

Member representing retailers in the state Alec Laird

Member representing retailers in the state Danielle Wood4

Member representing producers of compost in the state Charlie Murphy

Member representing producers of compost in the state Mary Margaret Cowhey

Member representing producers of end products generated through recycling

Michael Westerfield

Member representing producers of end products generated through recycling

Lynn Dyer

Member representing producers of end products generated through recycling

Amy Girlich5

The Committee met on seventeen occasions, with the first meeting occurring on February 21, 2020 at Illinois EPA headquarters in Springfield. Unfortunately thereafter, the spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 profoundly restricted the viability of face-to-face meetings. In response and in accordance with Executive Order 2020-04,6 the Committee adopted a resolution to authorize remote attendance, in accordance with Section 7(d) of the Illinois Open Meetings Act.7 Consequently, all remaining meetings were held via electronic means. Each of the Committee meetings was facilitated by Illinois EPA Waste Reduction and Compliance Section Manager James Jennings and followed a printed agenda that identified the subject matters to be addressed during the

3 Ms. Pytel resigned her position in April 2020.

4 Ms. Wood resigned her position in May 2020; despite the Committee’s best efforts, a replacement member could not be identified.

5 Ms. Girlich resigned her position in October 2020; despite the Committee’s best efforts, a replacement member could not be identified.

6 Among other things, this Executive Order temporarily lifted the Open Meetings Act requirement that a quorum of voting members of a public body be physically present in the same location for a meeting to occur.

7 5 ILCS 120/7(d).

meeting. These meetings involved robust discussions of the issues included in the agenda, as well as presentations from Committee members and guest speakers.

At its initial meeting, the Committee determined the necessary elements of this report could be best achieved by organizing the Committee into subcommittees that focused on specific subject matters.

This subcommittee platform mirrors the structure designed for the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s America Recycles Day initiative.

Each subcommittee was co-chaired by a Committee member and Illinois EPA employee. The subcommittees and co-chairs were:

Subcommittee Co-chairs

Education and Outreach Kay McKeen and Donald Buis

Infrastructure Walter Willis and Sunil Suthar

Market Development Lisa Disbrow and James Jennings

Measurement Shantanu Pai and Suzanne Boring

Local Government Support Jennifer Jarland and Jessica Miller

Each subcommittee authored a scope of work constructed to accomplish the Committee’s objectives that were within that subcommittee’s area of expertise. These scopes of work were each approved by the Committee. Like the Committee, each subcommittee met monthly with all meetings held remotely. Each subcommittee meeting followed a printed agenda designed to meaningfully progress toward realizing the goals set forth in the relevant scope of work. During these meetings, Committee members and guest presenters shared information and addressed questions related to the Committee’s statutory directives. Committee members discussed these matters extensively during these meetings.

The Committee was required to author this report to the General Assembly summarizing its activities, relaying relevant solid waste and materials management data, and providing recommendations to enhance materials management opportunities in Illinois. In accordance with this directive, the Illinois EPA submits this report, including all findings and recommendations, to the General Assembly.

B) Recommendations

During this Committee’s work, numerous formal recommendations were presented for consideration and adoption. Copies of the formal recommendations are included in Attachment C of this report.

The recommendations are intended to meaningfully enhance the volume of material diverted from Illinois landfills and include:

• Establishing statewide landfill diversion targets of 40% by 2025, 45% by 2030, and 50% by 2035 (current rate is 37%);

• Employing a stratified approach to strategically target materials for diversion from Illinois landfills;

• Increasing the statewide support from existing funding and without additional revenue for materials management programs by as much as $3.375 million per State Fiscal Year by State Fiscal Year 2027;8

• Creating a Statewide Market Development Advisory Board to review and approve viable public and private sector diversion projects to receive state support;

• Appropriating funding to support the statewide recycling and composting infrastructure grant programs;

• Enhancing the level of state support for household hazardous waste collections;

• Developing and continuing to support a statewide materials management education campaign;

• Developing sophisticated data management systems within state government to track and map landfill diversion opportunities available to the public; and

• Adopting a consistent and simplified statewide approach to local government solid waste and materials management planning and reporting.

These items, including information related to the votes to adopt the recommendations, are discussed in greater detail in this report.

C) Acknowledgements

Each of the Committee members is commended for their significant investment of time and effort in the work of this Committee. This commitment was particularly remarkable given the complications inherent in furthering this work while absorbing the personal and professional difficulties catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each member was tasked with fastidiously evaluating a range of technical and policy matters, many of which were highly complex. The membership exceptionally represented their constituent groups. The results of the members’ efforts are a testament to their dedication to the State of Illinois and will serve as a meaningful tool for policy makers and professionals in the future.

The Committee is particularly grateful to the following Illinois EPA and University of Illinois employees who devoted enormous energy toward accomplishing the Committee’s goals:

• Suzanne Boring, Illinois EPA

• Donald Buis, Illinois EPA

• Brooke Ferree, Illinois EPA

• Savannah Feher, University of Illinois

• Ukanno Foxworth, Illinois EPA

• Allison Fry, Illinois EPA

• Caleb Froidcoeur, Illinois EPA

• Rebecca Jayne, Illinois EPA

• April Janssen Mahajan, University of Illinois

• Cassandra Metz, Illinois EPA

8 Additional information regarding the proposed funding is included in Table 5.

• Jessica Miller, Illinois EPA

• Joy Scrogum, University of Illinois

• Sunil Suthar, Illinois EPA

• Brock Titlow, Illinois EPA

The Committee also thanks the following non-committee members who presented or were otherwise actively involved in crafting this Report:

• Peter Adrian, Solid Waste Agency of Lake County

• Scott Cassell, Product Stewardship Institute

• Christina Seibert, APTIM

• Andrea Dierich, DuPage County

• Sydney Harris, Product Stewardship Institute

• Jenny Hinton, Peoria Disposal Company

• Joy Hinz, DuPage County

• Marta Keane, Will County

• Benjamin Krumstok, Illinois Food Scrap Coalition

• Liz Kunkle, Go Green Illinois

• Wilson Mora, City of Chicago

• Rose Naseef, SCARCE

• Katie Neary, Lakeshore Recycling Services

• Michael Timpane, Resource Recycling Systems

• Dave Van Vooren, Solid Waste Agency of North Cook County

II. Background

Public Act 97-853 (HB 4986 - May), which was signed into law in July 2012 and took effect in January 2013, created the "Task Force on the Advancement of Materials Recycling," with the purpose of reviewing the current status of recycling and solid waste management in Illinois. That task force consisted of 21 members from a variety of stakeholder groups with interests related to waste management public policy. The task force considered county recycling and waste management planning; current and potential policies and strategies for waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting; funding for oversight and regulation (at the State and local levels) of waste management activities; funding for support (at the State and local levels) for the advancement of waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and composting efforts, as well as proper household hazardous waste management; the extent to which materials with economic value were lost to landfilling; and recommendations to reduce such losses through waste reduction and to maximize the productive use of these valuable materials through reuse, recycling, and composting.

The final report of that task force was presented to Governor Pat Quinn and the 98th Illinois General Assembly in January of 2015. The primary approved recommendations included in that report are broadly outlined below. Complete, specific recommendations and their rationale can be found in the 2015 task force report.

• Revision of the Illinois Solid Waste Management Hierarchy. The task force suggested amendments to the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act (415 ILCS 20) to reflect the preferred waste management hierarchy, in descending order of preference, as 1) reduce 2) reuse 3) recycling 4) compost/biological treatment 5) recover energy, and 6) dispose.

• Require more purchasing by the state of environmentally preferable products and supplies. Amend 30 ILCS 500/45-20 Recycled Materials and 30 ILCS 500/45-26 Environmentally Preferable Procurement codes to assist in providing direction to State agencies for the purchasing of recycled-content goods.

• Product Stewardship Labeling. The task force found that Section 6a of the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act referred only to labels that would indicate recyclability, the presence of recycled content, or both for containers. They recommended expansion of the legislative language to include such labelling for "other consumer products which are claimed to be recyclable by a product manufacturer." The task force also noted that, when referring to development and implementation a public awareness campaign to encourage consumers to look for and buy products that are recyclable or made with recyclable materials, this legislation failed to reference products that were compostable or biodegradable. They suggested appropriate revision of the legislative language to include those types of products.

• Amend state law to establish a more convenient statewide Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collection system. This recommendation involved amending Section 22.55 of the Environmental Protection Act (415 ILCS 5) to require establishment of a convenient statewide collection infrastructure for HHW, along with evaluation of associated fee allocations and possible reallocation to support infrastructure development or expansion.

• Amend state law to authorize the development of a statewide Illinois Resource Master Plan. This involved amending Section 6 of the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act and https://www2.illinois.gov/dceo/AboutDCEO/ReportsRequiredByStatute/Approved%20Final%20Report%20-%20Recycling%20Advancement%20Task%20Force.pdf https://www2.illinois.gov/dceo/AboutDCEO/ReportsRequiredByStatute/Approved%20Final%20Report%20-%20Recycling%20Advancement%20Task%20Force.pdf

Section 6 of the Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act (415 ILCS 15) to provide authority to the State to develop a statewide Illinois Resource Management Plan to achieve greater diversion of waste from landfills in a cost-effective manner via source reduction, reuse, recycling, composting/biodegradation or other methods. It was recognized that counties could draw upon aspects of a statewide plan when preparing their 5-year solid waste management plan updates, and noted that multiple other state governments had enacted statewide initiatives or legislation to improve or expand recycling and composting efforts.

• Require more purchasing by the state of products and material generated by Construction and Demolition debris recyclers. This involved amending 30 ILCS 500/45- 20 Recycled Materials and 30 ILCS 500/45-26 Environmentally Preferable Procurement codes to assist in providing direction to state agencies for the purchasing of recycled content goods.

• Expansion of organics management strategies through provision of temporary drop-off sites for organics, defining permitting for anaerobic digestion, and tiered compost regulations. This involved directing the state to form a committee to conduct a coordinated review and rewrite of the permitting regulations for siting, developing, operating and closure of compost facilities within Illinois, as well as appropriate definitions for anaerobic digesters (AD), including substrates and products and development of permitting and standards for AD. That committee would also develop regulation for temporary and permanent drop-off sites for organic materials, especially food scraps.

Formation of the Materials Management Advisory Committee (MMAC) can be seen as a necessary step in the practical realization of a statewide Resource Master Plan, as recommended by the Task Force on the Advancement of Materials Recycling, and thus building upon the efforts of that previous committee.

Like the previous task force, and as suggested in its name, the MMAC considers sustainable materials management, an approach which includes a much broader range of strategies than traditional waste management. Sustainable materials management (SMM), as defined by the US EPA, "is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycles." Materials, and the products made from those materials, can be considered to have "life cycles" analogous to living organisms. Instead of progressing from conception/germination to birth through various growth stages and finally to death and decomposition, materials can be seen as progressing from extraction to processing, through design and manufacturing to use, collection, and disposal. In each step of this conceptual “life cycle,” a material or product has environmental impacts. SMM seeks to address and reduce the negative environmental impacts that arise from the manufacture and consumption of products and materials throughout their life cycles, using a system-wide perspective.

In addition to taking a system-wide approach in terms of environmental impacts, the MMAC also considered global economic factors that have evolved since the recommendations of the Task Force on the Advancement of Materials Recycling. For example, for decades, China was the world’s largest importer of waste materials, using the cast-offs disposed of by other countries, including the US, for processing and reuse in its own manufacturing operations. Waste materials https://www.epa.gov/smm https://www.epa.gov/smm flowed from the US and other countries to China, where they were often incorporated into new products that were then exported back to the countries where the wastes were produced. This was not ideal from a sustainability standpoint for a variety of reasons; the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the international transportation of materials, which might have been avoided by recovering materials generated within a country for reuse within that same country, are one example of the negative impacts of such a system. This international flow of materials ended with the so-called “National Sword” or “Green Sword” policy, announced in July 2017 and going into effect in January 2018, in which China banned the importation of certain types of solid waste, along with setting strict contamination limits on recyclable materials. Such a change created simultaneous challenges and opportunities in terms of environmental and economic factors with regard for materials management in Illinois and throughout the US. Materials that were previously exported for processing elsewhere suddenly needed to be processed or landfilled domestically, disrupting material end markets while also opening up the possibility of innovation and entrepreneurship in response. MMAC recommendations were considered and formulated within the context of these evolving market landscapes to foster the state economy as well as minimizing negative environmental impacts associated with various life cycle phases of materials and products.

A) Overview of Illinois Environmental Laws and Regulations

The primary framework for statewide solid waste and materials management in Illinois is captured by three laws. These statutory bodies are the Environmental Protection Act, the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act, and the Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act. The text of each of these laws, as well as the additional statutory schemes discussed below, is available online and linked in each section.

1) Environmental Protection Act

The Environmental Protection Act (the Act), 415 ILCS 5, provides the statutory foundation for the majority of solid waste and materials management oversight in Illinois. The Act creates the Illinois EPA and the Illinois Pollution Control Board (the Board), and frames those entities’ respective authorities. The Act provides both the Illinois EPA and the Board the authority to adopt environmental regulations to control and regulate the movement and disposal of waste. The Act establishes thresholds for permitting pollution control facilities such as landfills, transfer stations and some compost sites. These standards include requiring approval from the county or municipality in which the site is located for the development of a pollution control facility. In these cases, the relevant local government must approve the requested development if the facility is necessary to accommodate the waste needs of the area it is intended to service, the facility is so designed, located and proposed to be operated that public health, safety and welfare will be protected, and the facility satisfies the various locational standards set forth in Section 39.2(a) of the Act. Notably, the Act does not require Illinois EPA-issued permits for recycling centers and other entities that do not treat, store, or dispose of waste.

The Act establishes fees on waste accepted at Illinois landfills, which supports the Illinois EPA’s administration of the various statewide solid waste and materials management programs. These statutory tipping fees currently total $1.05 per cubic yard or $2.22 per ton. The Act also authorizes some local governments to impose a surcharge on tipping fees at landfills within their jurisdiction.

Local governments that host landfills also are authorized to impose up to an additional $0.60 per cubic yard or $1.27 per ton local surcharge. The Act does not establish any disposal fees remitted to local governments that do not host a landfill. This Committee does not recommend changing these fees. The revenue generated from these fees and proposed additional uses for historically unencumbered fee revenues are discussed in further detail below.

2) Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act

The Solid Waste Planning and Recycling Act (Planning and Recycling Act), 415 ILCS 15, establishes guidelines for local solid waste management planning for Illinois counties and the City of Chicago. Under the Planning and Recycling Act, each Illinois county and the City of Chicago were required to develop comprehensive solid waste management plans by March 1, 1995. The Illinois EPA was tasked with reviewing and commenting on each county solid waste management plan to ensure consistency with the requirements of the Planning and Recycling Act. The plans were intended to include, among other provisions, recycling programs designed to recycle at least 25 percent of the municipal solid waste generated within the reporting county’s jurisdiction. Each county waste management plan is required to be updated and reviewed every five years, and counties are required to submit necessary or appropriate revisions, if any, to the Illinois EPA.

3) Illinois Solid Waste Management Act

The Illinois Solid Waste Management Act (SWM Act), 415 ILCS 20, establishes the statewide waste management hierarchy and assigns individual executive agencies and local government specific authority to support that hierarchy. The SWM Act establishes the solid waste management hierarchy as:

• volume reduction at the source;

• recycling and reuse;

• combustion with energy recovery;

• combustion for volume reduction; and

• disposal in landfill facilities.

The SWM Act contains provisions that generally govern state operations. For example, the State of Illinois is required to procure certain products made from recycled content. In addition, state colleges and universities develop and implement comprehensive waste reduction plans. The SWM Act also authorizes the State of Illinois to provide grants and loans to government entities, not-for-profit organizations, and for-profit businesses to enhance waste reduction and recycling efforts. Executive Order 2017-03 designated the Illinois EPA as the lead agency for this grant program. However, to date no funds have been specifically appropriated to the Illinois EPA to support the grant program, which is subject to appropriation.

In addition, the SWM Act requires the Illinois EPA to annually report the existing disposal capacity for sanitary landfills that are subject to the Solid Waste Management fees in Section 22.15 of the Act. This report is referred to as the Landfill Capacity Report. With the report, the Illinois EPA presents capacity data on a regional basis and must include an assessment of the life expectancy of each landfill.

4) Material-Specific Laws

In addition to the statutory provisions broadly governing solid waste and materials management, Illinois law includes numerous provisions that are exclusively applicable to specific materials. This includes banning certain items from landfills. A summary of items currently banned from Illinois landfills is included below.

• Landscape waste;

• Lead-acid batteries;

• Waste tires;

• White goods, including discarded refrigerators, ranges, water heaters, freezers, air conditioners, humidifiers and other similar domestic and commercial items;

• Used oil;

• Electronic waste, limited to 19 consumer electronic devices9; and

• Mercury-containing thermostats.

5) Pollution Control Board Regulations

The Act authorizes the Board to adopt regulations governing the development, operation, closure, and post-closure care of numerous types of solid waste facilities in the state. These regulated facilities include:

• Hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities;

• Landfills;

• Transfer stations;

• Compost facilities;

• Used tire storage and disposal facilities;

• General construction and demolition debris recycling facilities;10

• Clean construction and demolition debris facilities; and

• Uncontaminated soil fill operations.

B) House Bill 3068 (101st Legislative Session)

House Bill 3068 amended the Planning and Recycling Act by creating a new section 4.5. This amendment created the Committee and the framework for this report. In short, the new section required the Director of the Illinois EPA to appoint the members of the Committee, who would be charged with crafting a path to increasing landfill diversion rates in Illinois over the forthcoming two decades. On July 12, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed H.B. 3068 into law, Public Act 101-0074.

9 The following 19 items are covered under 415 ILCS 151 Computers and Small-Scale Servers; Computer Monitors; Electronic Keyboards & Mice; Printers, Fax Machines, and Scanners; Televisions; DVD Players, DVD Recorders, and VCRs; Digital Converter Boxes, Cable Receivers, and Satellite Receivers; Portable Digital Music Players and Video Game Consoles 10 As of the date of this report, some of these facilities are permitted in accordance with the regulations governing solid waste facilities. See 35 Ill. Adm. Code 807, et seq.

C) Definitions

To ensure internal consistency within the Report, the Committee developed a following roster of defined terms. In most cases, these definitions were derived directly from applicable federal law, Illinois law or Board regulations. Where applicable, the relevant citation is included. The definitions below are used exclusively for the purpose of clarity within this Report. Terms that are not defined in federal law, Illinois law, or Board regulations are designated with an asterisk. The Committee and its members do not propose amending applicable Illinois law or Board regulations to include any of these definitions or expressly endorse using these definitions beyond the scope of this Report.

Agricultural Wastes: Any refuse, except garbage or dead animals, generated on a farm or ranch by crop and livestock production practices including such items as bags, carbons, dry bedding, structural materials and crop residues but excluding landscape wastes. 35 Ill. Adm. Code 237.101.

Clean Construction or Demolition Debris: Uncontaminated broken concrete without protruding metal bars, bricks, rock, stone, reclaimed or other asphalt pavement, or soil generated from construction or demolition activities. 415 ILCS 5/3.160.

Commercial Waste* : Non-hazardous municipal waste including garbage, grease, grease trappings and rendering byproducts originating from wholesale, retail, or service establishments such as restaurants, office buildings, stores, markets, theaters, hotels, motels, government offices, distribution centers and warehouses.

Compost: Humus-like product of the process of composting organic waste, which may be used as a soil conditioner. 415 ILCS 5/3.150.

Composting: The biological treatment process by which microorganisms decompose the organic fraction of waste, producing compost. 415 ILCS 5/3.155.

Consolidation Facility*: A facility where recyclable materials are combined and temporarily stored for later shipment to a materials recovery facility for processing.

Consumer Electronic Device: Any computer, computer monitor, television, printer, electronic keyboard, facsimile machine, videocassette recorder, portable digital music player that has memory capability and is battery powered, digital video disc player, videogame console, electronic mouse, scanner, digital converter box, cable receiver, satellite receiver, digital video disc recorder, or small scale server sold at retail. 415 ILCS 151/1-5.

Disposal: The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of waste or hazardous waste into or on any land or water or into any well so that such waste or hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground waters. 415 ILCS 5/3.185.

* Terms are not defined in federal law, Illinois law, or Board regulations.

Diversion*: A process, method, or technique of collecting, treating, processing, or using materials that would otherwise be handled as solid waste and sent to a landfill for disposal.

Food Scrap: Garbage that is (i) capable of being decomposed into compost by composting, (ii) separated by the generator from other waste, including, but not limited to, garbage that is not capable of being decomposed into compost by composting, and (iii) managed separately from other waste, including, but not limited to, garbage that is not capable of being decomposed into composting. 415

ILCS 5/3.197.

Garbage: Waste resulting from the handling, processing, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food, and wastes from the handling, processing, storage, and sale of produce. 415 ILCS 5/3.200.

General Construction or Demolition Debris: Non-hazardous, uncontaminated materials resulting from the construction, remodeling, repair and demolition of utilities, structures, and roads, limited to the following: bricks, concrete, and other masonry materials; soil; rock; wood, including non-hazardous painted, treated, and coated wood and wood products; wall coverings; plaster; drywall;

plumbing fixtures; non-asbestos insulation; asphalt roofing shingles and other roof coverings;

reclaimed or other asphalt pavement; glass; plastics that are not sealed in a manner that conceals waste; electrical wiring and components containing no hazardous substances; and corrugated cardboard, piping or metals incidental to any of those materials. 415 ILCS 5/3.160.

Hazardous Waste: A waste, or combination of wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious, irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness; or pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise managed, and which has been identified, by characteristics or listing, as hazardous pursuant to Section 3001 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, P.L. 94-580, or pursuant to Board regulation. 415 ILCS 5/3.220.

Household Waste: Any solid waste, including garbage, trash, and sanitary waste in septic tanks, derived from households. 415 ILCS 5/2.230.

Industrial Process Waste: Any liquid, solid, semi-solid, or gaseous waste generated as a direct or indirect result of the manufacture of a product or the performance of a service. Any such waste that would pose a present or potential threat to human health or to the environment or with inherent properties which make the disposal of such waste in a landfill difficult to manage by normal means is an industrial process waste. “Industrial Process Waste” includes but is not limited to spent pickling liquors, cutting oils, chemical catalysts, distillation bottoms, etching acids, equipment cleanings, paint sludges, incinerator ashes (including but not limited to ash resulting from the incineration of potentially infectious medical waste), core sands, metallic dust sweepings, asbestos dust, and off-specification, contaminated or recalled wholesale or retail products. Specifically excluded are uncontaminated packaging materials, uncontaminated machinery components, general household waste, landscape waste and construction or demolition debris. 415 ILCS 5/3.235.

Infrastructure*: The system of public and private works in a county, state, or region; also: the resources (such as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity.

Institutional Waste: Solid waste generated by educational, health care, correctional, and other institutional facilities. 40 CFR 243.101(q).

Landscape Waste: All accumulations of grass or shrubbery cuttings, leaves, tree limbs and other materials accumulated as the result of the care of lawns, shrubbery, vines, and trees. 415 ILCS 5/3.270.

Materials and Management Methods* in this document are subdivided into two categories: See definitions for Traditional material and Non-traditional material.

Municipal Waste: (aka Municipal Solid Waste or MSW): Garbage, general household and commercial waste, industrial lunchroom or office waste, landscape waste, and construction and demolition debris. 415 ILCS 5/3.290.

Non-Traditional Material*: Includes materials managed through programs provided by local governments or by private sector collectors. These materials include batteries, bikes, books, construction & demolition (C&D) recycling and solid waste, confidential documents, electronics, fluorescent tubes and bulbs, household hazardous wastes (HHW), paint, polystyrene, scrap metal, scrap wood, shoes, textiles, tires, tools, and other hard-to-recycle materials.

Organic Material*: Organic material is any material that is biodegradable (can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, methane, or simple organic molecules by micro-organisms and other living things) and comes from either a plant or animal.

Pollution Control Waste: Any liquid, solid, semi-solid or gaseous waste generated as a direct or indirect result of the removal of contaminants from the air, water or land, and which pose a present or potential threat to human health or to the environment or with inherent properties which make the disposal of such waste in a landfill difficult to manage by normal means. “Pollution Control Waste” includes but is not limited to water and wastewater treatment plant sludge; baghouse dusts, landfill waste, scrubber sludge and chemical spill cleanings. 415 ILCS 5/3.335.

Potentially Infectious Medical Waste: The following types of waste generated in connection with the diagnosis, treatment (i.e., provision of medical services), or immunization of human beings or animals; research pertaining to the provision of medical services; or the production or testing of biologicals:

1. Cultures and stocks. This waste shall include but not be limited to cultures and stocks of agents infectious to humans, and associated biologicals; cultures from medical or pathological laboratories; cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories; wastes from the production of biologicals; discarded live or attenuated vaccines; or culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, or mix cultures.

2. Human pathological wastes. This waste shall include tissue, organs, and body parts

(except teeth and the contiguous structures of bone and gum); body fluids that are removed during surgery, autopsy, or other medical procedures; or specimens of body fluids and their containers.

3. Human blood and blood products. This waste shall include discarded waste human blood, blood components (e.g., serum and plasma), or saturated material containing free flowing blood or blood components.

4. Used sharps. This waste shall include but not be limited to discarded sharps used in animal or human patient care, medical research, or clinical or pharmaceutical laboratories; hypodermic, intravenous, or other medical needles; hypodermic or intravenous syringes; Pasteur pipettes; scalpel blades; or blood vials. This waste shall also include but not be limited to other types of broken or unbroken glass (including slides and cover slips) in contact with infectious agents.

5. Animal waste. Animal waste means discarded materials, including carcasses, body parts, body fluids, blood, or bedding originating from animals inoculated during research, production of biologicals, or pharmaceutical testing with agents infectious to humans.

6. Isolation waste. This waste shall include discarded waste materials contaminated with blood, excretions, exudates, and secretions from humans that are isolated to protect others from highly communicable diseases. “Highly communicable diseases” means those diseases identified by the Board in rules adopted under subsection (e) of Section 56.2 of this Act.

7. Unused sharps. This waste shall include but not be limited to the following unused, discarded sharps: hypodermic, intravenous, or other needles; hypodermic or intravenous syringes; or scalpel blades.

Potentially infectious medical waste does not include: waste generated as general household waste; waste (except for sharps) for which the infectious potential has been eliminated by treatment; or sharps that meet both of the following conditions: the infectious potential has been eliminated from the sharps by treatment; and the sharps are rendered unrecognizable by treatment. 415 ILCS 5/3.360.

Recovery: The process of obtaining materials or energy resources from solid waste. 40 CFR 246.101(v).

Recycling Center: A site or facility that accepts only segregated, nonhazardous, nonspecial, homogenous, nonputrescible materials, such as dry paper, glass, cans or plastics, for subsequent use in the secondary materials market. 415 ILCS 5/3.375.

Recycling Market*: A person that receives processed or unprocessed source separated recycled material and utilizes the material as a finished product or raw material in a manufacturing process.

Recycling, Reclamation or Reuse: A method, technique, or process designed to remove any contaminant from waste so as to render such waste reusable, or any process by which materials that would otherwise be disposed of or discarded are collected, separated or processed and returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials or products. 415 ILCS 5/3.380.

Resource Conservation: Reduction of the amounts of waste that are generated, reduction of overall resource consumption and the utilization of recovered resources. 415 ILCS 5/3.415.

Sludge: Any solid, semi-solid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility or any other such waste having similar characteristics and effects. 415 ILCS 5/3.465.

Special Waste: Any potentially infectious medical waste, hazardous waste, industrial process or pollution control waste, except any such waste certified by its generator not to be a liquid, regulated asbestos containing material, polychlorinated biphenyls, industrial process waste subject to waste analysis and recordkeeping requirements of 35 Ill. Adm Code 728.107, or a waste material generated by processing recyclable materials by shredding and required to be managed as a special waste under Section 22.29 of the Act. 415 ILCS 5/3.475.

Traditional Material*: Includes materials that are collected from generators, by waste and recycling haulers typically as part of a regularly-scheduled service. These materials include (1) residential curbside single-stream recycling, organic waste, and solid waste; and (2) commercial recycling, organic waste, and solid waste.

Transfer Station: A site or facility that accepts waste for temporary storage or consolidation and further transfer to a waste disposal, treatment or storage facility. “Transfer station” includes a site where waste is transferred from a rail carrier to a motor vehicle or water carrier; a water carrier to a rail carrier or motor vehicle; a motor vehicle to a rail carrier, water carrier or motor vehicle; a rail carrier to a rail carrier, if the waste is removed from a rail car; or a water carrier to a water carrier, if the waste is removed from a vessel. “Transfer Station” does not include: (i) a site where waste is not removed from the transfer container, or (ii) a site that accepts or receives open top units containing only clean construction and demolition debris, or (iii) a site that stores waste on a refuse motor vehicle or in the vehicle's detachable refuse receptacle for no more than 24 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, but only if the detachable refuse receptacle is completely covered or enclosed and is stored on the same site as the refuse motor vehicle that transported the receptacle to the site. 415 ILCS 5/3.500.

Waste: Any garbage, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility or other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material resulting industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows, or coal combustion by-products as defined in Section

3.135 of the Act, or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under Section 402 under the Federal Water Pollution control Act, or source, special nuclear, or by-product materials as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, or any solid or dissolved material from any facility subject to the Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. 415 ILCS 5/3.535.

Waste Disposal Site: A site on which solid waste is disposed. 415 ILCS 5/3.540.

Waste Generation*: The action or process by which any material is discarded or otherwise no longer used for its intended purpose.

White Goods: All discarded refrigerators, ranges, water heaters, freezers, air conditioner, humidifiers and other similar domestic and commercial large appliances. 415 ILCS 5/22.28(c)(1).

White good components: Any chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant gas; any electrical switch containing mercury; and any device that contains or may contain PCBs in a closed system, such as a dielectric fluid for a capacitor, ballast or other component. 415 ILCS 5/22.28(c)(2).

D) Acronyms

C & D: Construction and Demolition CFR: Code of Federal Regulations CMS: Central Management Services DEP: Department of Environmental Protection EGLE: Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy EPA: Environmental Protection Agency EPR: Extended Producer Responsibility FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions GAIA: Global Analysis for Incinerator Alternatives H.B: House Bill HDPE: High Density Polyethylene HHW: Household Hazardous Waste HVAC: Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Illinois EPA: Illinois Environmental Protection Agency ILCS: Illinois Compiled Statutes ISTC: Illinois Sustainable Technology Center MRF: Materials Recovery Facility MSW: Municipal Solid Waste MtCO2e: Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent NAICS: North American Industry Classification System NGO: Non-Governmental Organizations OCC: Corrugated Cardboard ONP: Newspaper PET: Polyethylene Terephthalate PSI: Product Stewardship Institute SCARCE: School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education SFY: State Fiscal Year SWM: Solid Waste Management US EPA: United States Environmental Protection Agency

III. Overview of Solid Waste and Materials Management in Illinois

A) Materials Generation in the United States

In outlining the fundamentals of its Sustainable Materials Management approach, the US Environmental Protection Agency explains that global raw material use increased during the 20th century at about twice the rate of population growth, and that with each percent increase in gross domestic product, raw material use has risen by 0.4 percent.

US EPA released the 2018 Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Fact and Figures report, with updated data on the management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW; discarded materials generated, landfilled, or recycled) from US residences. The data reveal that the US recycling rate (including composting) was 32.1 percent in 2018--down from approximately 35 percent in 2017.

Meanwhile, the total generation of MSW increased from approximately 268.7 million tons in 2017 to 292.4 million tons in 2018, with the per capita generation increasing from 4.53 lbs./person/day in 2017 to 4.9 lbs./person/day in 2018. Although US EPA notes that “MSW generation rose considerably from 2017 to 2018 mainly because EPA enhanced its food measurement methodology to more fully account for all the ways wasted food is managed throughout the food system,” these generation rates are nonetheless at an all-time high from 1960, the earliest year from which data points are presented in the US EPA report.