GOP Keeps Recycling Plan on Trash Heap

Congress is full of rules. Rules that cover office assignments, staff size, phone use, furniture shape, even paint color.

Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) wants one more: a mandatory recycling program.

So far, GOP congressional leaders have thwarted his efforts. Recycling is a laudable goal, they agree, but as they fight to reduce government regulations on other fronts, the Republicans have been in no mood to adopt another requirement for Congress.

Farr, for his part, pledges to persevere. Now that lawmakers have reconvened for the year, he plans a renewed effort to lobby and persuade his colleagues that what’s good for Earth is good for them.

“Why we can’t practice in the House of Representatives what we practice in our own homes is beyond me,” Farr said.

Since he was first elected to the House in 1992, Farr has submitted legislation three times that would create an official House recycling program for paper, metal and colored glass. In an effort to keep the initiative nonpartisan, Farr said he is willing to leave the plan’s finer points of collection, organization, scheduling and enforcement up to the Capitol architect.

Farr has tried different strategies to squeeze his recycling plan into law, introducing it as a separate bill and as an amendment to a larger piece of legislation--all to no avail.

*

A leading foe has been Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield), who as a chairman of the House Administration Committee oversees the nuts and bolts of the chamber’s operations.

Jason Poblete, a spokesman for Thomas, said the lawmaker fully encourages recycling but believes a mandatory program would be onerous for offices already bogged down by rules.

Currently, the House operates a voluntary program that Farr’s office decries as ineffective. “Government ought to be a leader and a model if we are going to require and emphasize recycling,” he said.

His staff does its best to set an example. Aides said the office is one of the most environmentally friendly in Congress, purchasing 90% of its paper from recycled sources. “Everything except for the official, heavy House letterhead,” one said.

Others concede that the glass and metal recycling efforts are poor, but add that the volume of cans and bottles generated on Capitol Hill is not that significant.

Paper, on the other hand, is a commodity that many offices are now making a conscious effort to recycle.

“Paper is on people’s minds because there is so much of it that surrounds us,” said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton).

In 1998, with staffers and congressional members more keenly aware of the mountains of paper generated on Capitol Hill, the voluntary recycling program earned $25,000. But Farr said the program should be earning closer to $150,000.

It’s still a considerable step forward from 1997, when the House’s roughly 8,000 employees generated 4.4 million pounds of paper but earned only $7.51 from private recycling contractors, according to the Capitol architect.

*

Very few state government or federal agencies have obligatory recycling programs in effect. The California Legislature operates under a rule that encourages the recycling of glass, tin and paper. The program also urges offices to purchase recycled products whenever possible.

That has not always proved popular, however. An effort to use recycled Post-it notes encountered resistance after numerous state bureaucrats complained that the politically correct notes just didn’t stick. It was scrapped.

Though recycling is not mandatory in California’s capitol, it is treated as such, said Cindy Lavagetto, a staffer with the state Senate Rules Committee. Every state Senate office is recycling in some fashion, she said.

The state Capitol recycled 313 tons of paper, cardboard and newsprint during the last fiscal year, said John Frith, a spokesman for the Integrated Waste Management Board, which oversees the operation.

A California law passed last year will require all state agencies to dramatically reduce the waste they send to landfills--something cities and counties were required to do years ago--and that will push all lawmakers to chip in, Frith said.

But there are concerns. Waste management officials recently met with Gov. Gray Davis’ staff to try to hammer out a better recycling plan for his office--and ease fears that someone might poke through the rubbish in search of juicy material.

“There was an issue with shredding of confidential documents,” Frith said.

Times staff writer Miguel Bustillo contributed to this column.