About the Four County Joint Solid Waste District
In 1988, Ohio’s legislature passed House Bill 592, this legislature updated Ohio’s 20-year old solid waste law that would now require a planning process at both the local and state government levels. The goals of this planning process are to ensure that there is adequate and environmentally sound management capacity for Ohio’s solid waste and to increase the efforts of Ohio’s communities, businesses and industries to reduce and recycle solid wastes.
House Bill 592 required the Director of the Ohio EPA, with the advice of the Solid Waste Management Advisory Council (SWAC), to prepare a State Solid Waste Management Plan to meet specific requirements established in the statute. It also required all counties in Ohio to establish Solid Waste Management Districts (SWMDs), either independently or jointly with other counties. ALL SWMDs are required to develop and implement their own solid waste management plans that comply with the goals established in the State Plan.
Ohio has eighty-eight counties that have structured into fifty-two Solid Waste Management Districts. Of the fifty-two SWMDs in Ohio, thirty-seven are single county districts and fifteen are multi-county (joint) districts. (See Ohio Solid Waste District Map).
Our four county solid waste district is comprised of Defiance, Fulton, Paulding and Williams counties and is named the Four County Joint Solid Waste Management District. Additional information per each county in the district can be obtained by clicking on the county of choice below.
Each solid waste management district (SWMD) is required to develop a solid waste management district plan in order to determine the solid waste management needs of the district and provide an agenda for implementation of programs to meet those needs. These plans must achieve certain goals established in the State Plan. Typically a plan contains descriptions of the type and quantity of solid wastes generated in the district, current landfill disposal and recycling activities that take place and descriptions of the reduction and recycling programs that will be implemented in the future.
The Four County Joint Solid Waste Management District has met or exceeded the state’s recycling requirements and intends to continue providing education and facilitating the programs necessary for recycling, composting and source reducing waste. If you would like more information on the Four County Joint Solid Waste Management District please contact the Coordinator, Warren Schlatter, at (419)-782-5442.