Sec. 380.401. - Legislative findings.

The Council finds as follows: (a) With respect to solid waste, that: (1) The continuing technological progress and improvement in methods of manufacture, packaging and marketing of consumer products has resulted in an evermounting increase, and in a change in the characteristics, of the mass material discarded by the purchasers of these products. (2) The economic and population growth of the City, and the improvements in the standard of living enjoyed by the City's population, have required increased industrial production to meet their needs and have made necessary the demolition of old buildings, the construction of new buildings and the provision of highways and other avenues of transportation which, together with related industrial, commercial and agricultural operations, have resulted in a rising tide of scrap, discarded and waste materials. (3) The continuing concentration of population in the expanding metropolitan area of the City has presented the City with financial, management, intergovernmental and technical problems in the disposal of solid wastes resulting from the industrial, commercial, domestic and other activities carried on in the City. (b) With respect to the environment and health, that: (1) Although land is too valuable a City resource to be needlessly polluted by discarded materials, most solid waste is disposed of on land in open dumps and sanitary landfills. (2) Disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste in or on the land without careful planning and management can present a danger to human health and the environment. (3) As a result of numerous federal and State laws respecting public health and the environment, greater amounts of solid waste (in the form of sludge and other pollution treatment residues) have been created. (4) Open dumping is particularly harmful to health, contaminates drinking water from underground and surface supplies and pollutes the air and the land. (5) Alternatives to existing methods of land disposal must be developed since the City will be running out of suitable solid waste disposal sites within the foreseeable future unless immediate action is taken. (c) With respect to materials, that: (1) Hundreds of thousands of tons of recoverable material which could be used are needlessly buried each year. (2) Methods are available to separate usable materials from solid waste. (3) The recovery and conservation of such materials is necessary to conserve both irreplaceable natural resources and the energy expended in extracting and processing them, when recycling can produce usable materials with much less energy expenditures and without drawing down further on natural resources. (Ord. 84-1398-734, § 1)