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Executive Summary
Introduction:
North Carolina’s Recycling Vision
As the new home of NCPIRG's environmental work,
Environment North Carolina can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.
In the last 10 years, responding
to protests of citizens over new landfills, illegal dumping, and unsightly litter,
state leaders have enacted several measures to avert a solid waste crisis. Decisionmakers
required municipal landfills to be lined to help protect groundwater. To reduce
waste disposal and encourage recycling, officials banned certain types of garbage
from landfills altogether, required local government planning, and commanded
state agencies to buy recycled paper. Through these programs, state leaders
planned to reduce waste disposal by 40%. In 1991, a revision of the 1989 Solid
Waste Management Act allowed counties to set their own goals for waste reduction.
Some of these reforms have
produced important results for North Carolina. Recycling by county governments
has, on average, increased since 1991. A 1996 Executive Order requiring all
state agencies to purchase only recycled paper has boosted markets for recycled
materials. Materials such as yard waste, tires, and old appliances, known as
“white goods,” have been banned from landfills, diverting more than 650,000
tons of waste from the state’s landfills each year—lowering the state’s per
capita disposal rate by seven percent.
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