Policy & Legislation | NH Recycles

NH Solid Waste Legislation Updates: 2026 Session

The New Hampshire Legislature's 2026 session is in full swing! NH Recycles tracks bills regarding solid waste and recycling throughout the legislative session. You can check back for updates. This page was last revised on February 23, 2026.

Need a refresher about how the legislative process works in New Hampshire? Here's an overview of how a bill becomes a law. A Glossary of Terms is also provided at the end of this update.

Please note: NH Recycles does not take a position for or against any legislation; however, NH Recycles occasionally provides testimony about proposed legislation to educate elected officials about how proposed legislation might impact NH Recycles' member communities.

2026 Legislation

Bills voted Ought to Pass

HB707-FN (Senate) and HB1189-FN (House): establishing a solid waste site evaluation committee.

Sponsors: (Prime) Kelley Potenza, Bill Boyd, Nicholas Germana, Haskins, King, Judy Aron, Noble, Burroughs, Gruber, Schmidt, Fenton, Ricciardi, Rochefort
Committee: Finance (Senate); Environment and Agriculture (House)
Status: Ought to Pass with Amendment

HB451-FN (Senate) and HB1198-FN (House): establishing the paint product stewardship program.

Sponsors: (Prime) Karen Ebel, David Watters, Peter Leishman, Peter Bixby, Kevin Avard, Dick Thackston, Anita Burroughs, Megan Murray, Cindy Rosenwald, Judy Aron, James Creighton, Howard Pearl, Carry Spier
Committee: Ways and Means (Senate); Commerce and Consumer Affairs (House)
Status: Ought to Pass

HB1138 (House): limiting the placement of out-of-state waste going into New Hampshire landfills.

Sponsors: (Prime) Nicholas Germana, David Watters, Peter Bixby, Karen Ebel, Nancy Murphy, Cindy Rosenwald, Judy Aron, Bill Boyd, Donovan Fenton, Kelley Potenza, Linda Haskins, James Gruber
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Ought to Pass

HB1141 (House): prohibiting the extraction of groundwater for the purpose of bottling in plastic bottles.

Sponsors: (Prime) Tony Caplan, Peter Bixby, Nicholas Germana, Parshall, Read
Committee: Resources, Recreation and Development
Status: Ought to Pass with Amendment

HB1192 (House): exempting certain household pharmaceutical wastes from the definition of hazardous waste.

Sponsors: (Prime) Linda Haskins, Nicholas Germana
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Ought to Pass

HB1602-FN (House): creating a safe battery recycling stewardship program.

Sponsors: (Prime) Karen Ebel, Burroughs, Spier, Thackston, Judy Aron, Barbour, Bixby, Creighton, Maggiore, Rosenwald, Ricciardi, Pearl, Avard, Watters
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Ought to Pass with Amendment, referred to House Finance Committee

HB1622-FN (House): requiring the state to develop additional solid waste disposal capacity.

Sponsors: (Prime) Linda Haskins, Nicholas Germana, Potenza, Wendy Thomas, Gruber, Fenton, Ricciardi
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Ought to Pass with Amendment, referred to House Finance Committee

Bills voted Inexpedient to Legislate or Other

HB619-FN-A (House): making an appropriation to the solid waste management fund.

Sponsors: (Prime) Karen Ebel, Judy Aron, Bill Boyd, Mooney, Nicholas Germana, Bixby, Leishman, Rung, Grote, Nancy Murphy, Watters, Ricciardi, Avard, Rosenwald
Committee: Finance
Status: Inexpedient to Legislate

HB1096 (House): establishing a committee to study ways to manage disposal of vapes and e-cigarettes.

Sponsors: (Prime) Nicholas Germana, Judy Aron, Barbour, Bixby, Gruber, Haskins, Potenza, Wade, Ebel, Fenton, Pearl, Watters
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Inexpedient to Legislate

HB1282 (House): establishing a commission to advise the department of environmental services on food waste diversion.

Sponsors: (Prime) Lucius Parshall, Nicholas Germana, Gruber, Caplan
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Inexpedient to Legislate

HB1679-FN (House): establishing a beverage container redemption program.

Sponsors: (Prime) Alissandra Murray, Malloy, Hegner, Horrigan, Haskins, Harvey, Fellows, Manohar, Lucas, LaMontagne
Committee: Commerce and Consumer Affairs
Status: Inexpedient to Legislate

Bills moved to Interim Study

SB226-FN (Senate): suspending applications for new landfills and establishing a committee to study the feasibility of incinerating solid waste.

Sponsors: (Prime) Rochefort, Fenton, Ricciardi, Nicholas Germana, Wheeler
Committee: Energy and Natural Resources
Status: Interim Study

SB556-FN (Senate): including syringes and similar medical devices in the definition of special waste for purposes of solid waste management and making the disposal of such special waste a felony.

Sponsors: (Prime) Keith Murphy, Sen. Pearl, Sen. Innis, Sen. Birdsell, Sen. Abbas
Committee: Judiciary
Status: Referred to Interim Study

Bills in Committee

HB1478-FN (House): requiring the department of environmental services to revise the rules for proposed new landfills.

Sponsors: (Prime) Kelley Potenza, Anita Burroughs, Judy Aron, Denise Ricciardi, Donovan Fenton, Seth King, Liz Barbour, Nicholas Germana, James Gruber, David Rochefort
Committee: Environment and Agriculture
Status: Public Hearing on 02/24/2026

SB593 (Senate): relative to landfills.

Sponsors: (Prime) Kevin Avard, David Watters, Howard Pearl, Mark McConkey
Committee: Energy and Natural Resources
Status: Public Hearing complete

The earlier House Bill 2026-2288 relative to the recycling of film plastics was WITHDRAWN prior to moving from LSR to Bill.

Resources: The General Court of New Hampshire

Glossary of Terms

Indefinitely postpone:

Bill considered killed.

Inexpedient to legislate (ITL):

A recommendation by the committee indicating that the committee is against the bill.
Bill considered killed.

Legislative Service Request (LSR):

An LSR is a filing made by a legislator for a proposed bill and submitted to the Office of Legislative Services to have a bill drafted. It is then assigned a bill docket number. Draft bills come from the 400 elected members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and the 24 members of the New Hampshire Senate.

Ought to pass (OTP):