2026 Legislative priorities: Strengthening America’s waste & recycling infrastructure

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) represents companies responsible for more than 75 percent of the nation’s solid, industrial, hazardous and medical waste services. Our 2026 legislative priorities focus on practical, effective policies that enhance safety, support recycling and protect the infrastructure that keeps communities clean and functioning. Public safety, operational feasibility and measurable results are the lens for every position below.

State priorities

Packaging extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs can increase system costs without demonstrably improving recovery rates. They function as a “grocery tax,” raising consumer prices and too often failing to deliver better environmental outcomes. NWRA supports recycling systems that produce high quality, marketable materials—not costly, ineffective mandates.

Certain materials, such as batteries, tires, mattresses and paint, require special handling and funding to ensure safe, responsible management. NWRA supports narrowly tailored, producer funded programs for these materials to reduce contamination and improve recovery and worker safety.

Lithium batteries are no longer niche. From 160 million-220 million batteries are sold in the U.S. each year, powering everyday electronics. When damaged, punctured or improperly discarded, they can ignite or explode, creating a growing safety risk across the waste and recycling system.

Publicly reported waste and recycling facility fires numbered 448 in 2025, with more than 3,500 additional fires managed before becoming catastrophic.

To protect the industry, NWRA supports legislation that:

• reduces fire risks for collection, transfer, processing and disposal operations;
• provides consistent statewide public collection;
• ensures sustainable funding; and
• aligns with operational realities.

However, NWRA opposes battery proposal bills that:

• prohibit disposal before effective collection systems can be put into place;
• confuse consumers by limiting battery collection to certain chemistries; and
• shift responsibility to waste operations.

Public education is essential. NWRA supports clear, nationally consistent messaging that helps consumers identify batteries, prepare them safely and find appropriate drop-off locations. The National Waste & Recycling Foundation’s national public service announcement campaign—“Skip the Bin! Turn Your Batteries In!”—provides that level of practical guidance, directing people to https://BatterySafetyNow.org.

Reliable, predictable permitting is essential for maintaining the capital-intensive infrastructure needed to collect, process and dispose of waste. NWRA supports reforms that ensure states can meet their own waste and recycling needs.

When governments impose fees, private haulers should not be forced to act as tax collectors. If unavoidable, invoices should clearly identify government-mandated charges.

“Lithium-ion batteries can ignite or explode, creating a growing safety risk across the waste and recycling system.”

Federal priorities

Waste and recycling companies do not produce per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—they receive PFAS-containing materials because these chemicals are ubiquitous in consumer products. Regulating PFAS under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA, exposes permitted facilities to unlimited liability for materials they did not create.

Instead, NWRA supports:

• federal protections for passive receivers;
• adding private landfills to EPA’s discretionary enforcement guidance; and
• legislative action if EPA does not address unintended consequences for wastewater systems, drinking water utilities, composting operations and landfills.

NWRA advocates for practical, science-based policies to protect public safety, strengthen recycling and ensure long-term infrastructure reliability.