2005 Recycling Pilot Program Report

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Aprii 28, 2005 Page 4 The composition analysis ieam used a simple standard for determining if a questionable item should be sarted into the non-targeted material: "lf the City public education tools list the item under pon't include these items' {in your curbside recycling bin}, then the sampled item was placed in one of the non-targeted material subcategories. For example "beer, pop & water boxes" were defined as non-targeted materials because the City staff instructs residents who call to exclude these coated ("wet sirength"} boxes from their recyclables set at fihe curb. The City's draft report (1�ipri1 16, 2005) stated: "There was a marked increase in contaminants in the single-stream axea [tliat was demographically similar to the control route] that was discovered iu� the composition sorts. ...Contaminants increased froxn 3.2% of the sample in the "before" period to 8.1% in the "during" period." "There was a marked increase in contami_nants in the single-stream area [that demographicaily contrasted the control ro�te] that vvas discovered in the compositaon sorts. ...Coniaminants increased from 4.$% of the sample in the "befoze" period to 9.2% in the "during„ period.,, R_W. Beck's draft data analysis report (as of March 23, 2005) stated: T�e results of comparing t�e material compositions by weigl�t for: (a) the Monday collection roukes; and {b) collection methods in September and Octobez include: _.. ■ "The quantities of contaminants in the single stream routes were higher (statistically significant) than tbe quantities of contaminants found in the dual streax�a zoutes." "No conclusions are drawn as to the magnitude of the differences by weight because the weights represent only fihe median percentages. Summary of VIIMIRAA Study afi i�s Minneapolis MRF Waste Management, Inc. and its subsidiary, Recycle .4merica Alliance (WM/RAA) cond�xcted a cozxaposition analysis at its Twin Cities MRF located in Minneapolis. The siudy, titled Su�trnary - Sin�leTSort Constituent Test, is dated �ctober 18, 2003, and was provided to the Project Team by WM/RAA. (See Aitachment B for a more detailed discussion and analysis of tbis WM/RAA stady.) The report provides summary infoz-zx�ati.on resulting from the sorting and analyses performed by WM/RAA at their Twin Cities MRF. The purpase for the test was to deternline the resulting material constiiuents resulting frozni sin.gle-sort recycling collection and processing. WM/RAA reported that the resulting "Residue Fractioz� of Processed Materials" from this test vvas 5.95 percent. WM/RAA stated that Unrecoverable znaterials were defined as materials not targeted for recycling at the Twin Citics MRF. 01-00253-LO101-0101 � 07DOOl � 13500 P:\1350D Ramsey Co. 2003�RTA�oscvilla\FA�DraftResidualslvlemo042805.doc DRA1T