City Council votes to limit recyclables

The Moscow City Council unanimously voted during a meeting Monday night to restrict items accepted in Moscow’s single-stream curbside recycling program.

The council voted to eliminate some plastics; all plastic bags; aluminum foil; foil trays, pots and pans; shredded paper; and aseptic packaging commonly used for juice and broth.

Moscow Sanitation Operations Manager Tim Davis said China has historically been the end market for many of the recyclable materials in the United States; however, China imposed new regulations in July 2017 that severely restricted the importation of low-grade and contaminated recyclables, causing demand to significantly decrease.

The new regulations call for 0.5 percent allowable contamination rate, which is difficult, if not impossible, to reach, Davis said. Moscow is operating with a 9 percent contamination rate, he said.

The Chinese restrictions have effectively flooded the domestic markets and driven recycling material markets to historic lows, Davis said. In some cases, the material recovery facilities are increasing processing fees, including those on low-grade materials that are now often ending up in landfills, he said.

Davis said Republic Services, where Moscow has traditionally sent its recyclable materials, has raised its rates from $77 per ton to $95 per ton of recycled material and has indicate rates will jump to more than $100 per ton by the end of September.

“We are going to put a focus on accepting only high-grade marketable materials instead of low-grade, hard-to-market materials,” Davis said.

Davis said shredded paper and pots and pans will still be accepted at the recycling center but not in the single-stream program.

In an effort to educate the public on the change, Davis said Latah County Sanitation and Moscow Sanitation Operations will provide informational packets to Moscow residents enrolled in the single-stream recycling program.

LCS will also paint the lids on the recycling bins completely black, because stickers on the lids currently list some items that will no longer be accepted, he said.

Informational booths will also be set up at the Moscow Farmers Market and the Latah County Fair, Davis said.

In other business:

n The council voted unanimously to approve the base bid of $338,813.13 from McCall’s Classic Construction for the Third Street Corridor Multimodal Improvements — Phase I project. The project will include the installation of approximately 1,650 linear feet of sidewalk, 25 pedestrian ramps, five bulb-outs, concrete curb, driveway approaches, retaining walls, stormwater pipe and catch basins on Third Street from Hayes Street to Mountain View Road, school zone flashing beacons around Moscow High School and Lena Whitmore Elementary, and pedestrian hybrid beacons at the Third Street and Mountain View Road pedestrian crossing.

n The council approved Director of Community Development Bill Belknap’s request to start developing surveys for Moscow residents and business owners in the central business district in order to gage opinions on allowing educational institutions in the downtown area.

Moscow has granted three permits to educational institutions, two to New Saint Andrews and one to the University of Idaho, to occupy space in the district, Belknap said.

He said his department wants to know if residents and business owners are interested in continuing to grant permits or if they are against adding further educational institutions in the district.

Katie Short can be reached at 208-883-4633 or by email at kshort@dnews.con.