2007 ANNUAL REPORT

Eric Matthews continued the educational and environmental program in 2007. Although the program was originally slated to operate from April through September 2007, in an effort to increase recycling awareness, the Board and the Columbiana County Commissioners funded the program through December 2007. In 2007, he oversaw the newly developed recycling program for the Columbiana County Fair, investigated and addressed 17 illegal dumping issues throughout Columbiana County and developed and authored six Community Clean-Up Grants for townships/municipalities in Columbiana County. Eric also conducted more than 60 recycling programs/presentations to elementary school students in Harrison, Carroll and Columbiana Counties and conducted six programs at high schools/middle schools related to litter laws and recycling. Eric was also asked to make recycling presentations to seven adult groups. This program has helped the District increase recycling throughout the three-county area.

Industrial recycling survey

The District was fortunate to be able to get a summer intern from Mt. Union College at no cost to the District. Ruby Watts worked with the industrial businesses to gather recycling data. As usually happens, the District did not get a lot of information. Only about 50 percent of the businesses responded to the survey and of that about 60 actually provided useful recycling data.

Christmas Tree Recycling

The District has been working with the Columbiana County Career and Technical Center ("CCCTC") for several years on the Christmas Tree Recycling Program. The CCCTC Turf and Landscape Program has been chipping the trees collected in Columbiana County. The District has been renting a chipper for them to use to chip the trees. In 2007, they asked the District to rent a 12" chipper instead of a 6" chipper. Although the weekly rental for a 12" chipper was more than the weekly rental for the 6" chipper, it was more efficient and took less time to chip the trees compared to the 6" chipper. Overall, the cost was lower for the larger chipper, since the CCCTC only needed it for two days.

Grant money Received

The District worked with each Board of County Commissioners to apply for DRLP Community Development Grants ("CDG"). Carroll and Columbiana County each received grant funding to increase recycling at the county fair. Grant funds were used to purchase 50 bottle recycling containers and 50 toters for cardboard recycling. Both fairs saw a significant increase in recycling in 2007 compared to the recycling in 2006. In 2006, the District established pilot projects in both counties to study the feasibility of implementing recycling programs.

Harrison County received a CDG grant to purchase four roll-offs and to provide roll-off transportation for two sites in the County. Grant money was also used to advertise the recycling sites and promote waste reduction.

The District received a USDA Solid Waste Management Grant in 2007. The grant period is October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008. Money from the USDA grant will be used to fund the salary of the District's Recycling Assistant and to promote the recycling sites (through advertising). The District will also run ads promoting waste reduction and waste prevention. During the last quarter of 2007, the District ran 32 ads using USDA grant funds. The District received many phone calls as a result of the ads and recycling increased 24 percent in these three months compared to October through December of 2006.

Drop-off Recycling

The amount of recyclable material collected at the Districts 44 recycling sites has increased significantly. In 2007, a total of 1,858 tons of material was recycled at the drop-off sites, up 13.96 percent from 2006.The District has been promoting the recycling at fairs and festivals, educational sessions and newspaper advertising throughout the District.

In 2007, the District converted five of the last six recycling sites that were using trailers to roll-offs. The District had extra roll-off containers due to the changeover in Columbiana County and Harrison County received a grant from DRLP to purchase additional roll-offs. Bowerston, Jewett, Kilgore, Harlem Springs and Perrysville were converted to roll-off containers. New Harrisburg is the only site that still has a trailer full-time. The District was planning to convert this site to a roll-off in 2007, but there was a delay with the installation of a backstop designed to prevent the roll-off from being pushed into the township garage.

Appliance, Electronics, Tire & Scrap Metal Recycling

Weights were down at all events, possibly due to the increased scrap prices. Many people are taking scrap to scrap yards where they can get paid for the materials. The tire recycling is still strong, but the number of tires collected is also down (see related article below). The District has collected a substantial amount of computers from the schools in Carroll and Harrison counties. The District has arranged for schools in Columbiana County to take their computers directly to the Federal prison in Elkton any time during the year.

There was low turnout at the Cadiz collection in 2007, partly due to the weather and partly due to scrap prices. The amount of scrap metal collected at Cadiz has been steadily decreasing since 2004. The District is hoping that increased promotion of the events will increase participation. Scrap prices are up, and many residents are taking materials directly to scrap yards, which is a benefit to the District. Just as with the drop-off recycling sites, if a resident can recycle old appliances anytime throughout the year, the appliance recycling will increase.

Scrap Tire Recycling

The scrap tire recycling program has remained strong, although there has been a decrease in the number of tires that have been brought to the collection events. A total of 1,813 tires were collected at the events in 2007 compared to 3,592 in 2006. In 2003, the District collected 11,387 at the three events.

The Ohio EPA has a tire clean up program whereby state money can be used for tire clean up. There are several requirements, however. There must be 2,000 tires or less on the property. The property owner must consent to allow the Ohio EPA on to their property to remove the tires. The property owner must also certify that they did not place the tires on their property nor get paid for the tires. The property owner must sign a consensual agreement.

The District was also awarded a DRLP Scrap Tire Grant in the amount of $100,000. Norris Environmental, in St. Clair Township, began operating a scrap tire processing facility. Norris Environmental provided $116,000 in matching funds to supplant the grant funding. The grant and match money was used to purchase a tire shredder and conveyors. They are expecting to collect up to 250,000 tires annually and produce a tire-derived aggregate that can be used as a construction backfill, landfill base and a base for playground equipment.

Household Hazardous Waste Collection

The District held a single HHW collection in Carrollton in 2007. The Board decided one way to keep the cost down was to rotate the location of the collection each year and hold the event in one county each year. The District also decided to collect only those materials that are both hazardous and difficult to dispose of throughout the year. Items that were not collected include lead-acid batteries, used oil and latex paint. A total of 46 cars brought 2,360 pounds of material to the event. The total cost to the District, including advertising was $3,177.04.

WTI also conducted a HHW collection event in Columbiana County in 2007. This event was funded solely by WTI as a result of an EPA violation at their facility. WTI not only accepted the same materials collected at the District event, but they also accepted, latex paint, batteries, oil, tires, and electronics. They had approximately 175 cars come to the event and collected 23,580 pounds of materials.