Title
Approval to allow the County to submit a grant application to the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) Solid Waste Bureau for FY19 Recycling and Illegal Dumping (RAID) grant program for an estimated total amount of $276,488.00 to fund roll carts for the yard trimming curbside collection program and recycle roll carts.
Recommended Action
I move to allow the County to submit a grant application to NMED for FY19 Recycling and Illegal Dumping (RAID) Grant for the amount of $276,488.00 to fund roll carts for the yard trimming curbside collection program and recycle roll carts.
County Manager’s Recommendation
The County Manager recommends that Council approve the request as presented.
Body
Starting July 2018, a yard trimming roll cart will be available to Los Alamos County (LAC) residents who participate in weekly curbside trash roll cart collection. The yard trimming roll cart is a voluntary program and there will be no additional cost to the resident. The yard trimming roll cart is for organic yard trimmings only, which includes short branches, flowers, grass clippings, leaves, pine needles and pine cones. Yard Trimmings roll carts will be collected curbside, March through November of every year, and Christmas trees will be collected in January as usual.
Currently ~1,872 roll carts have been purchased, which will provide a roll cart for 27% of households. LAC is requesting RAID funds to purchase an additional 3,120 yard trimming roll carts. This combined effort will help provide yard trimming roll carts to over 72% of all LAC households. The project is scalable and will continue to grow as public participation and awareness of the program increases.
The Yard Trimming roll cart program will keep approximately 14% or 1,017 tons of brush from being sent to the landfill, extending landfill life, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The yard trimmings will be composted into high quality garden and landscaping materials that will be made available at no cost to residents.
In order to maintain residential services without increasing costs and improve operational efficiency, Environmental Services and the Environmental Sustainability Board are exploring the possibility of providing alternating collection frequency for yard trimming and recycle roll carts. In a study conducted by the ESB it was found that the majority of households have a 48 gallon or 64 gallon recycle roll cart container.
An open forum survey was conducted to gather public input, the current poll results indicate 5:1 support in favor of the alternating collection; however, 27.5% of respondents indicated a larger recycle rollcart would be needed to accommodate an every other week collection.
Environmental Services is also requesting funds to upgrade 1,872 recycle containers from a 48 or 64 gallon to 96 gallon containers. This would allow the County to alternate collection frequency to every other week for recycle and yard trimming roll carts.
Fiscal and Staff Impact/Planned Item
This is a reimbursement grant program. The County must be able to incur the costs until NMED issues the reimbursement. NMED will issue reimbursement when it has received deliverables and documented compliance with procurement regulations. A budget revision will be requested at time of grant award and contract time.
Attachments
A - FY19 RAID Grant Application for Yard Trimming Roll Carts
B - Grant Analysis and Financial Matrix Form