04-24-2013 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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again use 1 again Dear City Council I thank you for the opportunity to write this letter and to be at your upcoming City Council meeting. I first wanted to address a question Mayor Bill Blesener wanted to know which surrounding communities has our service. The answer is all of them, Roseville, Maplewood, North St. Paul, Falcon Heights, Oakdale, Mahtomedi, Vadnais Heights, North Oaks, Shoreview, Arden Hills, New Brighton, White Bear Lake. Most cities categorize or bins the same as pop machines, red boxes, UPS /FedEX drop boxes which are throughout your city. Your surrounding cities are free of restrictions. Tina Patton a solid waste planner for the MPCA recently said that in surveys, people who do not recycle say they don't because of a lack of opportunity or because it is inconvenient. Government and industry are constantly working to make recycling more convenient, Patton said, citing an example of the bins shaped like big pop bottles placed at gas stations. By Stephanie Hemphill MPR January 7th 2013. Last year we did 11 million pounds and through revenue sharing to charities in Minnesota we gave back $211,000.00. Recycling is a good thing and currently only 15% of textiles is recycled and 85% goes to landfills. We do about 1 million pounds of textile recycling a month in Minnesota and we are on track to do 14 million pound this year in Minnesota. The textile reclaimation industry employs 85 times more workers then landfills on a per ton basis. We would like to continue to create more jobs, increase recycling and provide resource sharing to business, schools and nonprofits in your community. I realize your first concern is the citizens of Little Canada and in a 2009 Nielsen survey showed 80% of citizens are concerned about the global environment and over half have changed their daily behavior. Every pound of textiles collected prevents the emissions of 7 pounds of CO2. We have 5 locations that have collected 36, 621 pounds last year. We would encourage you to not force the citizens to put their textiles into landfills when there is a free service that does not cost and actually gives back. SincereI Br ey�iaerg G vernment Relations csain us ii again 6 RE ED (APR 13 7(113 CITY OF L %fTLE CANADA