21-07-28 EMC minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Chair Adams said DOH is supposed to be putting together the procedures and requirements. This item is just to know where things stand, so that we know we are sending our recyclables to people who can manage them properly. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Discussion on solid waste division funding needs and options. Chair Adams opened by saying the Commission has given its advice on the challenge of how we fund wastewater management, and now we will go to solid waste management. To start the conversation off she began with her version of what she did with the Solid Waste Advisory Commission, and thinking about funding. We didn't know the answer, but we did come up with various ideas to kick off the discussion. We are looking at a solid waste fund that has $38 million in it with landfill operation costing $27 million. Where do revenues come from? The General Fund provides about 65 percent of that solid waste revenue. There is no financial incentive to reduce waste generation. It has no relation to how much waste residents generate. There is nothing dedicated to solid waste management. We get about 33 percent of the funding from tipping fees and permits. Doesn't cover the costs. It's free to residents. They don't see or feel a cost to waste management. And we go to the Council to schedule any increases.' The recycled program operates off grants, it covers about 2 percent of the budget. HI-5 is self- sufficient. Non-HI-5 glass is covered by an advance deposit by the manufacturers, but it only covers 50 percent of the cost of having to recycle the glass. Electronics is pitiful, she said. We really need at least $250,000, and are now getting $85,000. One of the recommendations we made in the solid waste plan is we need more electronics waste collection events around but, it shrunk to one-third to stay within the budgets that are given. The money is controlled by the State Department of Health and the Governor, so again, things get pulled out to cover issues like COVID-19. Our need from a revenue standpoint is we need to cost-effectively reduce and divert waste from landfill. Otherwise, we are paying for it. We need to reduce what goes into the landfill. As a result, education gets shorted. Education is our primary recommendation from the Solid Waste Advisory Committee. We need to tell people how to reduce the generation of waste. Other underfunded items include staffing, maintenance and ease of use improvements, studies of financial and life cycle impacts, planning and auditing, and piloting and evaluating alternatives. CIP projects are paid with bonding, but that is still a loan. Even if budgets are approved, they are subject to change based on need. And something that is not always recognized up front is you also need staff to oversee project design and implementation, and a lot of things are not z Amended by Ordinance No. 2020-86; increases are determined by the Department's administrative rules. 7