2021-05-26 EMC Minutes draft - Laserfiche WebLink

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getting all the pounds that they need from that County. And then we are left behind with minimum fundingfor electronic waste. We were expecting to get more than $250,000 for our program, but because of COVID-19, it was cut back to $99,950, and this coming fiscal year it is being cut again, down to $95,000. So we are having to manage the program with the limited funds that we have. Vehicle tires are one example of a product that put a lot of the burden on the distributor and retailers. If someone buys a new tire, it is required that the retailer charge for the recycling of a tire. It doesn’t matter if the customer leaves the tire behind or not. The intent is if a customer is already paying for the tire, the customer would not be taking it back home and stockpiling or dumping it. Lead-acid battery recycling also seems to be doing well, but Mr. Hayducsko is always surprised at household hazardous waste collection events byhow many lead acid batteries come in. Even though the customer is being charged for those batteries. Also, there is legislation out there to require that sales of oil of a certain quantity are assessed a fee to support oil recycling programs. The County used to get funds from the state to support those programs. Currently, we don’t get anything. We have been discussing that we should be getting some funds from the State, but we have not been successful. Two programs that should be discussed in further detail are the Hi-5 beverage container fee and the Advanced Disposal Fee for glass recycling. When you buy a Hi-5 eligible container, you are paying the 5 cents, which you can get back if you take it to a redemption center, but you are also paying a penny for the administration – for the State portion of the program, and also for the recyclers. The recyclers are being subsidized for providing a redemption center. As for the ADF glass program, if you buy anything that is in glass other than a Hi-5 product – there is a fee on that, to help support our program. The importer pays 1.5 cents per container to the State, which administers funds to the counties in a grant program which pays out based on on-island recycling. This fee has not increased in 27 years. There was legislation this year to increase that fee to help support our program, and there is a need to increase that. As an example, the money that we get from the State is paying for less than half of our program cost for recycling and materials. At our transfer stations, we have the roll-out bins for container glass and to do that program we are getting much less from the State to support that program. Unfortunately, if we cannot find funds for next fiscal year starting July 1, we are going to start cutting back on providing that service to our citizens. So you will see a cutback at our transfer stations where some of the transfer stations that have glass collection will no longer have glass collection because of our funding situation. iii. Other product categories that could be considered 14