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Ramsey County highlights include: Roseville Area Schools Recycling throughout the schools continued and a "How to' recycling DVD was prepared for other schools and districts to use as an educational tool. Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) All SPPS elementary and many middle and high school facilities recycle food waste. 1,691 tons of food waste were collected in SPPS in 2010. White Bear Lake Schools Both middle schools began food waste recycling and both high school campuses continue to recycle the kitchen food waste. Research To more fully understand the opportunities and barriers relates to the development of an organics - management system, the Resource Recovery Project (RRP) commissioned a number of studies of organic waste generators. The first, "An Integrated Organic Waste Management System: From the Perspective of Commercial Waste Generators, 2010" analyzes anaerobic digestion as a new organic waste management concept from the perspective of commercial waste generators located in Ramsey and Washington counties by exploring logistics of daily operations, types of upfront costs, and changes in the configuration of waste management services. The second, "Organic Materials from Commercial Establishments: A Supply Assessment, 2010" contains preliminary estimates of quantities of commercial organic materials not currently recovered by other programs that may be available as feedstock for an anaerobic digestion facility. It also characterizes the types of commercial establishments that maybe sources of targeted organic materials such as food scraps and non - recyclable paper. Both are available on the RRP website. Yard Waste Management State law prohibits yard waste from being put in the trash or being disposed of in a landfill or resource recovery facility. Yard waste is defined in law to include leaves, grass clippings, garden waste, and tree and shrub waste. A combination of public and private systems provides generators of yard waste with several management options. Ramsey County operates a network of seven yard waste collection sites. Begun as neighborhood or municipal sites during the 1980s, the sites became exclusively operated by the County after the statutory yard waste ban went into effect in 1990. The sites are open 38 hours per week, five days per week, from April through November, weather permitting, and are also open one weekend per month during winter. Each site has a least one site monitor present, employed by the County, to direct and assist residents and to prevent illegal dumping. There are no user charges at the sites. The County composts leaves at one site and distributes finished compost to all sites for residents to take. Compost is also made available for community gardens. Beginning in 2004 the County began accepting tree and shrub waste from residents at four of the seven sites. The material is processed into wood mulch, most of which is combusted to produce energy. Wood mulch is also provided to residents. Figure 4 presents the annual number of visitors to the Ramsey County sites, and the estimated volume of yard waste, both leaves /grass and brush (tree and shrub waste) received, from 1991 through 2010. On average the sites receive about 400,000 site visits annually and about 125,000 cubic yards of yard Ramsey County Solid Waste Master Plan 2011 -2030 Page 141 Approved by the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners on 3120112