Members of the Senate policy staff distribute agendas and information at the start of last night’s Recycling Summit, which featured a panel presentation on the status of recycling programs in the state. From left: Michael Nugent, policy intern; Dino Autiello and Robert Kalaskowski, both policy analysts.

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The Providence Journal / Connie Grosch

It may seem counterintuitive for some to think about the value of what is deemed trash, but the state’s landfill recycling manager is advising the legislature to consider making Rhode Islanders pay for everything they throw away — down to the last take-out container and soda can.

The state’s landfill is facing a costly expansion in two years that could top $100 million, landfill managers told state senators last night in the first Senate Recycling Summit, and now is the time to look for ways to curb the stream of waste heading to Johnston.

Of the 1.2 million tons of refuse trucked in every year, about half can be diverted for other uses, said Senate President Joseph Montalbano.

Suggestions include mandating successful municipal recycling programs such as “pay-as-you-throw,” where residents are charged for their trash by the bag and recyclables are accepted for free, to ramping up enforcement of existing business recycling laws that are rarely enforced.

Last year, the state’s overall municipal recycling rate hovered at about 15 percent, and businesses, schools and government only manage to salvage 4 percent of their recyclable materials.

If the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, the Department of Environmental Management and the Statewide Planning Commission have their way, the state is going to have to be more accountable for what it dispatches to the state landfill.

“Recycling is timely, but it is even more timely now in these dire financial times,” said the summit moderator and chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Agriculture, Sen. V. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown.

A 100-acre addition to the landfill is currently under review by the DEM.

For their part, the RIRRC has set concrete goals, like boasting municipal recycling to 35 percent by 2012, and a way to reach them — mandating À la carte payment of residential garbage by 2011.

Currently, 10 of 39 cities and towns offer some form of pay-as-you-throw, which has generally achieved increased recycling rates.

“You only pay for what you throw, you don’t subsidize anyone’s wasteful habits,” said RIRRC recycling manager Sarah Kite.

The quasi-public agency has also advised lawmakers to increase commercial disposal rates to elevate the abysmal recycling rate of Rhode Island industry, government and schools, and to continue offering educational programs with the DEM.

To renew its effort to enforce recycling laws that mandate the recovery of 17 types of waste including office paper, steel, wood and oil, the DEM sent a letter to more than 2,300 businesses last week asking them to report their recycling habit so the agency can formulate guidelines to improve compliance.

All businesses with more than 50 employees have to report to the DEM by Feb. 15, and have until February 2009 to conform to the law, before facing any penalty.

Commercial garbage accounts for about 60 percent of the state’s trash and about 80 percent of the RIRRC’s revenue, but Kite said it is still in the agency’s best interest to decrease the volume of non-residential trash even though it will make less money on tipping fees.

Money can be made from recyclables removed from the waste stream and there is a financial gain to extending the life of the landfill, she said.

During the meeting, Sen. Christopher Maselli, D-Johnston, asked about the corporation’s interest in waste-to-energy projects that use trash as fuel to generate electricity.

RIRRC Executive Director Michael O’Connell told the senators that the corporation was taking its time to consider all options and would present a report by a hired consultant to the Statewide Planning Council by the end of next month.

ngarcia@projo.com