Recycling

A new law makes it illegal to dump more kinds of batteries in landfills and expands a manufacturer-funded recycling program.

Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill in June. The Senate is scheduled to consider the veto override next week.

The first phase of the project is already operating on the Amherst campus.

It's unclear whether the legislation — the first major expansion of Vermont's bottle bill in the past 50 years — will become law with Gov. Phil Scott's approval.

For years, environmentalists have worried about the amount of plastic and glass bottles ending up in landfills across the state. They’re calling to increase recycling rates for these products – which is why lawmakers at the Statehouse are revisiting Vermont's bottle deposit law.

In 2020, Vermont became the first state in the country to legally require residents to compost food scraps. This is the first published research into that law, and another that bans single-use plastics for restaurant takeout.

A new report from Greenpeace found that people may be putting plastic into recycling bins — but almost none of it is actually being recycled. Meanwhile, plastic production is ramping up.

Vermont waste hauler Casella Waste Systems is partnering with international recycling company TerraCycle on a new subscription program to recycle items that previously weren't recyclable. Host Connor Cyrus talks with Kathy Pazakis, executive vice president of commercial at TerraCycle, about the program.

We take a deep dive into Vt.'s recycling system.

You may be ultra diligent when it comes to putting food scraps and compostable products into your compost since the Vermont law went into effect in July 2020. But that compostable foodware — the cups, plates and utensils that hold your take-out and to-go orders — are only meant to be the vehicle for getting your food scraps into the compost bin.