Agenda - Council - 10/23/2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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5.02: Consider 2019 Municipal Recycling Funding Request City Planner Anderson presented the staff report. He stated that each year, Anoka County receives funding from the State of Minnesota pursuant to Minnesota Statute 115A.557. The County distributes these funds, known as SCORE (Select Committee On Recycling and the Environment) funds, to municipalities within the county. In 2019, the allocation includes a base of $10,000 plus $5.00 per household, which would place Ramsey with a base allocation of $55,390 for 2019. He explained that the funding is intended to help municipalities achieve their recycling goals as established by the Anoka County Board of Commissioners. Ramsey's 2019 recycling goal, established by Anoka County, is 2,777 tons (which is an increase of 81 tons from 2018). The goal is based on 215 pounds per person. The City of Ramsey has traditionally used these funds to promote recycling and waste reduction education and awareness, notifying new residents of the recycling program components, to offset costs of the spring and fall recycling day events and other collection events/opportunities, and to fund the recycling coordinator position, whose duties are a component of the City Planner position. City Planner Anderson provided background information on the recent changes in the recycling market. City Planner Anderson stated that in addition to the base allocation, there are four broad funding categories where additional funds can be requested: drop-off, general enhancement, organics, and an open -grant option for general program expansion. Staff is proposing to request an additional $2,700 for the Summer Recycling Event (drop-off), $12,800 for general enhancement (covers parks recycling, event promotion, etc.), and $1,600 for the organics program. While there is the potential for up to $20,000 for the open -grant option, it is clearly not intended to be long-term funding and therefore staff has not included that in the current request. Chairperson Valentine stated that the future of plastics recycling is in doubt and asked if that may bring back interest in incineration rather than landfills. City Planner Anderson stated that the GRE facility in Elk River is closing sometime in 2019, as it was losing funds in the operation. He was unsure that incineration would be a long-term option. He stated clarified that he does not think plastics recycling is going away, but simply needs to be refocused with better education on what is recyclable. He stated that there are markets for the plastics if the contaminates can be taken out on the user end. Board Member Fetterley asked if increased education of the public will allow the City to continue to meet the recycling tonnage goals or whether residents would be less likely to recycle in fear for doing it wrong. City Planner Anderson replied that Ramsey residents do a great job recycling. He stated that in speaking with ACE Solid Waste, the large amount of contaminates are not coming from the Ramsey routes. He acknowledged that it is a fine line as you do not want to discourage people from recycling but simply emphasize recycling the correct materials rather than "wish -cycling". He explained that the mindset for years has been that if you think something can be recycled, put in the recycling whereas the new moto is "when in doubt, throw it out".