Get Ready for September

Current Status of the City’s Multiple Family Unit Recycling Program

Dennis Schmidt, Public Works Director and Jamie Vermillion, Recycling Project Specialist for the City of Champaign Public Works Department will be making a presentation to attendees of the upcoming Central Illinois Apartment Association meeting on Thursday, September 17, 2009. As you are probably aware, currently there is no formal program in place providing recycling to multiple family tenants. However, Champaign’s City Council has recently directed staff to develop a multiple family program for properties containing five or more units. Single family properties and multiple family properties with two to four units are already eligible for recycling services through a City ordinance requiring haulers to provide recycling to these customers. Dennis and Jamie have been working on creating the multiple family program and will be presenting information on their work thus far. Following are brief descriptions of the two alternatives they are considering to present to City Council.

The first version of the program would require owners of multi-family buildings (with five or more units) to provide recycling to their tenants. Participation by tenants would be voluntary. Owners would be required to provide labeled recycling containers. Owners would also be responsible for contracting with a private hauler to collect weekly, commingled recycling for their tenants. Haulers would charge the property owners for these recycling services and owners would be permitted to pass these fees along to their tenants. City staff would respond to citizen’s inquiries regarding the recycling program and develop educational materials to distribute to tenants.

In the second version of the program, the City would contract for weekly commingled recycling collection. Participation by tenants would be voluntary. The City would provide labeled recycling containers. The City would be responsible for billing each multiple family property owner for these recycling services and again owners would be permitted to pass these fees along to their tenants. City staff would respond to citizen inquiries regarding the recycling program and develop educational material to distribute to tenants.

Dennis and Jamie will make a short presentation on the alternatives and then would like to answer your questions and obtain your suggestions and opinions on these two versions of the multiple family recycling program.