Sustainable Bulky Item Disposal Plan

It is important to manage and dispose of needles, lancets, and syringes (sharps) safely to prevent injury and disease transmission from needle-sticks.

In Minnesota, it is currently legal to put used sharps that are in a laundry detergent bottle with a lid (sealed with tape) into the garbage.  However this is highly discouraged because of the injury and health risks it places on garbage hauler and processing facility workers. It is best to use one of the options listed in Hennepin County's Green Disposal Guide: https://www.hennepin.us/green-disposal-guide/items/needles-sharps.   

The City has found that looking at this service as a system, where it is accessible to all garbage and recycling customers, makes dealing with these bulky items easier and more affordable for residents overall.  Having a system-wide approach means we can negotiate for volume pricing with the haulers.

For example, currently, all residents are paying $53.04 for the curbside recycling program which allows them to dispose of several bulky items.  If a resident had to contract for this service alone, it could cost them $53.32 to dispose of one item.

Keeping the prices affordable and having the service accessible also helps to ensure that residents dispose of these items in a responsible manner. If the cost to dispose of these items gets too large, some residents may opt to hang on to them, cluttering houses, yards, and alleys.  It also means that some residents may not dispose of these items appropriately, and they can end up in our public spaces like parks or on the side of the road.   This illegal dumping costs us all more.

The current curbside cleanup program operates on the same model—where the program is accessible to all households in the garbage and recycling program and all share in the costs.  Services like recycling, park maintenance and police patrol are paid for by everyone even though not everyone uses the service.  While not used by everyone, the entire community benefits by the provision of these services. 

Collecting material during our Curbside Cleanup is not a sustainable model for Bridging or other local charities.  Bridging has tried to collect during our cleanup in the past and found that material is often picked over or damaged by weather.  In addition, in order to collect during our cleanup, they would need to have additional trucks and staff to collect the material.  Lastly, Bridging needs donations year round rather than a heavy volume in the Spring.  

In the City's updated proposal, the City will be seeking a vendor to collect used furniture that is in good condition on a monthly basis.  This model allows for material to be collected by a vendor year round, rather than on a single weekend.  This model would allow a vendor to receive a regular supply of items, and would be easier to scale for necessary trucks, administration and staffing. 

We are planning to provide the event in a space that is accommodating to a good number of vehicles at a time, and has a lay-out that moves vehicles through the site quickly.  We also will provide instructions to residents ahead of time regarding how to pack their vehicles so items can be unloaded efficiently.  We may also consider designated times for different areas of the City.  While we do anticipate there will be wait times involved at a drop-off, this kind of planning helps cut down on long wait times.  The final event details are not finalized at this point, but a goal in planning the drop-off events will be to minimize wait times.

Residents could use their two vouchers for pickup of any two items throughout the year, but could not “transfer” the voucher.  Any additional items scheduled for a pickup would be collected for a fee. 

At this time, we are still exploring the best way to charge all users for the Community Drop-Offs.  In other communities with similar events, often residents who bring materials to the drop-off are charged directly at the event, depending on what they bring.  Certain items are collected at no cost, and certain items that are more costly to handle, like electronics, will include a small charge.  That way, the cost of the Community Drop-Off event is covered by all users, and not just those with City garbage and recycling service.  

The vouchers are not physical pieces of paper.   The City would keep track of how many vouchers a household has available through our Utility Billing software.  So as a resident calls in to schedule a pickup of a bulky item to make use of a voucher, Utility Billing will track how many bulky items have been picked up for free.  After two bulky items had been picked up at no cost within the year, additional bulky items would be charged a fee.

Scrap metal could be set out for collection and recycling through use of a bulky item voucher, or brought to one of the drop-off events.  

We are aware that reuse and recycling happens already in our current program, but it is not something the City can accurately track and study consistently – the piles are constantly changing throughout Curbside Cleanup, and households with the same collection day don’t set materials out at the same time.   

We have considered the addition of a re-use area to our drop-off events to allow for recycling/upcycling.We anticipate some reuse will still happen naturally outside of City-sponsored events in the proposed model as well.   

The current curbside cleanup program is funded through a fee on resident’s utility bills, and is not funded through general City property taxes.

In the proposed model, the vouchers for disposal of bulky items throughout the year would only be available for households with City garbage and recycling service, and would be paid for by all those households, similar to how the Curbside Cleanup fee is charged on Utility Bills today. 

At this time, we are still exploring the best way to charge all users for the Community Drop-Offs.  In other communities with similar events, often residents who bring materials to the drop-off are charged directly at the event, depending on what they bring.  Certain items are collected at no cost, and certain items that are more costly to handle, like electronics, will include a small charge.  That way, the cost of the Community Drop-Off event is covered by all users, and not just those with City garbage and recycling service.  Typically, communities subsidize some of the costs of these events to keep the charges relatively low so people are incentivized to use the events.  The City receives a recycling grant from Hennepin County each year and may consider using part of that grant funding to cover the costs of collecting certain items for recycling at the event. 

In the proposed model, residents could use their two free curbside bulky item pickups per year for collection of electronics.   Residents could also bring electronics to a drop-off event where they would be collected for a fee.  The cost for collection of electronics would likely be subsidized through an annual recycling grant the City receives from Hennepin County each year, to keep the cost more affordable for residents. 

Vouchers could not be carried forward if unused.  To deliver the program on a citywide scale, the City will negotiate a fee for the voucher program with the haulers.  The scope of service will likely be structured so haulers are paid a certain amount per year to provide the pickups, or a certain amount per item picked up.  If vouchers are carried over into additional years, this may present challenges with budgeting, and challenges for haulers to plan routes and time accordingly.

Thank you for your input.  We understand the timing of Curbside Cleanup this year was difficult due to the Easter holiday.  

In the proposed changes the City is considering, a resident could schedule pickups for two bulky items anytime throughout the year at a time that works best for them, plus one or two community drop-off events where residents could bring additional materials from disposal, recycling and reuse.  We will work to plan the community drop-off events based on feedback from residents on the best time of year, avoiding the first couple weeks of April due to weather and holidays. 

As indicated in other responses to similar questions, the vouchers for disposal of bulky items throughout the year would only be available for households with City garbage and recycling service, and would be paid for by all those households, similar to how the Curbside Cleanup fee is charged on Utility Bills today.  We estimate that the voucher program will cost less overall and those cost savings would be passed along to residents.

At this time, we are still exploring the best way to charge all users for the Community Drop-Offs.  In other communities with similar events, often residents who bring materials to the drop-off are charged directly at the event, depending on what they bring.  Certain items are collected at no cost, and certain items that are more costly to handle, like electronics, will include a small charge.  That way, the cost of the Community Drop-Off event is covered by all users, and not just those with City garbage and recycling service.  Typically, communities subsidize some of the costs of these events to keep the charges relatively low so people are incentivized to use the events.  The City receives a recycling grant from Hennepin County each year and may consider using part of that grant funding to cover the costs of collecting certain items for recycling at the event.