12/10/08
Proposed reduction in recycling-center hours set for Jan. 12 public hearing
The Town Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, Jan. 12, 2009, on a proposal to reduce the number of hours that the town's recycling center is open.
The proposal would reduce the number of hours by 10, saving a projected $14,000 in labor and other costs.
The proposal is one of a series of recommendations made to the town council by a recycling working group that convened over the last few months. Their aim was to look at recycling rates in Cape Elizabeth as a cost-saving measure, reducing overall waste-disposal costs.
While the reduction in hours does not address recycling directly, the move is aimed to make more efficient use of the town's waste disposal facility.
"Eliminating 8 hours on Thursday and 2 hours on Wednesday evening would save $12,000 in labor costs and approximately $2,000 in other costs," according to a memo to the council from the working group, which included recycling committee members Rachel Stamieszkin and Jennifer Hansen, town councilors Anne Swift-Kayatta and Sara Lennon, Public Works Director Robert Malley and Town Manager Michael McGovern.
The new hours proposed are:
- Monday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
- Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday: Closed
The working group's research showed that Thursday was the quietest day at the recycling center, with 13.7 percent of the average weekly users of 3,800 vehicles. "It was also noted that Wednesday evenings after 5 p.m. is one of the quieter periods," the group's memo says.
The working group looked at a number of recycling issues in their work, including curbside pickup, "pay per bag" or "pay per throw" systems where users are charged for putting waste into the hopper, and enhanced recycling education.
"The cost of not recycling is enormous," councilor Swift-Kayatta said at the Dec. 8, 2008 council meeting. Every ton that is recycled saves $142 in waste disposal fees, she said. "That works out to thousands and thousands of dollars," she said.
While increased education, and simplified "single sort" recycling has improved Cape Elizabeth's rate, the town's average 24-percent recycling rate lags behind other communities that belong to the ecomaine waste-disposal system based in Portland. Most other communities recycle just over 30 percent. "The working group believes that we should incorporate practices to increase recycling by an additional 25 percent so that we collectively recycle through the silver bullets 30 percent of our municipal solid waste, up from the current 24 percent," the memo says. The "silver bullets" are the nickname for the silver recycling receptacles located at Town Hall, the Middle School/Pond Cove parking lot, and the recycling center.
The group's recommendations for achieving this goal include even more education on the benefits of recycling, specfically, by adding personnel at the recycling center to monitor what residents are throwing in to the hopper, and to provide educational guidance and materials to those visiting the site.
"Along with continuing educational efforts in newspapers, on the website and through signage, the working group believes that this alternative could increase the recycling rate by 25 percent," the memo says. The group projected a net savings of $18,050, with $46,000 saved on disposal fees and transportation costs offset by the $27,590 in added labor costs.
The last recommendation by the group was to add language to the town's solid waste ordinance requiring recycling. "Right now, there's no 'teeth' in anything we have," Swift-Kayatta said. An ordinance amendment would make recycling mandatory by law, she said.
Missing from the group's recommendations was curbside pickup, projected to add $450,000 in costs annually. Neither was a pay-per-bag system among recommendations.
The council will discuss the working group's recommendations at their next workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, 7:30 p.m. at the Town Hall. The council voted to send proposed solid-waste ordinance language to its ordinance subcommittee, but the text has not yet been drafted.
While officials see room for improvement in Cape's recycling efforts, the working group did have some good news. "It is noted that these figures ... include only the materials going into the hopper and into the silver bullets," the memo says. "The Maine Recycling Office has determined that the 2007 overall recycling rate for Cape Elizabeth was 70.13 percent, including compost materials, returnable bottles and cans, wood waste, metal recycling, bulky wastes, universal wastes, cardboard, tires and the swap shop."
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