RecyclingMonster - The City of Casper have been surveying citizens regarding what they would like to see happen with the city’s residential recycling program.
Casper Solid Waste Manager Cindie Langston explained during the council’s April 28 work session that recycling brokers have been implementing “new zero contamination tolerance levels” which has led to an increase in the number of recycling loads being rejected in the last six months.
The council discussed possibly eliminating residential recycling depots, but decided to first seek public input as to what they would like to see happen.
City Manager Carter Napier said during the council’s Tuesday, May 12 work session that public comments will be accepted through Friday, but that initial results indicate strong support to keep the residential recycling depots open and to open the materials recovery facility (MRF) at the landfill to accept recycling and work to ensure deposited materials are not contaminated.
Napier said that the city had received 1,002 online survey responses as of 4 pm Tuesday, including 870 from Casper residents. 61% of people surveyed online so far have preferred to keep the residential recycling depots open and open the MRF.
76 people have provided input over the phone, but the city has been able to analyze only 47 of those responses so far. 76% of those responses preferred to keep the depots open and open the MRF as well. The city has also received 38 paper responses, but have not yet tallied those results.
Under the preferred option, the city would charge an additional $1.70 month to Casper residential customers.
“Because the MRF is used to remove contamination from the recycling depot collections, it is expected the recycling rate will continue to increase by up to 5% every year,” the city adds under this option on the survey. “As the demand for recycling materials increase worldwide, revenues from the sale of materials increases, and the garbage volumes buried in the landfill decreases.”
Councilman Mike Huber asked whether giving up recycling would lead to a significant loss in revenue for the city.
Napier said that the sale of recycled commodities generates about $63,000 a year. He said that funding is used to offset an overall cost of about $600,000 to run the MRF and the residential recycling program.
Councilman Bob Hopkins said he personally preferred the option to close the residential depots but open the MRF as a drop-off point for recycling. But he said that if people are willing to pay to keep the recycling sites open he would be okay with that.
“If it takes more than $1.70, I think we should not be bashful in charging for it,” he added. “The truth is there is almost no money in anything you recycle, except for aluminium cans.”
Councilman Steve Cathey asked whether the city would be increasing other utility rates this year, noting that a few dollars increase here or there could start to add up.
“They don’t sound like much individually, but pretty soon you have a pretty big rate increase to our constituents and with what the economy has been, I’m not sure we ought to be looking at going there.”
Napier said that other utility rates were set in January and likely won’t need to be modified before the end of the calendar year.
Councilman Ken Bates said he agreed with the option most of those surveyed have preferred. He added that he’d like to see more public education to help ensure that recycling contamination is kept to a minimum.
Councilman Charlie Powell said that he thought it was unrealistic that Casper could achieve 0% contamination, but that the council should listen to what the public indicated in the survey.
“I don’t think there is much point in collecting all this public input if we’re not going to listen to it,” he said.
Huber said that he had some skepticism about the survey as to whether people understood what contamination means.
“I am 100% in favor of recycling,” he added. “I hate throwing things away because I abhor waste.”
He said that contamination can refer to packaging tape on cardboard which can lead to recycling loads being rejected. Bates said that he disagreed and thought people understood and will be more cautious regarding the contamination, particularly if more education is offered.
Mayor Steve Freel encouraged people to continue responding to the survey through Friday before the council makes a final decision.
Contamination refers to things like tape or staples on cardboard, which, if not removed, leads to rejected recycling loads which then end up in the landfill, Langston explained at the previous work session.
“In February 2020, 25% of the recyclable materials collected were rejected and sent back to the the landfill due to material contamination, meaning wrong items were being placed in in the bins, such as non-recyclable plastics were placed into the number one plastics bins, and Styrofoam and packing materials were placed into the corrugated cardboard bin,” a memo from Langston and Public Services Director Andrew Beamer states.
Because Casper is unable to ensure that there is zero contamination, as much as 100% of residential recycling material could be rejected moving forward.
Langston explained at the last work session that public education to ensure people understand what is considered contamination and remove all such contamination prior to dropping material off for recycling is difficult, but would be easier if the city were to close residential drop-off depots and only accept recycling at the Material Recovery Facility, where construction was completed in November 2019.
That facility is being used to store and bale corrugated cardboard as well as plastics #1 and #2, according to the memo.
The current residential recycling program has an operational cost of $226,272. An increase in the number of rejected loads will increase operational costs.
Langston explained six options for the city council to consider:
- Continue with the existing residential recycling program and accept that an increased number of loads will end up in the landfill
- Get rid of residential recycling altogether (noting that landfill space is not lacking at the Casper Regional Landfill)
- Keep the 12 existing residential recycling depots open, but add extra staff at the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) at the landfill to better handle contamination
- Close the residential depots, but accept recycling at the MRF
- Close the 12 residential depots, but still accept recycling at the MRF and hire a private company to offer optional curbside service
- Close the residential depots and mandate curbside recycling
Further details are available in the council’s work session work packet.
If you would like to contact members of the Casper City Council regarding this or any other issue, here is their contact information:
Mayor Steve Freel (Ward III, Term expires 1/3/23):
- sfreel@casperwy.gov
- ?(307) 259-1276
Vice Mayor Khrystyn Lutz (Ward I, Term expires 1/3/23):
- klutz@casperwy.gov
- (307) 359-3673
Councilman Charlie Powell (Ward II, Term Expires 1/5/21):
- cpowell@casperwy.gov
- (307) 577-6042
Councilman Shawn Johnson (Ward II, Term expires 1/3/23):
- shjohnson@casperwy.gov
- (307) 337-5057
- (307) 277-7377
Councilman Ken Bates (Ward II, Term expires 1/5/21):
- kbates@casperwy.gov
- (307) 473-1247
Councilman Steve Cathey (Ward III, Term Expires 1/5/21):
- scathey@casperwy.gov
- (307) 262-8237
Councilman Bob Hopkins (Ward I, Term expires 1/5/21):
- bhopkins@casperwy.gov
- (307) 472-1837
Councilman Mike Huber (Ward I, Term expires 1/5/21):
- mhuber@casperwy.gov
- (307) 266-4188
Councilman Ray Pacheco (Ward III, Term expires 1/3/23):
- rpacheco@casperwy.gov
- (307) 258-1226
Council members can also be reached by mail at: 200 N. David Street, 82601
If you would like to contact members in your specific ward, but don’t know which ward you are in, a map is available at the City of Casper’s website.
Courtesy : oilcity.news
