No increase in DC solid waste/ recycling fees in 2020, collection hours reduced
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — Although the additional recommended increase in the 2020 solid waste fee was $2.39 per person, Dunn County will not increase the per capita but the hours at the collection sites will be reduced.
The Dunn County Solid Waste and Recycling Management Board approved keeping the originally proposed per capita fee for 2020 as well as keeping the accessory grants for curbside recycling in Colfax, Menomonie and Ridgeland at a meeting held December 3.
By December 3, most of the municipalities in Dunn County had already approved their budgets for 2020, and it would be difficult to find an additional $2.39 per person in budgets that are already tight, said various members of town boards who attended the meeting.
Some townships in Dunn County invoice the solid waste and recycling fee directly to their residents, instead of including the fee in their budgets, but increasing the fee now also would present challenges for those townships that invoice.
The solid waste and recycling program in Dunn County serves a little over 42,000 people.
The originally proposed solid waste fee for 2020 is $12 per person, an increase of $1.32 per person over the 2019 budget. The additional increase that was not approved by the solid waste and recycling management board would have increased the per capita to $14.39.
The recycling fee of $11 for 2020 represents an increase of $2.22 per person over the the 2019 budget. The recycling fee would not have changed under the new proposal for 2020.
The Dunn County solid waste and recycling division experienced a $270,000 deficit in 2019.
If the fees are not increased and expenditures reduced, solid waste and recycling “will be out of business” at some point in 2020, said Morgan Gerk, director of Dunn County solid waste and recycling.
Site hours
In addition to recommending an additional per capita increase of $2.39 in 2020, Gerk also proposed reducing the hours that the collection sites are open as of January 1.
Under the new schedule, Colfax, Boyceville and Elk Mound will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
Connorsville and Downsville will be open on Tuesdays from noon to 6 p.m., and Ridgeland and Rock Creek will be open from noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays.
The first Saturday in January, Connorsville and Downsville will be open 8 a.m. to noon, and the next Saturday, Ridgeland and Rock Creek will be open 8 a.m. to noon.
Dunn County residents have the option of going to any of the solid waste and recycling collection sites when they are open, Gerk noted.
There will be no change in hours at the transfer station and recycling center on state Highway 29 west of Menomonie or at the public drop off at the transfer station.
The transfer station will be open from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays; and from 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays. The public drop off will be open from 6 a.m. to noon on Mondays, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
The Sand Creek site will open 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and will not have an attendant, Gerk said.
Recycling market
The bottom has dropped out of the recycling market.
China has, for all intents and purposes, stopped accepting recyclable materials from all countries around the world, and facilities for recycling materials have not been developed yet in the United States.
Gerk said he believes facilities to recycle materials into other products will eventually be developed here but that it will take a while for that to occur.
As an example for the bottom dropping out of the recycling market, at one time, Dunn County was receiving $165 per ton for steel. Last month steel was bringing $10 per ton, although in December, the price has increased to $25 per ton.
Some counties are paying to recycle their steel cans.
Portage County, for example, is paying $20 per ton to recycle steel, Gerk said.
Part of the cause for the solid waste and recycling deficit is that for many years, Dunn County was not passing on the true cost of solid waste and recycling to the county’s residents, Gerk said.
The prices received for the recyclable items was used to off-set the per capita fee, he said.
As a result, Dunn County’s solid waste and recycling division did not build up reserves to invest in new equipment or new facilities, he said.
Equipment that recently needed to be replaced was at the end of its life cycle, Gerk said.
The new proposed combined solid waste and recycling fee of $25.39 per person compares to a per capita combined fee in 1999 of $30.32, he said.
Borrowing
Since the town boards have already set their budgets for 2020, Dave Bartlett, chair of the Dunn County Board, who also serves as chair of the Sheridan Town Board, suggested the solid waste and recycling management board consider not implementing the increased per capita fee for 2020 and that instead, the county could borrow the $100,000 to make up for the additional per capita fee.
Borrowing $100,000 is a small amount for the county to borrow, all things considered, but the municipalities will have to understand that the fee will be increased next year, Bartlett said.
Gary Bjork, county board supervisor from Colfax, chair of the solid waste and recycling management board, and a supervisor of the Colfax Town Board, said he, too, would like to see the fee stay the same as had originally been proposed for 2020 so that the town boards would not have to amend the 2020 budgets they have already adopted.
The town boards and the village boards will have to be notified that the increase will be especially high next year, said Terry Stamm, a member of the Elk Mound Village Board and Elk Mound’s representative on the solid waste and recycling board.
The issue has been under discussion since September, said Paul Miller, county manager.
A wide variety of changes and scenarios have been discussed and whether to reduce services or increase the per capita fee, he said.
“There is not a simple solution,” Miller said.
As for borrowing money to keep the program running, Miller said it is a “bad idea to borrow for operations.”
If it is a “one-off” for only one year, borrowing “may be all right,” he said.
Grant allocation
Dunn County uses some of the recycling grant from the state of Wisconsin to help offset costs for curbside recycling.
The money allocated by the state for recycling grants has been steadily decreasing over the years.
“The state recycling grants have been slashed,” Gerk said.
Menomonie receives a little over $20,000 to defray the cost of curbside recycling.
The Village of Colfax receives a little over $3,000.
The Village of Ridgeland receives about $800 for recycling and $3,400 for trash collection.
Part of the additional changes Gerk proposed for 2020 was to eliminate the grant allocations to Menomonie, Colfax and Ridgeland.
Several people attending the meeting noted it did not seem fair that Menomonie, Colfax and Ridgeland received grant allocations for recycling but that Boyceville, Downing, Knapp, Elk Mound and Wheeler do not receive grant allocations.
Lowell Prange, Menomonie city manager, was adamantly opposed to the recycling grant allocation being eliminated for Menomonie.
Prange noted the state requires curbside recycling for Menomonie because the city is over a certain number in population but that curbside recycling is another of the state’s unfunded mandates.
Recycling changes
Dunn County will stop recycling some items in 2020 because of the cost associated with recycling those items and because they are not mandated by the state to be recycled.
Cardboard, for example, is required by the state to be recycled, but Dunn County is losing $32.33 per bale on cardboard.
Paper also is mandated by the state of Wisconsin to be recycled, and Dunn County is losing $4.11 per bale on paper.
Carrier stock (boxes containing frozen items such as fish, vegetables or pizza and the cardboard boxes for soda pop or beer) is not mandated by the state to be recycled and is costing Dunn County $30.16 per bale to recycle.
Carrier stock will no longer be recycled and will be put into the landfill, Gerk said.
Steel cans are mandated to be recycled, and Dunn County makes $41.95 on a bale of steel cans.
Sheet aluminum is not mandated to be recycled, but Dunn County is making $273.72 per bale on sheet aluminum.
Aluminum deox (such as pet food cans, aerosol cans and sardine cans) is not mandated to be recycled by the state, but Dunn County receives $195.89 per bale for aluminum deox.
Vinyl siding is not mandated by the state to be recycled, and even though Dunn County makes $44.67 per bale on vinyl siding, the county plans to discontinue recycling vinyl siding, Gerk said.
Part of the problem with recycling vinyl siding is it is labor intensive to haul and to bale, he said.
Dunn County also plans to stop recycling certain plastics that are not mandated, such as plastic feed bags and pet food bags, Gerk said.
Dunn County has losses per bale on plastic film, tubs and lids, corrugated plastic, and woven plastic, he said.
Number 1 plastic water bottles bring $7.78 per bale, while milk jugs earn $960 per ton, Gerk said.
Milk jugs are highly desirable in the recycling market, but the problem is, there can be nothing else in the bale except milk jugs, he said.
Mixed rigid plastics, such as laundry baskets, hangers, totes, shelving and kids’ toys, bring $19.78 per bale, and Gerk said he is proposing a modified program on mixed plastics and is proposing to eliminate the fees for recycling.
Mixed plastics will soon be used to make diesel fuel. The process results in a small amount of char that will be put into a landfill, with the the rest being diesel fuel, he said.
Dunn County also will continue to collect agricultural film (such as the film you see in farm fields covering round bales or covering silage piles) because ag film is recycled into trash bags, Gerk said.
Board action
The Dunn County Solid Waste and Recycling Management Board voted unanimously to maintain the original per capita fee proposed for 2020, to adopt the proposed calendar for the collection sites that will go into effect January 1, and to maintain the accessory grants for Menomonie, Colfax and Ridgeland for 2020.
The per capita fee in 2020 will be $23 combined for solid waste and recycling.
The proposed per capita fee for additional funding in 2020 would have been $25.39 per person.
Members of the solid waste and recycling board did not take any action on borrowing money to help fund solid waste and recycling in 2020.
The board members said they wanted to wait and see what happened with the prices received for recyclable materials and that, perhaps, it would not be necessary to borrow money.