21-07-28 EMC minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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but if we are going to continue to do it the way we are doing it, we are going to go broke, because we do not have the consumer in the driver's seat. He has no idea. You walk into the store, you see something, you grab it. You pay the money and walk out the door, and it may cost 1 cent to get rid of it, or it may cost $100. They have no idea, he has no idea. So, that's the best he can do for the moment, he said. Director Mansour said he had a meeting with our Finance Department a month ago with the idea of entertaining the legality of setting a user fee. Our Finance Director is working with our County attorney to figure out what are the legal obligations if we set a user fee. So we need to figure out, is it legally doable or not? He hopes it's doable because municipalities across the country have this type of system. It could be hybrid program — it could be a user fee to cover some of the costs, and it could be a fee that is collected at the time of purchase to allow people to understand the cost of disposal. Unfortunately, it comes down to human behavior. People will pay the extra percent at the point of purchase because at that point they want the product and we see it when it comes to tires and batteries, for example. The idea is we may be able to set that fee, and we are going to have more revenue to get rid of that stuff, but he doesn't know if it's going to deter people from purchasing it. People who want to buy it are going to buy it. But human behavior seeks entitlement to buy the biggest and the best. We need to educate the public to allow them to understand what happens when you flush a toilet or buy something from Costco with boxes and plastic packaging. We need to invest more money into the public education. As the new generation comes along, there will be better educated and more environmentally conscious about what to do with things. Commissioner Robinson asked the Director to speak about education strategies that can or should be done. Director Mansour said it goes back to funding. His understanding is they used to have some kind of public education component but it was cut from the budget. When you start with public education, you solve half of your problem, because people are cognizant of the cost, and they get on the program. But if nobody is telling them the ramifications, they are going to continue the same behavior. Commissioner Burns said this was good to connect to the discussions that he was having on the priority areas. There are programs that are moving in this direction that we can support as well, for example the PaintCare program. We don't have to do too much work in a vacuum coming up with ideas for these. It's impressive how many ideas the County is already pushing forward in the Recycling Program. He's still talking with them and trying to figure out where is the best area that we can provide letters in support to move forward, but there are good rationales that they have to promote this idea which is paying up front that items that create waste. So there are a lot of positives we can achieve there, he said. Commissioner McIntosh suggested that rather than trying to institute preventing people from generating waste, because it's a fact that people are going to generate waste. If he buys a computer, he wants it to be protected and arrive in one piece. That requires packaging, which 0