A new report is urging Vermont to consider mandatory recycling and more potent financial incentives to get people to use recycle bins and compost piles rather than landfills.
The 28-page "Solid Waste Report to the Vermont Legislature” by solid waste regulators says Vermont is well short of a 2001 goal of having 50 percent of solid waste from homes and businesses recycled.
Recycling can reduce the use of landfills, which can pose environmental hazards and are expensive to build and operate.
Some of the suggestions in the report include mandatory statewide recycling, encouraging people to pay for trash disposal by weight and considering reducing the number of waste disposal districts.