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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, October 7, 2019 Page 8 contracts two or three times. She would be supportive of having a conversation about the contract the city is in through the time that is already in place without talking beyond that and see if Eureka would accommodate the city like the city did for them. Councilmember Etten explained when he looked at the revenue on this case and the additional costs the city has right now, going to the offer Eureka put out to the city is more expensive than sticking with the current contract and essentially pay- ing the additional fee. He would be reluctant to change this unless Eureka came back with a different deal and then it should go up for an open RFP process. He would also be reluctant to go back and try to renegotiate this. It seems that the city is actually in a better spot right now than it will be whenever the next contract is done. He would be reluctant to add new costs that are higher. Councilmember Etten asked if the price on the contract has changed at all with the removal of some of the recycle bins in the parks due to waste. Mr. Culver explained the city does get charged a per pull cost. The more recepta- cles out there in the city, the higher the cost. He noted pulling the containers from the parks is not a significant number. Councilmember Groff thought there were a lot of moving parts in the process and to clarify, it sounds like the recycling business is shrinking or not as many people are recycling. Mr. Culver indicated it is more processing of the materials. Sometimes it is a matter of who is actually using the materials to produce a product. There are a lot of efforts going on to try to develop more markets, particularly locally. The glass issue needs to be resolved as well. Mr. Culver noted by the city going to a single stream recycling process, it really increased recycling and made it easier for the residents. But the problem with that, is that it had an impact on the quality of materials and much more contami- nation, particularly glass and cardboard. Part of what would help with this is if the consumers would push retailers and manufacturers to package their products in recyclable materials. That would increase the quality of the plastics and reduce contamination. Councilmember Willmus asked in the conversations with Eureka, is there any in- road to be made related to the calculated cost of the recyclables that are collected rather than the indices being used, using a more local method or what Eureka is actually getting for those. He asked if there are potential inroads for conversa- tions to be had.