The cutbacks in the amount of materials Polk County officials allow in recycling carts in unincorporated parts of the county could soon spread throughout the state if waste haulers succeed in changing the law.
Major private garbage haulers began lobbying the Florida Legislature and representatives of the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida League of Cities last year to change state law.
The proposed changes being considered in the current legislative session would allow companies to reject loads that contained too much contamination and divert the recycling trucks to the landfill.
They argue that the changing nature of the market for recycling is setting higher standards and that many materials that traditionally were allowed in recycling bins, such as glass, have no market value and simply contaminate the load.
In addition, the effort highlighted the contamination problems caused by customers who put materials that have never been considered recyclable in municipal curbside programs, such as food-contaminated containers (pizza boxes are a big one) , plastic bags and polystyrene (often incorrectly termed stryofoam) containers.
In some areas, people have also been using recycling carts as extra containers for household garbage.
Another aspect of the effort is to attempt to educate garbage customers on what to put where.
A fallback position has been to propose fining chronic violators of the recycling rules.
Meanwhile, another bill has been filed to require beverage deposits.
It was filed, assigned to three committees and has not been heard in any of them.