The legislature finds that Iowa’s environment and natural resources should be protected, and that reducing and recycling solid waste helps limit landfill use and increase reusable materials.
The general assembly finds that: 1. Iowa’s environment is precious and no person has the right to pollute Iowa’s air, water, or soil. The environment is vulnerable and irreplaceable, and all Iowans have an ongoing responsibility to conserve, preserve, and enhance the state’s natural resources to guarantee their continued existence and use by the present and future generations. 2. The land itself is the source of Iowa’s livelihood not only for the purposes of an agricultural economy, but for the establishment of manufacturing plants, business offices, and residences. While zoning establishes restrictions on the use of land for social order, a similar system has not been established to maintain environmental order below the ground. Protection of the environment includes not only visible but invisible threats as well. 3. The rapidly rising volume of waste deposited by society threatens the capacity of existing and future landfills. The nature of waste disposal today means that unknown quantities of potentially toxic and hazardous materials are being buried and pose a constant threat to the groundwater supply. In addition, the nature of the waste and disposal methods utilized allow the waste to remain basically inert for decades, if not centuries, without decomposition. 4. Wastes filling Iowa’s landfills may, at best, represent a potential resource. However, without proper management, wastes are hazards to the environment and life itself. 5. The reduction of solid waste at the source and the recycling of reusable waste materials will reduce the flow of waste to sanitary landfills and increase the supply of reusable materials for the use of the public. 89 Acts, ch 272, §2