4/27/13
Buried at the end of the council packet for the 4/22 meeting was a one page report on the City's organics recycling pilot program. For those not familiar with the subject, keep reading.
Two years ago the City (urged on by Council Member Hotvet) obtained a grant from Hennepin County to pilot an organics recycling program (the grant was about $20,000). The idea was to get households in part of the city to sign up for six months with the grant paying for the recycling and the City's costs of running the program. Staff elected to offer the pilot to the west part of the city (let's see: Oh, all of council lived there). Well, the six month pilot is long over and staff finally issued a report.
Forty households are participating. The Insider estimates that something like 600 were eligible. Seems once residents have to pay $6 per month, they lose interest. Hotvet, at a recent council meeting, described the program as just wonderful. Seven percent participation seems less than wonderful.
The Insider can see why the staff report was not discussed during the council meeting. It looks like the program is a flop and Hotvet doesn't want to talk about it.
Happy Reading!
The Insider
While it was a worthy experiment, here's what's going on in my household:
ReplyDeleteWe are avid recyclers and with the expansion of what they take we have almost no garbage.
We also compost everything we can and have 2 dogs to take care of most of what cannot go into the bin.
That leaves very little for an additional pick-up and certainly not worth $6 a month.
Add to the comment above, we also have compost bins. Seems with the large lots and Shorewood's perceived "rural" setting, this service is redundant and probably more suitable for businesses with large amounts of food waste.
ReplyDeleteThe experiment was worthwhile, and now we know the complexities involved in implementation and the level of interest from the marketplace.
ReplyDelete