The legislature's Environment Committee has held a hearing on a host of bills dealing with single use plastic products.  Bethel First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker testified in favor of a bill to ban plastic bags.

Another bill under consideration requires stores to charge customers at least 5 cents per bag. Governor Ned Lamont has called for a 10-cent per bag tax.  Lamont says about one billion plastic bags are used annually in Connecticut, but the recycling rate is approximately 5 percent.

Other bills ban restaurants from providing single-use plastic straws unless requested by a customer. 

Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi testified about a pilot program to pull glass out, which has eliminated 12 to 15 percent of total recycling.  It's cleaned and accepted at a designated destination.  He wants the state to establish a task force to look at how to dispose of waste in Connecticut that's generated in the state, rather than being dependent on foreign countries. 

Regional trash authority Housatonic Resources Recovery Association, and HRRA’s contracted hauler, either incinerate or send recyclables overseas to China.  China is the largest purchaser of recyclable waste, and waste in general, from the US, but recently enacted stricter regulations, rejecting more shipments of recycled materials over contamination.