The Democratic-led Maine Legislature has endorsed a first-in-the-nation bill that would shift some recycling and waste disposal costs from local taxpayers to producers of hard-to-recycle packaging materials.

The bill, from Rep. Nicole Grohoski, D-Ellsworth, is backed by environmental interests and the cities and towns that would draw from a new fund to bolster recycling programs, but business groups argue that it will increase the costs of essential goods, including groceries.

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