by Monroe Clerk of Courts

Anne Fiehrer Flaig, District Coordinator for the Butler County Recycling and Solid Waste District, gave a presentation to City Council on the required updated Management Plan that Monroe Council will be requested to approve at a future meeting. The plan must be ratified by elected officials representing 60% of the total population in the County and right now she has 41% of the elected officials in Butler County. The Plan demonstrates adequate disposal capacity and waste reduction strategies.

This is accomplished through a variety of mechanisms:
• Curbside recycling programs of which you participate by having contracted services to all of the residents and recycling drop boxes that the County underwrites the cost for located throughout the County.
• Recycling incentive program where jurisdictions receive a monetary reward based on your recycling tonnage. Monroe is number three and doing well above average. Over the last five years Monroe has received $35,000.
• Adding one time recycling grant to townships and to cities who establish a pay as you throw (PAYT) program. This is a volume based program that looks at trash as a utility and the more you throw away the more you pay. The District will provide technical assistance for recycling, hazardous waste material disposal, preparation of bidding documents, and disposal of medication.

Mrs. Rubin asked about the PAYT and organic, trash, and recycling in other cities. The organic and recycling were free and you paid for the trash based on the can size. She asked Mrs. Flaig if the County would base it on can size or weight. Mrs. Flaig replied that it is based on the can size. With regard to organic material, Mrs. Flaig explained that there is not a well developed infrastructure for transporting it and depositing and it is cost prohibitive to get it from one point to the processing facilities. We are seeing on a national scale some of the groceries are participating. We are looking at ways to develop that. Mrs. Rubin informed her that OSU is looking at changing organic materials into bio fuel and that might be something that the County could look at. Mrs. Flaig has been working with Miami University and the Center for Ecology is looking at getting that program underway as a pilot program.

Mr. Black is there any grant mechanism to get the smaller in-house bins for personal households. Mrs. Flaig advised that they rely on residents to purchase those as they would need something adaptable to their homes. It would be an interesting grant application. She encouraged a survey to see if there is a need and you could present that to the District