The Dayton City Council Feb. 8 discussed options to fulfill Hennepin County’s requirements for organics recycling.
Cities are required to make organic recycling services available to all households with curbside recycling services in 2022, according to Hennepin County. Each city has flexibility on how to meet the requirement, including contracting for citywide services, requiring haulers to have organics recycling available, or because the city is under 10,000 in population, it can choose one organics recycling drop-off location instead of curbside pickup.
City Clerk Amy Benting told the council that in March it will need to decide what organics recycling option it would like to use to fulfill the requirements.
Republic Services has purchased Randy’s Environmental Services, the city’s waste and recycling provider. This is a phased transition. Benting provided the council with three options. The first two options would extend the contract with Randy’s/Republic.
The first option presented to the council was an all-in, everyone pays. All residents would be charged an organics recycling fee. Residents would be provided with an organics cart, ranging in price of $5.50 to 7 a month.
“These prices were just given to us just for discussion reasons,” Benting said. “If we actually went with any of these choices, they would have to give us what the actual price would be.”
The second option would be subscription-based. Those residents who want to participate in the organics recycling can request a cart for about $15 to 20 a month.
The third option would be for the city to require all licensed haulers to offer organics recycling to those residents who request it. “Champlin just implemented this and it cost their residents $60 a month if they want,” Benting said. “They have no one participating.”
Benting said the city could also get requests for proposals from other companies, which could allow the city to see if other companies offer more competitive prices for the same services.
The fourth, and final option, would be for the city to have a 2-yard dumpster placed on city property where residents can dispose of their organic materials. Republic Services provides the dumpster for about $125 a month or $1,500 a year for weekly collection services.
“This is the program staff is currently proposing,” Benting said. “I think we could find a place at the old public works facility.”
The only requirements would be for the dumpster to be in a locked area, and residents would take a short class on the education of organics recycling.
The city currently has 33 residents participating in organics recycling.
Councilor Julie Gustafson said she was in favor of either the subscription or the dumpster option.
“If a year or two years go by and we say this isn’t working, we can still revert to one of these other three choices,” Mayor Dennis Fisher said of the dumpster option.
Councilor David Fashant said this was a place to start, but the city needs to do more. He thought the city could create a pilot program on the subscription service and see how it works.
“Could we put a survey together on Survey Monkey and survey a neighborhood?” Gustafson asked. “You would just put a survey in a couple of the bigger neighborhoods and see what results you get?”
Benting said she could.
The council gave direction for staff to look into the dumpster option.
Other
In other action, the council:
APPROVED the purchase of two 2022 Dodge Durangos at a cost of $69,096 for the police department. The council previously approved the purchases for a total of $132,000 for the vehicles and equipment.
APPROVED a job offer to Kristi Dehn to fill the police administrative assistant II position. The council previously approved this additional 32-hour staff position for the police department.
