PUBLIC SURVEY RESULTS Relating to the 2007 SOLID WASTE PROPOSED PROGRAM CHANGES

Transcription

1 PUBLIC SURVEY RESULTS Relating to the 2007 SOLID WASTE PROPOSED PROGRAM CHANGES I. INTRODUCTION In March 2007, the City Council directed staff to assess the wishes of residents, multifamily property owners and businesses regarding the solid waste program and proposed changes. Surveys were written for each of these types of property owners and mailed to 1,000 residents, 963 businesses and 863 multifamily properties on August 20, There was a 23% return from residents, a 10% return from multi family properties and a 5% return from businesses. II. SURVEY The following questions were asked of residents, businesses and multifamily facility owners and managers: Interest in source separated organics collection as an optional service. Asked businesses and multi-family owners/managers about interest in weekly recycling, yard waste and garbage collection by the City Hauler Asked residents and multi-family owners/managers about additional drop-off sites for household hazardous waste and electronics in the city. Asked businesses about offering their business as a local household hazardous waste or electronics drop off site. Asked businesses about their willingness to promote and sell reusable bags. See the attached 2007 Solid Waste Survey Data matrix for a list of the responses. II.A. ORGANICS COLLECTION Fifty-three percent (53%) of the residents who responded are interested in the optional organics collection, 32% were not interested, and 15% didn t answer. Most of the comments thanked the city for offering a new way to reduce garbage and to recycle. One person remarked that it was a positive step for the environment. There were questions about cost and more information on logistics. Forty-three percent of multi-family property owner respondents said they were interested, 33% were not interested, and 25% didn t answer. Twenty-two percent (22%) of businesses responding said they were interested in optional organics collection, 65% were not, and 12% didn t answer. For businesses, we did not track the type of business responding, so of the ten businesses interested, they could be grocery stores, restaurants, or doctor s offices. This survey was kept simple to elicit as many responses as possible. From this we can conclude that an optional organics collection would probably do well in the residential areas of the city and may even pick

2 up a few businesses, if marketed to businesses. Staff needs to assess cost and logistics. Listed below is an outline of some possibilities. Definitions: Source Separated Organics organics are collected separate from yard waste and everything else Co-Collection Organics organics are mixed with yard waste and collected at the same time. Yard waste and organics usually collected in carts (bagged separately in the carts). Yard waste that doesn t fit into the carts is bagged separately in biodegradable or kraft (brown paper) bags. Disposal Options for St. Louis Park if Waste Management hauls organics: 1. Carver County Proposed City of Mayer Operated by Carver County. Co-collection Would require transport to Blaine or Savage and transfer to Carver. Benefit: Could ask WM to haul some compost back for use by residents to educate on full cycle. Dump at bone yard site. Already have residents asking about this possibility if we collect organics. 2. RRT (Resource Recovery Technologies) Located in Empire Township and privately owned. Requires source separation. 3. Hutchinson Owned by City of Hutchinson Co-collection Would require transport to Blaine or Savage and transfer to Hutchinson. 4. Brooklyn Park Transfer Station City of Brooklyn Park Owned & subsidized by Hennepin County Material is transferred to RRT facility. Requires source separation Co-collection appears to be the better of the two methods of collection. Source separation would involve more trucks (at least one, maybe two due to time restrictions regardless of the number of households choosing the service), creating more traffic and safety issues and well as a negative environmental impact. Source separation would require a special organics cart. This would need to be either the small cart we have for demonstration purposes, which cannot fit in the truck tipper and has to be deadlifted by the driver, or a 64-gallon cart. The organics would be collected every other week with two trucks or weekly with 3 trucks and 6 people. 64-gallon carts are recommended as paper can be added (and pizza boxes fit into the cart) and tend to increase the volume. Co-collection of organics can occur weekly with yard waste in 96-gallon carts. Due to pizza boxes and other paper products, the cart fills quickly. In this scenario, the city

3 would provide the current carts with a different color lid to identify the cart as cocollected organics. The homeowner will be directed to bag all organics in the cart (biodegradable or kraft bags) and as much yard waste as will fit. Extra yard waste will be placed outside the cart in biodegradable or brown, kraft bags. This would add 1 truck and 4 driver/helpers due to increased volume and additional service time. Impacts to the City: Increase in disposal cost of yard waste Decrease in disposal cost of MSW Increase purchase of carts Startup costs (a possible source may be from Hennepin County Waste Abatement Incentive Grant money) Less yard waste at curb in bags with co-collection (will be in carts) More carts at curb and stored Need to revise the city ordinance on composting in the backyard to allow kitchen waste (still excluding meat, eggshells and dairy). Only closed bins are allowed. Issues to consider: It is not necessary to pilot the program(s). If people will participate, it will work. Marketing is important. Ownership of the carts. Color of the carts or the lids. Availability of the bags needed for the program (retail outlets). Brown paper kraft bags should be encouraged as they completely biodegrade. The plastic biodegradable bags do not completely biodegrade in the compost rows plastic remnants remain. Startup: Lids for organic & yard waste co-collection carts. Extra 96-gallon carts can be used for either garbage or organic co-collection Startup kits under sink containers (Sarah has example), 12 startup liners for pails, 20 biodegradable or kraft bags for yard waste. Marketing of program Delivery of kits City would apply for a grant from Hennepin County or MPCA to cover startup costs for kits and maybe lids and marketing of program. B. PROPOSED OPTIONAL WEEKLY RECYCLING, YARD WASTE AND GARBAGE COLLECTION FOR MULTI-FAMILY HOUSING AND BUSINESSES Forty-two percent (42%) of multi-family property owners who responded were interested in this service (33% were not). Those who were interested want to do a better job recycling and of educating their tenants. Forty-seven percent (47%) of business

4 respondents were interested (45% were not). The businesses who commented said they needed more information about the services being offered. The program would be integrated into the current solid waste program which is listed below. Some changes would have to be made to accommodate the larger buildings and tenants. See changes listed below. Refuse/Garbage Offer weekly garbage collection Service levels (volume) to suit owner needs charge for changing service levels Offer organics collection as an optional service at additional cost Recycling Offer weekly recycling collection 2-sort collection (paper & containers) Free & unlimited number of recycling bins (delivered weekly) Cardboard must be cut into 3 x3 and tied in bundles (increase size and allow boxes to be collected) All items set out by 7:00 a.m. on collection day Yard Waste/Compost Weekly yard waste collection April through vember, and in January for two weeks Yard waste credit option ($3/quarter) for not putting grass clippings out for collection All items set out by 7:00 a.m. on collection day Collection in properly marked containers or bags Twigs/branches must be less than 3 in diameter and 4 in length and tied in bundles New Program Changes: Free recycling education for multi-family residents (multiple languages are provided by Hennepin County) Additional 95 gallon carts for refuse Additional recycling bins Educational starter kit packets similar to the cart-rollout program 4 years ago Possibly five free extra-refuse stickers for each new customer in the starter kits until they get their refuse size correct C. HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE & ELECTRONIC DROP OFF SITES WITHIN SLP The City proposes to work with local businesses to promote and arrange for sites in St. Louis Park. This question was posed in two forms. The residents and multi-family

5 owners were asked if they d be interested in additional drop-off sites for household hazardous waste and electronics in the city. Eighty-three percent (83%) of residents responded affirmative (13% said no). Most of the comments mentioned convenience, but free, no charges. Those who responded no said the county sites and drop off event were sufficient. Seventy-five percent (75%) of multi-family owners responded yes based on convenience (17% responded no). Businesses were asked if they would offer their business as a local household hazardous waste or electronics drop off site. Sixteen percent (16%) of businesses (8 businesses) responding said yes. As we did not ask the nature of their business, we do not have a way to identify the business. In working with businesses, it would probably be retailers of electronics who would collect electronics and so on. However, the May 2007 electronics recycling law would require the business to register as a collector, which makes this much more complicated unless that is their business. Hennepin County operates two year-round sites in Brooklyn Park and in Bloomington, and a 3-day event locally, all with free drop-off of household hazardous waste, including electronics. These sites, including the local, temporary site, are for residents only. Hennepin County is searching for another county-owned drop off site location. They are currently looking in the Minneapolis area. D. PROMOTION AND SELLING OF REUSABLE BAGS Businesses were asked in the survey if they would be interested in promoting or selling reusable bags. We do not know whether the businesses responding are in retail. Twenty percent (20%) of the respondents said yes (67% said no). Of those responding, comments included: Canvas bags are a great step toward eliminating the bag problem. This is a great idea. We should have been doing this years ago. The following paragraph was included as an educational piece on all surveys mailed. What is wrong with using paper or plastic shopping bags? Recycling is great. Reusing a canvas bag over and over without expending more energy renewing it is even better. Each year, Americans throw away 100 billion plastic bags. Only 0.6 percent of plastic bags are recycled [World Watch Institute]. Both plastic and paper bags can be reused too rather than thrown in the trash. Think twice about taking a plastic bag if your purchase is small and easy to carry. Keep canvas bags in your home, office, and car so you always have them available when you go to the supermarket or other stores. III. CONCLUSION A. Organics. Staff recommends that the city offer optional organics collection. Staff needs to work on cost and logistics. It would probably be marketed more heavily to residents both single

6 family and multi-family, rather than businesses, although it could service businesses as well. This program would need startup costs and probably be partially subsidized, although grant money is available through Hennepin County. B. Optional Solid Waste Services for Multi-Family and Businesses Staff recommends that the city offer this service. It should not cost the city more, although we would need to order more carts and recycling bins initially to gain more inventory. The customers would completely pay for their service just as residents currently do, so this program would not be subsidized or need startup costs. C. Household Hazardous Waste Collection and Drop Off Sites Residents obviously want a local drop off site or at least one more local drop off event for HHW and electronics. Although there is an event during the fall (Sept) in Minneapolis, another event in St. Louis Park is preferred. However, regulations around electronics and HHW collection, storage, transportation and disposal are rigorous and costly. It may be difficult to convince a business to follow through with this activity. However, seven businesses have expressed interest. Staff recommends that we target a campaign toward retailers and producers of hazardous waste and electronics in the city. D. Promotion and Selling of Reusable Bags Staff recommends that we target a campaign toward retailers within the city to encourage the promotion and selling of reusable bags. We would also target a campaign toward residents to use reusable bags. We started that campaign already this year by selling reusable bags at City Hall and Westwood Nature Center and by putting information on plastic versus paper bags (and canvas bags) on our web site and in the survey itself. We had comments from residents regarding how much they liked the canvas bags.

7 2007 Solid Waste Survey Data Revised Residential Multifamily Owners & Mgrs Businesses Number Mailed 1, Total Responses Rate of return 23% 10% 5% Optional Organics percentage 54.40% 42.22% 22.45% responses percentage 31.60% 32.22% 65.31% responses percentage 7.33% 24.72% 12.24% responses Optional Solid Waste Collection percentage NA 40.00% 46.94% responses NA percentage NA 32.22% 44.90% responses NA percentage NA 26.97% 8.16% responses NA 24 4 Local Hazardous Waste Drop Off percentage 84.00% 75.56% 16.33% responses percentage 12.00% 16.67% 67.35% responses percentage -3.45% 6.74% 16.33% responses Promote & Sell Reusable Bags percentage NA NA 20.41% responses NA NA 10 percentage NA NA 63.27% responses NA NA 31 percentage NA NA 16.33% responses NA NA 8 *NA = t applicable ** Businesses were asked if they'd host a HHW drop off site. Residents and MFDs were asked if they would utilize a HHW drop off site.