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Questions and Concerns about the Single-Stream Process Significant questions remain about the efficiency and effectiveness of the single - stream method. A July 29, 2003 memo from national consulting firm lbw Beer, who is working for Ramsey Counter, states, "single stream recycling is a relatively 'new' approach to municipal recycling programs and, to date, limited independent analysis of this approach has been conducted." Currently no Ramsey County cities contract for single - strewn recycling. Ramsey County has hired raw Beck to provide independent and objective consulting service to Roseville and other cities in the County at no charge to those cities. Ramsey County has approved a scope of work in which Beck would help Roseville design a pilot program to independently analyze the operations of Waste Management's single - stream processing facility. . Among the areas of operational concern: 1 ) Far less than half the material processed at the waste Management facility is from single - stream cities. Thus we do not know yet what the true residual rate of single - stream will be at that facility. 2) According to plant manager Steve Dunn, waste Management has no plans to determine on its own a true single - stream residual rate. 3) The residual rate quoted by WM representative Boyum at the Council's last meeting was generated when the plant was in the testing phase and the machinery was running at a slower speed. Also, the rate quoted by Mr. Boy= is not the plant residual rate waste Management has reported to the State. 4) Material from two -sort cities such as Roseville and Shoreview is processed differently at the WM facility than material from single-stream cities. The process used for Roseville material has a lower residual rate because of the good j ob Roseville residents do now in sorting their recyc lables. Thus Roseville is helping to artificially improve reported residual rates at the WM facility. 5) waste Management continues to send much of the glass it processes to landfills to be used as daily cover. liven �Uough the glass is not recycled into new bottles, the State classifies the glass as "repurposed" and waste Management does not have to include the broken glass in its reported residual rate. 6) Paper mills are concerned about the quality of the paper that comes out of 'waste Management's single - stream facility. For instance, Weyerhaeuser's plant in Cedar rapids, Iowa is the largest single site consumer of paper from recycling- facilities. Weyerhaeuser buys paper from many waste Management plants, but refuses to buy any material from the Minneapolis facility because of concerns abort paper quality. 7) Studies of other single - stream facilities have included bale audits in which the quality of the processed paper can be analyzed. No independent bale audits have been conducted on material from Waste Management's Minneapolis facility. Further analysis shows that different types of recycling programs work best in different types of cities. For instance, Dan Ruiz from Brooklyn Farb sags single - stream works for his city, but may not be the best solution for other cities. Where are some significant demo raphic differences between Roseville and Brooklyn Parr. Brooklyn Farb has more new home development and more first time hotnebuyers than Roseville. Studies have shown that the rate of'recycling participation is higher in established neighborhoods with long -time residents, lire Roseville. Typically there is neighborly peer pressure to participate. As a result Brooklyn Park's recycling set out rate was 46% before single - strewn (71 % after); Roseville's current recycling set out rate is 6 5 %. Also there are various elements involved in making a recycling system more convenient: bigger bins, more frequent collection, wheeled and lidded containers. A St. Paul study showed the biggest increase in participation and material successfully processed was in the neighborhood that used two-sort collecti6h with two wheeled and lidded carts not the single - stream area. St. Louis Parr signed a contract with waste Management for recycling collection at the beginning of July 2003. According to the city's Recycling Coordinator Sarah Hellekson, the St. Louis Park City Council has long had a strong environmental conscience. As a result the St. Louis Parr contract is for two - stream only; they won }t