NWRA Alabama Chapter Announces 2022 Legislative Champion Award Winners
The National Waste & Recycling Association’s (NWRA) Alabama chapter presented its 2022 Legislative Champion awards in Montgomery, Ala., on March 15. These awards were presented to individuals promoting legislation in support of the waste and recycling industry during Alabama’s 2022 legislative session. This year, awards were presented to Sen. Greg Albritton and Rep. Alan Baker, who have proven to be steadfast solid waste advocates in the Alabama legislature.
Starting a long run of support for the industry back in 2016, Albritton and Baker requested a task force be appointed by the governor regarding the new municipal solid waste facility approval process. Several Alabama chapter industry leaders were part of this task force. The findings of this group ultimately were enacted into law in the 2017 regular legislative session, revamping the municipal solid waste facility approval. ACT-2017-366 revised the process for local governing bodies to approve new municipal solid waste facilities.
Albritton and Baker sponsored ACT-2020-30 in the 2020 regular legislative session that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This bill was very important financially for the waste industry, which provides for alternative cover material, other than earth, to cover a landfill or sanitary landfill; alternative cover may be approved by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) in compliance with federal law. These two champions passed this legislation with only 52 other bills of general application that passed the Alabama legislature in 2020.
Albritton and Baker successfully passed legislation ACT-2022-338 in the last regular legislative session, providing the waste industry with a legislative remedy for the permit application process after the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals made an adverse ruling requiring that solid waste permit applicants must return to the local governing body and restart the local approval process for any amendment made to an application, regardless of how insignificant, before ADEM may consider the amended application.
As seen from this extensive list of important legislation, these two gentlemen are indeed champions for the industry, and for that, we owe them a great debt of gratitude.
###
ABOUT NWRA
The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) represents the private sector waste and recycling services industry. Association members conduct business in all 50 states and include companies that manage waste, recycling and medical waste, equipment manufacturers and distributors, and a variety of other service providers. For more information about NWRA, please visit www.wasterecycling.org.
Contact
Brandon Wright
National Waste & Recycling Association
bwright@wasterecycling.org
202-364-3706
