CLEVELAND — The City of Cleveland tells News 5 Cleveland that a leaked document that is part of a consultant’s review of Cleveland’s recycling program does not reflect the consultant’s final analysis or any final decisions about how to improve the city’s recycling program.
News 5 reported in October that one of the main reasons Cleveland couldn’t find a recycling processing bid it could agree to accept was because Clevelanders appear to be pretty bad at recycling.
“The big challenge is educating people how to do it right,” said Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District Executive Director Diane Bickett. “We learned from the company that was handling [Cleveland’s] material, Kimble, that it was at 65% [contamination]. So it was more trash than recycling.”
That means the material that Cleveland residents put in blue recycling bins has been going to the landfill since April 1, 2020.
The City of Cleveland hired “GT Environmental, a leading expert in waste management with more than 26 years of experience in the field, to complete a detailed analysis and provide recommendations on the right waste management approach for Cleveland given various environmental, operational, and financial factors,” according to a statement from the city.
A news report that came out yesterday said the city was told it needs to start over with a design for its recycling program.
City of Cleveland Chief Operating Officer Darnell Brown tells News 5 that the leaked report is one of many that the consultant prepares for the city as part of the service it’s been contracted to perform and that it is not a final document.
“The task of the consultant was to recommend remedies for each of these service delivery areas that we have,” said Brown, adding that the city would then take those recommendations and then either decide on actions or if additional information is needed. “There has to be discussion for us to get to a decision point.”
The city tells News 5, “We anticipate completing that review – including the development of final recommendations – within the next two weeks, with the final report being made available online by mid-to-late of February.”
Brown says after the final report is out and changes are made, he doesn’t know when the city might be able to get an acceptable bid for recycling processing services, adding that each step of the operation is subject to being changed.
“Everything is on the table in terms of improving levels of service,” said Brown.
See the city's full statement here:
In September 2020, the City of Cleveland launched a comprehensive review of the entirety of our waste operations including regular trash collection, recycling, bulk pickup, and various other special waste stream services. To support this review, we engaged GT Environmental, a leading expert in waste management with more than 26 years of experience in the field, to complete a detailed analysis and provide recommendations on the right waste management approach for Cleveland given various environmental, operational, and financial factors.
This type of analysis is an iterative process, which involves the consultant preparing multiple working drafts that are reviewed throughout the life of the project to ensure potential policy and programmatic recommendation align with the City’s priorities and context. As we near completion of this important project, a preliminary copy of GT Environmental’s Waste Operations Assessment was leaked to the media. This version has not been fully reviewed internally to ensure that alignment exists, and we cannot comment on the specifics of the draft until that review is fully completed. While the report contains multiple options for waste management moving forward, no final decisions have been made. We anticipate completing that review – including the development of final recommendations – within the next two weeks, with the final report being made available online by mid-to-late of February.
See how recycling companies say proper recycling could have a big impact on everyday life here.
See how some Tremont residents took matters into their own hands when the City of Cleveland's recycling program ended here.
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