Memorandum

City of Lawrence

To:	Lawrence City Commission
From:	Aron Cromwell, Mayor
cc:	Charles Soules David Corliss    Solid Waste Task Force members
Date:	Monday, February 27, 2012
Re:	Solid Waste Task Force Recommendations

As the City Commission representative on the Solid Waste Task Force, I felt it important to provide my comments to the Commission prior to our Study Session discussion with the Solid Waste Task Force (SWTF) on February 28, 2012.  First of all, the Solid Waste Task Force members should be commended for their diligent work on behalf of the citizens of Lawrence - there were many meetings and field trips and attendance was always extremely good with great levels of participation.  Likewise, city staff was invaluable in their continual help with the process; everyone on the SWTF, myself included, were extremely impressed.  The SWTF group was diverse and began the process from many different perspectives but it should be noted that the final vote on the report from the SWTF was unanimous. 

The SWTF and city staff involved with the process met 20 times from April 2011 to January 2012 and developed their recommendations by listening to feedback from residents, reviewing other communities’ programs and discussing ideas with staff and professionals in the solid waste industry.

The SWTF recognized that the citizens of Lawrence value the quality of services provided by the city’s Solid Waste Division. The SWTF believed strongly that the city can maintain high levels of satisfaction with solid waste services while implementing enhancements to the current system which allow for improved worker safety, increased efficiencies in collection, and an increase in our recycling rate.  To that end, the Solid Waste Task Force submitted the following recommendations for City Commission consideration:

• Have the City of Lawrence continue to collect residential trash and yard waste weekly;
• Decrease worker injury and extremely high workman’s compensation claims by using city-provided carts for residential solid waste disposal;
• Determine the cost of a curbside recycling program for all residential customers - implement this if not cost prohibitive; and
• Implement or continue the following programs to increase waste reduction: glass recycling program, organic material composting program, household hazardous waste (HHW) disposal and large-item pick-up.

The task force solicited comments and feedback from the community throughout the entire process.  We received comments in person, via e-mail, through feedback forms and continually expressed interest in the community’s input for the future of their solid waste services.  As a group, we looked at how to balance individual concerns with providing a system that is convenient, safe, cost-effective and fair to our community as a whole.

We began the process examining the concept of whether the city should continue to collect solid waste or whether that service should be bid out to a third party.  The SWTF talked at length about various factors, other than financial, which contribute to our outstanding solid waste services.  This included the high satisfaction rate we currently have, the possibility that in giving up direct control we lose some service, and about losing local jobs.  After several meetings it was clear that the idea of outsourcing our solid waste had no support at all on the SWTF.

Using standardized carts, rather than bags or cans, for the collection of trash was determined to be in the city’s financial interest in that reductions to our workman’s compensation payouts is anticipated to completely cover the cost of providing carts to every residential household in the city (remembering also that these claims are the result of someone’s physical pain).  These carts can be provided without additional cost to the customer - not rented or purchased by our residents.  The trucks we now have can do the heavy lifting and as we replace old trucks we can purchase new, more automated trucks that can be operated with fewer staff (our number one expense in solid waste).  The transition to more automation is recommended to be done slowly to get the most out of the trucks we have already invested in and more importantly to allow reductions in work force to be accomplished by attrition instead of layoffs.  Multiple cart sizes should be offered and, as we do now, anyone with physical difficulties managing carts can ask solid waste for assistance - we do that very well right now and want to expand this help in the future. 

Recycling is a goal of our community and helps reduce our trash tipping fees and extend the life of our landfill.  By providing everyone in Lawrence with a curbside recycling bin we can expect our residential recycling participation rates to soar to over 90% and to be recycling over 50% of all commercial and residential waste city-wide.  The SWTF recommends developing a RFP for curbside recycling service and putting it out for bid as well as developing a cost if we were to provide that service ourselves.  It is anticipated that a cost of $3.00-$6.00/month would cover the cost of the curbside program; if the cost is too high we would not want to add this service.  For those over 65 and low income, we currently offer assistance programs that substantially reduce solid waste fees; I would expect this program to continue.  It is not recommended that we own/operate our own recycling sorting facility (MRF) as we have several in our region already.

The task force does recommend that the city should plan to sustain the HHW services and look for opportunities to improve commercial services that parallel the city’s residential solid waste goals.

Lastly, but not least importantly, good communication efforts and outreach with residents is essential to any potential change in Solid Waste in Lawrence.  Communication on many levels – from individual, personal contact with residents to developed marketing strategies that discuss any proposed changes – is crucial to the successful implementation of future municipal solid waste services.