The Harford County Council passed legislation Tuesday night mandating recycling at most apartment complexes and outdoor events, but not before council members amended the bill to eliminate a requirement for detailed record-keeping of the amount of material recycled.
Sponsored by the county administration, the legislation requires owners of apartment or condominium buildings with at least 10 dwelling units to provide recycling under the county's single-stream recycling program and remove recyclables at least once a week.
As introduced, however, apartment building owners or condominium councils also would have been required to keep records of the amount of recycling collected for at least three years, with violators subject penalties of up to $50 daily.
The council jettisoned the reporting requirement, but also passed another amendment to increase penalties for noncompliance with the rest of the legislation from $50 to $200 per day.
The bill also requires recycling at special events that use a public street or facility or public park, serve food or drink and expect to have at least 200 people attend.
A recycling container must be placed immediately next to each trash receptacle, be clearly distinguished from trash containers and be collected after the event.
Food scrap recycling also must be provided if feasible, and each organizer must submit a report detailing the quantity of recyclables and the type of material after the event, according to the legislation.
The county administration had said earlier that the recycling plan aimed at apartments, condominiums and outdoor special events is in line with a law approved last year by the Maryland General Assembly.
But during a council public hearing on the legislation Feb. 17, Tommy Thompson, government affairs director for the Maryland Multi-Housing Association, said it would be very difficult for trash collectors to keep track of the exact amount of trash being collected and recycled from each affected building. He suggested it might be more "fair and equitable" if just an estimate were required.
"In terms of the needs to recycle, I think that need should pretty much stop at the point where we have the Dumpsters and the containers in place," Councilman Mike Perrone said, adding that the reporting requirements just mark "another thin layer of regulatory burden being added to businesses."
Perrone said estimates should be done at trash transfer weigh stations, once all material is collected.
Councilman Jim McMahan agreed with him.
"I considered it an overreach on the part of the reporting," McMahan said. "It's the aggregate we're going for in the county, how much we recycle...we don't have a need to have Dumpster police."
Council Attorney Charles Kearney confirmed the state statute does not require any recording mandates, but Perrone said he hadn't considered that, anyway, in wanting to eliminate it from the Harford bill.
"The state has a long history of requiring counties to do too much," he said. "They just pass the buck to the counties and say, 'Do our dirty work for us.' And that leaves voters in the position of, where do we point the finger?"