ADRIAN - A consultant working on a proposed recycling drop-off center for Lenawee County has not been overwhelmed with responses to a questionnaire on the issue. But there are enough in hand to help move the project ahead, said Martin Seaman of Resource Recycling Systems of Ann Arbor.
Sixty questionnaires were mailed to local government officials and other community leaders, and 14 responses have come back so far, Seaman said.
“I was actually pleased with the response that we've gotten,” he said. The 25 percent response rate is well ahead of the normal 2 percent to 5 percent return rate he sees for similar projects, he said. And he has also gathered more information in talks with community members and with members of a committee that oversees the Lenawee County Solid Waste Department.
The committee hired Resource Recycling Systems this summer to help organize a new recycling collection program the county could operate in partnership with local Goodwill Industries and Habitat for Humanity chapters.
The survey is not intended to be a scientific measurement of public opinion, Seaman said.
“It definitely adds some insight into what we might want to do,” he said. Clear support is shown for the idea of providing basic recycling services to the public without charge, Seaman said. There is also strong support for charging a fee for materials such as household and construction waste that county recycling programs do not currently accept. And there was strong support shown for expanding the county effort to include those additional materials in a drop-off center.
Nine of the 14 respondents also favored consolidating all available services in one location, and there was near-unanimous support for it to be open frequently.
The solid waste department now provides monthly Saturday morning recycling collections at sites around the county.
“Make it more often, make it convenient and make it after hours,” was the message in the survey results, Seaman said.
It is too early in the process to begin picking out property for a collection center, Seaman said, but he has been talking with local real estate agents and looking at potential sites to get a feel for what is available and what the market is like in the Adrian area.
One of the site options is on Lenawee County Fairgrounds property, which Seaman said he will be looking at next week.
During December and January, he said, he expects county officials to go over information he has been gathering and become prepared for the next steps in choosing what direction to take. Decisions will have to be made on what range of materials to handle and what level of processing to do as well as where to locate a center and what size to make it, he said. |
Source: 2005 Liberty Group Newspapers
