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<br />Senior Planner Anderson said residents can opt not to recycle; however, they would still be <br />responsible for paying the $3.98 for the service. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht asked if it would be feasible to offer an opt out option. He shared that he <br />hears from residents who are frustrated that they have to pay for the service when they do not <br />recycle. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Anderson said they could explore this; however, he thinks it would be very <br />challenging to implement and would also make it difficult to negotiate a contract. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht asked how much of the recycled materials are actually able to be recycled <br />rather than what is contaminated and has to be disposed of. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Anderson explained that in 2017 and 2018, very strict contamination levels were <br />implemented where almost all recyclers stopped exporting their materials. He noted that he gets a <br />tonnage report from ACE and he is required to report this data to the County. He shared that he <br />has reached out to ACE to ask if this tonnage report is from before or after the contaminated <br />materials were disposed of. He said he has not gotten an answer on this yet. <br /> <br />Councilmember Riley shared that he agrees with the recommendation of the EPB and if the current <br />system is working he does not see a need to change it. He said they do need to be confident that <br />they are getting the best price for this service and if they feel they can do this through negotiations <br />with ACE then he is supportive of that, or if it would be better to have an RFP, he would support <br />that as well. <br /> <br />Councilmember Stewart asked when the City did an RFP last for this service. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Anderson shared that through his research he believes the last RFP was done before <br />the initial contract for service was signed which was in the early 1990s. He noted that direction <br />since he has been on Staff has always been to negotiate with ACE since everything had always <br />worked well with them. He stated they normally will survey other cities around to see what prices <br />they pay for recycling; however, it is a hard comparison to make as each city handles recycling <br />and trash services differently. <br /> <br />Councilmember Stewart asked about the risk associated with doing an RFP. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Anderson noted that ACE would be allowed to submit a bid and he assumes that <br />they would. <br /> <br />Councilmember Buscher added that there are only a few services in the area that offer recycling <br />services so the bid process would likely not take a very long time. <br /> <br />Senior Planner Anderson shared that there are currently eight to ten licensed recycling haulers in <br />the City; however, some only do commercial properties or apartment buildings. He added that <br />services that are not currently licensed in the City can still submit a bid. <br />City Council Work Session / March 11, 2025 <br />Page 2 of 10 <br /> <br />