After learning Tuesday that countywide single-sort pickup for residences would cost $55.36 a year, the county board was reminded of other factors it will have to consider before choosing between single-sort or its current sorted recycling.

Along with public feedback and costs, the board will also have to consider jobs for 14 to 17 Mower County residents with disabilities.

Under the current recycling system, the county contracts with Cedar Valley Services to pick up recycling. That contract would end March 31, 2016, if the county approves a switch to single-sort, which would commence April 1, 2016. That would cost Cedar Valley Services the 14 to 17 jobs for people with disabilities, along with three to four Cedar Valley workers, according to Executive Director Rich Pavek.

“The contract with the county has always been a very important contract to us,” he told the board during Tuesday’s meeting.

Pavek told the board he didn’t want to debate the merits of either recycling program, but he wanted to talk about the importance of the jobs, especially since it could be difficult to find comparable jobs should the contract end.

“The contract has provided some perfect work opportunities for those individuals here, and they all appreciate it,” Pavek said, noting he’s had some people working with recycling since it started in the 1980s.

Pavek said the contract is beneficial, because it gets 14 to 17 people out into the community, which will be an upcoming push for future jobs secured by Cedar Valley.

“It’s provided a lot of good opportunities for us,” Pavek said.

Second District Commissioner Polly Glynn told Pavek most of the opposition she’s heard over single-sort has come over concerns about losing Cedar Valley’s jobs.

“There’s a consensus in the county that they’re doing a good job, and they don’t them to be without jobs,” Glynn told Pavek.

Ankeny noted most other counties that switched to single-sort haven’t had a group liked Cedar Valley working with the recycling program, which will set the board’s discussion apart from other counties.

“We do have a unique situation here. … It’s a difficult decision,” 5th District Commissioner Mike Ankeny said. “That’s kind of why we wanted to weigh out our options, see what was out there, what was available.”

Garbage concerns

The county has also had issues with current recycling drop boxes in small towns. Taopi’s drop box had to be pulled after people repeatedly dumped household garbage into recycling. The county has sent letters to towns warning against people throwing trash in recycling, and the county currently has to pay each year to dispose of trash at the Mower County Recycling Center, which includes trash deliberately dumped in drop boxes and items that aren’t recyclable but were mistakenly put in recycling bins.

Sheriff Terese Amazi has gotten several calls about people dumping trash into the recycling, which has required her deputies to try to find evidence to find the culprits — often meaning deputies have had to sort through the trash to see if there’s a name on it.

“The deputies all know where those things are because we continually get people dumping their garbage in those recycling bins,” she said. “The first option would eliminate this. It’s a pervasive problem and we do address it when we can.”

However, it appears any switch to single-sort would take the burden off the county. Trash in the recycling would be dealt with by the contractor.

Jeremy Waters with Waste Management, one of two firms to bid on the work, said the contamination rate of trash mixing with recyclables for southeast Minnesota has been low.

“We have a 7 percent contamination rate, which is outstanding, switching to that single-stream,” he said.