Public Input_Paul Schultz HandoutMayor and City of Dubuque Council Members:
Whether to recycle, compost or trash household discards are decisions made and repeated every
day. If customers are not adequately informed, more recyclables get trashed. The buzz in the
community following the TH story on “City Recycling Trends” indicates that many people are very
confused about local recycling economics, what can be recycled, and why recycling and composting
are important.
I have Five Points to make:
I. City Council needs to direct FY17 attention to track and review “actionable data”, listen to
and engage community stakeholders and better inform our customers. By FY18 develop a
Resource Management “Plan” with measurable targets, timelines and transparent
reporting.
II. Do not continue to expand use of large wheeled RECYCLING CARTS in FY17.
Council approved a FY16 Improvement Increment PILOT “to initially purchase 225 wheeled
carts for the City’s recyclables collection’ stating that “hundreds of the City’s customers set
out three or more, full 18-gallon recycling bins every week.” Also stated was that “staff’s
belief that those customers would recycle even more if provided more convenient and
greater capacity containers.” The outcome of the pilot was “envisioned as the initial step in
the conversion of many of the City’s refuse, recycling, and yard debris/compostables
collection routes to the use of wheeled carts in the coming years.” There has not been any
local actionable data report or a community engagement process indicating justification for
converting “to the use of wheeled carts in the coming years.”
I attended all three of the Council’s Goal Setting Sessions last summer. “Recycling
Program: Direction, Funding” was proposed on page 27 under POLICY ACTIONS 2015-
2017 as “an issue that needs direction or a policy decision by the Council.” This policy
option was not supported and got zero support votes from council members.
Recycling Pilot Program: Carts Distribution (400) 9/15 was identified as a MANAGEMENT
IN PROGRESS 2015-2017 item on page 21. The requirement that it “needs staff work
before going to Council for direction next year or beyond” has not been completed.
Consequence: Cut the unsupported follow through cart funding of $18,000 out of the
maintenance budget on page 83.
III. Do not expand discounted large wheeled trash carts for larger wasting households
in FY17. Do not pay for these carts and extra volumes from a $0.87 increased
monthly fee mandated on our 19,504 lower volume trash customers - many of whom
are elderly and lower income.
• Why is an $8,000 expense for 100 refuse carts on page 83 being included in the
maintenance budget contrary to approved goal priorities?
• Why is a $16,500 expense for 300 refuse carts being proposed in Improvement
Increment 4 on page 79 contrary to approved goal priorities?
a) How is improved “affordability” offering a 38% trash volume discount on a 95-
gallon cart, discounted $4.00 per month, socially equitable?
b) How is a city refuse cart subscription expansion a sustainable, Pay As You
Throw (PAYT) option without a public, transparent community engagement process?
PAYT is the guiding principle in the Public Works section on the City website. The principle is
simple: The more you waste, the more you pay. This is a resilient policy and incentivizes
reducing, reusing, recycling and composting.
c) Undercutting container volume options weakens customer choice and financial
incentives to reduce the volume of their trash and increase their recycling. Data from
other cities and recycling professionals report that when many customers convert to larger
wheeled trash carts, they no longer set out recycling and the communities collected recyclable
tonnage goes down.
• Consequence: Cut an estimated $43,730 from cart purchases and sacrificed discounted
cart fees out of the FY17 Budget.
IV. Future Initiatives on page 103
• What is the projected impact of this fee simplification on both Food Scrap participation
and tonnage during both the December – March and April – November collection
seasons? Projected revenue shows a 30% decline from amended FY16 revenue on page 74.
These customers need year round collection options.
V. Performance Measures: Outcome #1 Increased Landfill Diversion
The Total Curbside % Graph shows the weekly setouts of recycling declining at a rate
of 18% between FY11 and FY15. Significantly more households are recycling on a less
frequent basis or not at all. The graph also shows the weekly setouts of trash growing at a
rate of 6% between FY11 and FY15.
The IBM Smarter Discards Research Partnership offers some data-driven
recommendations:
• “77% of respondents asserted that what would motivate them to recycle/compost more would
be a better understanding of the benefits to the community and the environment.”
• “59% stated that the main reason why more people don’t participate in curbside recycling is
that there is uncertainty about which types of items can be recycled.”
• “Because there are clearly financial advantages to the city to reducing refuse and/or
increasing recycling, the general recommendation is that the City expand the citizen
engagement activities and increase access to recycling.”
Paul Schultz
1008 Victoria Place
Dubuque, Iowa 52003
563.845.1714
February 24, 2016