Cardboard and dumpsters

The Upper Platte River Solid Waste Disposal District (UPRSWDD) board met at 7 p.m. on March 7 at the Encampment Library to discuss issues with improper cardboard disposal and Saratoga residents using the dumpsters located at Veteran’s Island and the Saratoga Hot Pool as well as set the dates for the clean up days in May.

After hearing the site reports from Ron Munson, Randy Raymer, chairman of the UPRSWDD board, informed the rest of the board of the recent acquisition of Steamboat Technical Services by Trihydro Corporation. The president of Steamboat Technical Services, Travis Evans, serves as project manager for Solid Waste Professionals (SWP) of Wyoming which has been contracted to assist with the closure of the Saratoga landfill.

Craig Kopaz, of Engineering Associates, assured Raymer and the rest of the board that Evans would complete the contract that SWP had with the solid waste district before beginning to work for Trihydro Corporation

“Under new business,” said Raymer, “cardboard abusers in the MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) and CD (Construction and Demolition) pits and I’d like to talk about establishing some special rates for known cardboard abusers in the communities.”

Raymer said he knows of four businesses in Saratoga that are producing large amounts of cardboard that are ending up in the commercial operators’ trucks. Munson had been voluntarily collecting the cardboard of the businesses whom he had been doing business with, but had stopped when the businesses stopped breaking down the cardboard.

“It’s made for a lot of cardboard in his truck, it’s made for a lot of cardboard in Sue’s (Jones) truck,” said Raymer.

According to Raymer, a business that has recently undergone renovations had been provided roll-off dumpsters by Munson and was filled with cardboard and steel that wound up in the CD pit. Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), steel is not allowed to be disposed of in CD pits due to it qualifying as a hazardous waste.

“Big thing on what’s acceptable,” said Kopaz, “it’s always putrescible waste. Water hits it, does it break down? Does it generate leachate?”

The board then discussed the possibility of rate changes for the businesses that were not properly disposing of cardboard.

“I’m thinking something pretty painful,” said Raymer, “I’m thinking a thousand dollars a month.”

“Do it by the yard,” said Munson, “By the yard would be the best way to do that.”

Munson added that charging 20 to 30 dollars a yard would be a good way to make an impact with the businesses that were not properly breaking down or disposing of cardboard. Raymer added he believed some research would need to be done on how to properly take care of the disposal of cardboard, but that he wanted to get a conversation going on the subject.

Raymer then moved onto the subject of the dumpsters located at Veterans Island and the Saratoga Hot Pool.

“I have tried to talk to some of the town officials about patrolling those dumpsters or looking through them,” said Raymer, “A week ago last Saturday morning, I saw a couple of Saratoga Inn residents heaving their garbage bags into the dumpster (at Veterans Island.)”

Raymer added while he has seen visitors to Saratoga dispose of their waste in the two dumpsters, the most common users were residents of town and he proposed writing a letter to the Town of Saratoga asking that they remove the dumpsters.

“It’s theft of services against the Town of Saratoga,” said Jones before adding that the monthly landfill fee of 25 dollars allowed for residents to dispose of four yards of waste.

After further discussion, the board authorized Linda Smith to write a letter to the Town of Saratoga on the behalf of the solid waste district asking for the removal of the two dumpsters.

Before adjourning, the board discussed the dates of clean up day and settled upon May 4 and 5 for Saratoga and May 5 and 6 for Encampment.

The next meeting of the UPRSWDD will be at 7 p.m. on May 2 at the Encampment Library.