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Page 2 stream recycling, Eureka Recycling's total glass stream would have been approximately five percent of the recycled glass delivered to Anchor Glass from the metro-area haulers. Right now, almost all of the three-colored mixed glass and green glass generated and collected in the state of Minnesota is not recycled into glass bottles, but is being used as a sand-blasting medium, an aggregate, in landfill operations as roadbed or daily cover. These uses are not considered recycling as defined by Minnesota State Statue 115A.03 and these applications are not acceptable to our communities. The environmental benefits of bottle to bottle recycling are indisputably better than any other use for glass that is collected for recycling. Maplewood City Council has acknowledged these benefits by specifying a preference for bottle to bottle recycling in our contract. Roseville stipulated glass bottle recycling requirements in our RFP for recycling services. In a recent survey, the residents of Saint Paul clearly stated they prefer their glass to be recycled into bonles. Our understanding is that the Recycling Markets Support Fund (also referred to as the Market of Last Resort Fund) was developed for exactly this type of market condition. In 2000, Ramsey County closed its recycling facility, which acted as the county's market of last resort. When the facility closed, the county created a$500,000 Recycling Markets Support Fund to act as a safety net in poor market conditions like those we're experiencing today for glass bottles. Our recycling contractor, Eureka Recycling, has worked closely with Anchor Glass and other glass recyclers to find a solution to continue recycling glass back into glass bottles. We believe Eureka Recycling has identified a solution that will work for Ramsey County. Eureka Recycling applied for and received a no interest loan from the state for $100,000 as a seed for raising additional assets to address the problem that they identified with glass recycling several years ago. They have invested several thousands of t:la.eir own dollars in research to look at the possibilities for procuring glass processing equipment at their current recycling facility. This process, called "optical glass sorting," utilizes color recognition technology that will separate glass by color as well as contaminants from the finished product that are incompatible with the glass manufacturing process. Optical sorting equipment at Eureka Recycling could process approximately 10,000 tons of mixed glass per year into market-ready glass cullet. According to current 2004 SCORE reports, this equipment could handle all of the residential glass collected in Ramsey County (approximately 7,500 Ya;�slyr). Although this scale will not solve the state's glass recycling problems we do believe it will ensure that Ramsey County's glass is truly recycled. To date, the state's only response to this looming issue has been the seed investment in Eureka Recycling's proposed solution.