Environmental law enforcement could be reduced by increased recycling

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

When the Geauga-Trumbull Solid Waste Management District resumes its litter-control enforcement program in early 2017, it might be smaller because of lower revenue and smaller amounts of trash dumped at landfills.

Members of the district’s policy committee said last week the district will not employ the Warren Police Department or the Geauga and Trumbull counties sheriff offices to enforce littering and open dumping throughout this year.

The district ended its contract with the departments in December, citing dissatisfaction with some of the work being done. Members of the policy committee have been reviewing the program to determine how to make it more effective and had intended to restart it this spring.

But when Trumbull County Sheriff Tom Altiere lost re-election in the March 15 Democratic primary to Howland Police Chief Paul Monroe, district board members realized there would be new sheriffs in Trumbull and Geauga counties at the beginning of 2017.

For that reason, it made sense to include the new sheriffs in discussions about how to reorganize the programs, said Fred Bobovnyk of Weathersfield Township, a district board member.

“We want to do things right with the new sheriffs,” Bobovnyk said.

The district paid $39,000 annually to the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, $67,000 to the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and $75,000 to the Warren Police Department.

The money for the enforcement comes from solid-waste tipping fees collected at area landfills. The enforcement program has been in effect since 2007.

But Greg Kovalchick, compliance manager for the district, said he’s seen a noticeable drop in the amount of revenue the district has collected from tipping fees this year. At the present rate, total revenue will drop by $250,000 this year, he said. Total revenue was $1.6 million in 2015.

That is likely to affect the amount of money available to enforce littering and open-dumping laws.

Tipping fees rise and fall based on local business trends. For instance, when the gas and oil drilling industry worked heavily in Trumbull County in 2013 and 2014, the industry got rid of lots of sludge at landfills, increasing tipping fees.

But because drilling has slowed and because about 30 percent of businesses in Trumbull and Geauga counties have closed in the past five years, the number of companies with waste to dump has dropped.

Furthermore, recycling programs have been successful, and less waste goes into the landfills now than in the past, Kovakchick said.

Currently, about 30 percent of residential waste is recycled, compared with 22 percent to 23 percent 10 years ago. About 51 percent of industrial waste is recycled.

There also are fewer people, and Trumbull County has a higher percentage of elderly people than in the past.

“My mother throws away like a kitchen bag of trash every week, and in her neighborhood in Warren, they’re all like that,” he said. A typical family of four has a lot more trash, he said.