House passes Moseley provisions protecting Porter County recycling efforts

INDIANAPOLIS – Hazardous Waste Disposal programs in Porter County will no longer be at risk thanks to a key role State Rep. Chuck Moseley (D-Portage) played in preserving funding for those programs.

Moseley worked with Republican legislators to change House Bill 1342, which originally aimed to enact a fee on people who dispose of harmful chemicals and substances.

If the bill had passed in this form, Moseley said it would have harmed the numerous recycling and waste reduction programs in Porter County. Mosley worked with State Rep. Jim Baird (R-Greencastle) to support an amendment that protected recycling programs from the fee.

“Porter County’s hazardous waste program has been acclaimed for its efforts to encourage safe and practical disposal of these materials,” Moseley said. “If this bill had been allowed to remain as is, those programs would have been severely hampered.”

The program encourages community members in Porter County to bring their toxic or corrosive products to a designated pick up area three times a year, where they will be properly disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

These programs accept and safely dispose of toxic materials including anti-freeze, oils, pesticides and numerous other hazardous chemicals.

“We need to be stewards of our Earth and charging a fee for the proper disposal of hazardous waste would have been detrimental to both our citizens and our environment,” said Moseley.

The House passed the amended bill today, and it now moves to the Indiana Senate for further action.