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Message i --- - -orlag i nal Message---- - Fronn: Amy Inlan [ Sunday, September 14, 2003 9:22 PM To: city. couneil Ile.mn. us Subject: Report From waste Managment open House Page I of 2 I attended the open house at the waste Management recycling center on Saturday. learned some interesting facts that might be useful to the council. Here is my report: A group of residents from St. Louis Park also attended the open house. According to the manager of the WM facility, St. Louis Park is in the process of adopting a - stream recycling system. Luring the presentation before the tour, someone asked the WM manager which is better, 2 strewn or single stream recycling? He said that neither one is better - It is a matter of what customers prefer, and what works hest for a particular community. 2. The WM facility processes both 2 stream and single stream recycling. Thus, there is no need for Roseville to switch to single stream to have our recycling processed at the new, state-of- the-art facility. Presumably, it is already. 3. During the tour, the manager said that the recycling facility pays for itself from the proceeds WM gets from selling the recycled materials it recovers. (He also indicated that the facility is already making a profit.) A Roseville resident then asked what our monthly recycling fees pay for. The manager responded that our monthly fees pay for the costs of hauling our recycling to the facility. This suggests that the single - stream alternative should actually be cheaper than 2 stream, instead of more expensive — if WM can dump the recycling loins into one truck mechanically, as it does with garbage, then the single - stream hauling process would be quicker, and less labor- intensive than our current system, where a person has to dump individual bags and bins into the hauling truck by hand. So we ought to be getting a decrease in rates for going to single stream, rather than the increase that has been proposed. 4. Though. WM is currently the only local provider of single - stream recycling, there is still competition in the recycling services market. 'There are other recycling service providers (including BFI and Eureka Recycling, a non - profit corporation that handles St. Paul's program) . There are other materials recovery facilities besides W ' s . Maulers other than WM use wM ' s recycling facility. Although the WM facility is impressive, and single stream recycling may turn out to be a viable option to consider in the future} the tour did not provide any factual information supporting an mediate switch to single stream recycling on an extended contract at a higher price than w� now pay WM for two stream recycling. If WM has reasons for wanting Roseville to switch to single- stream recycling immediately, then it should offer us market incentives to do so, otherwise, we should continue to study single stream recycling and consider it when our contract comes up for 9/15/2003