City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2004 09 28

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COUNCIL COMMUNICATION TO: MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL FROM: WILLIAM A. SIMMONS CITY MANAGER DATE: September 28, 2004 SUBJECT: LRCAB Report ORIGINATING DEPARTMENT: City Manager's Office SUMMARY: In the past year, the Louisville Resource Conservation Advisory Board has focused its efforts on resource conservation education. Funding granted by the City Council was used to purchase display boards which have been used at the Louisville Public Library and the Louisville Recreation/Senior Center to provide information about decreasing waste during the holiday season, reducing water consumption during the summer months, and encouraging recycling and reuse to divert trash from the landfills. The LRCAB board has provided the text and graphics that are used on the display boards. If the City Council members or staff have any suggestions for additional topics to be covered, we would be pleased to incorporate those into our education efforts. Education was also a primary focus of the Zero -Waste Event held at the July 4 Barbecue at Memory Square Park. The event was a tremendous success, with 84% of all waste being recycled or composted. LRCAB members who staffed the recycling bins received many comments from citizens in support of the waste reduction effort. RECOMMENDATION: In the coming year, LRCAB would plan to continue and expand its efforts in resource conservation efforts in these ways: 1) In the past, a diversion rate of 50 percent was targeted by the Boulder County Recycling and Composting Authority. This would be the amount of trash that would be recycled, reused or composted instead of going to the landfills. LRCAB encourages the Council to affirm this goal, and welcomes the opportunity to work with Council in its efforts toward accomplishing the goal. 2) To assess whether the 50 percent diversion goal is accomplished, accurate reporting, including measurement and weighing of trash and recyclables is critical. This is most easily done through an ordinance requiring licensing by all trash haulers, with a stipulation that they use the Boulder County Materials Recycling Facility (MRF), which was partially funded by Louisville tax dollars. This week, the City and LRCAB received information from Jeff Callahan, director of the Boulder County Resource Conservation Depai tinent that Waste Connections (formerly Town & Country) has dramatically decreased the amount of recyclables it is delivering to the Boulder County facility. The amount of recyclables received has gone from approximately 380 tons monthly to only 70 tons beginning, which could negatively impact the annual budget for the facility by $300,000, which is 10% of their total annual revenues. The Boulder County facility has accrued a fund balance of approximately $284,000 over the past three years, and this would be quickly depleted if the revenues are decreased significantly. Nearly all the recyclables from Louisville are now being shipped out of state, and the revenues collected by a private company. Adoption of the ordinance being proposed by LRCAB would also require that the trash hauling companies report the quantities of trash and recyclables delivered to the MRF. LRCAB recommends that the City Council adopt such an SUBJECT LRCAB Report AGENDA ITEM • •