Recycling to return at county’s CPF?
Waste committee planning to solicit new proposals
Sanitary Engineer Amy Lyon-Galvin reviews goals with members of the Medina County Solid Waste Committee. Photos by GLENN WOJCIAK
SEVILLE – What’s old could be new again when it comes to how Medina County residents recycle their trash.
The county’s Central Processing Facility once separated recyclables from the trash hauled there from all parts of the county and could again if the Solid Waste Policy Committee moves forward with a plan outlined June 8 by Amy Lyon-Galvin, Medina County’s sanitary engineer.
Lyon-Galvin described several steps in a plan that could result in a contract to establish a new mixed waste processing operation at the CPF. The plan calls for removal of the old trash separating equipment from the CPF by September to help clear the path for a contractor to set up a new mixed waste processing operation.
The possible return to mixed waste processing has been encouraged by County Commissioner Pat Geissman, who was satisfied with the former operations at the CPF. She opposed the switch to the current policy in which recycling is left to individuals who separate their recyclables themselves and then take them to one of the drop-off bins placed at more than 50 locations around the county.
Geissman said she frequently hears complaints from residents who preferred the old system despite its higher cost. She is also supportive of a proposal from Envision Waste Services to restore recycling operations at the CPF.
In fact, Geissman said the solid waste district is overdue on a promise to consider new mixed waste options that could increase the county’s recycling rates.
“We’ve waited 2 1/2 years and still don’t have a request for new proposals to operate the CPF,” she said.
According to Lyon-Galvin, it will take a few more months before that happens as the district clears out the old equipment at the CPF and produces an analysis of the trash volume and composition hauled to the CPF in order to generate useful bids for a new mixed waste processing operation at the CPF.
The trash analysis is needed because the composition of trash now hauled to the CPF has changed since Envision Waste Services last managed the facility in 2014. New curbside recycling programs have since been established in some communities and the drop-off bins now in place will remain in order to meet Environmental Protection Agency goals outlined in the current solid waste plan.
Furthermore, Brunswick is considering launching a curbside recycling program, according to Ryan Lutz, the Solid Waste Committee representative from the county’s biggest city. A Brunswick curbside program would further reduce the volume of trash that could be recycled at the CPF and that would have to be factored into any bids to conduct mixed waste processing at the CPF.
County Commissioner Bill Hutson would also like to see mixed waste processing conducted at the CPF, but only if it can be done efficiently.
“We want a contract that guarantees a minimum recycling rate at a cost that we are willing to pay,” he said.
County Commissioner Adam Friedrick said any mixed waste operation will increase the trash disposal costs in the county.
However, the current solid waste plan anticipates that a mixed waste processing program could be put in place to supplement the drop-off bins and other recycling programs now in use. The solid waste plan even includes an optional budget for a mixed waste operation. That budget option projects that the tipping fee haulers pay to dump trash at the CPF will rise from the current $42 per ton to $57 per ton next year if a mixed waste processing operation is resumed.
The policy committee will review bids on a mixed waste operation at the CPF and decide if one will be worth the extra cost to increase recycling rates and provide residents with the convenience of not having to separate recyclables from their trash.
The county’s Central Processing Facility once separated recyclables from the trash hauled there from all parts of the county and could again if the Solid Waste Policy Committee moves forward with a plan outlined June 8 by Amy Lyon-Galvin, Medina County’s sanitary engineer.
Lyon-Galvin described several steps in a plan that could result in a contract to establish a new mixed waste processing operation at the CPF. The plan calls for removal of the old trash separating equipment from the CPF by September to help clear the path for a contractor to set up a new mixed waste processing operation.
The possible return to mixed waste processing has been encouraged by County Commissioner Pat Geissman, who was satisfied with the former operations at the CPF. She opposed the switch to the current policy in which recycling is left to individuals who separate their recyclables themselves and then take them to one of the drop-off bins placed at more than 50 locations around the county.
Geissman said she frequently hears complaints from residents who preferred the old system despite its higher cost. She is also supportive of a proposal from Envision Waste Services to restore recycling operations at the CPF.
In fact, Geissman said the solid waste district is overdue on a promise to consider new mixed waste options that could increase the county’s recycling rates.
“We’ve waited 2 1/2 years and still don’t have a request for new proposals to operate the CPF,” she said.
According to Lyon-Galvin, it will take a few more months before that happens as the district clears out the old equipment at the CPF and produces an analysis of the trash volume and composition hauled to the CPF in order to generate useful bids for a new mixed waste processing operation at the CPF.
The trash analysis is needed because the composition of trash now hauled to the CPF has changed since Envision Waste Services last managed the facility in 2014. New curbside recycling programs have since been established in some communities and the drop-off bins now in place will remain in order to meet Environmental Protection Agency goals outlined in the current solid waste plan.
Furthermore, Brunswick is considering launching a curbside recycling program, according to Ryan Lutz, the Solid Waste Committee representative from the county’s biggest city. A Brunswick curbside program would further reduce the volume of trash that could be recycled at the CPF and that would have to be factored into any bids to conduct mixed waste processing at the CPF.
County Commissioner Bill Hutson would also like to see mixed waste processing conducted at the CPF, but only if it can be done efficiently.
“We want a contract that guarantees a minimum recycling rate at a cost that we are willing to pay,” he said.
County Commissioner Adam Friedrick said any mixed waste operation will increase the trash disposal costs in the county.
However, the current solid waste plan anticipates that a mixed waste processing program could be put in place to supplement the drop-off bins and other recycling programs now in use. The solid waste plan even includes an optional budget for a mixed waste operation. That budget option projects that the tipping fee haulers pay to dump trash at the CPF will rise from the current $42 per ton to $57 per ton next year if a mixed waste processing operation is resumed.
The policy committee will review bids on a mixed waste operation at the CPF and decide if one will be worth the extra cost to increase recycling rates and provide residents with the convenience of not having to separate recyclables from their trash.