Florida taking a different path to getting to a 75% recycling rate

by Jeremy Carroll

Jeff Littlejohn, deputy secretary for regulation programs for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, talks to the Corporate Recycling & Waste Conference outside of Orlando, Fla.

Jeremy Carroll, Waste & Recycling News Jeff Littlejohn, deputy secretary for regulation programs for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, talks to the Corporate Recycling & Waste Conference outside of Orlando, Fla.

Florida's 75% recycling rate goal by 2020 is an ambitious one. It's especially ambitious when you consider the state's current recycling rate is 31%.

Even if waste-to-energy is considered into that formula (a controversial subject for another day), the state still "has a long way to go," said Jeff Littlejohn, deputy secretary for regulation programs for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, at the Corporate Recycling & Waste Conference outside of Orlando, Fla.

Littlejohn was the keynote speaker of the conference, talking about improvements the department has made to reduce permit time and increase recycling.

One of the biggest opportunities for increases in the state's overall recycling rate is the commercial market, he said.

"Quite simply, we can't make our goal without the commercial sector," Littlejohn said.

While California's similar goal has come with mandated commercial and apartment recycling, the same hasn't happened in Florida.

"I think our legislature got it right by not mandating and leaving innovation up to you," he said to the crowd.

The different approaches that California and Florida have taken to reach the same goal will be a fantastic experiment. While leading the way in goal-setting, they will provide a good path for state's after them to see what approach may work best.

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