Bowing to pressure from residents, Casper City Council members begrudgingly reversed course on Tuesday and tentatively agreed to approve a contract to recycle the city’s electronic waste rather than start dumping it in the landfill.
Council rejected a contract last month to renew the recycling program, which is mandated by city law, and initially declined to revisit the issue.
But Mayor Kenyne Humphrey decided to bring it back for discussion, and at Tuesday’s work session council members agreed to reinstate the program despite many still believing that recycling electronics was unnecessary.
“From a reality standpoint there’s not a lot of gain,” said Councilman Charlie Powell. “But I am sensitive that there is a push for this and there are a lot of people who believe this is important to do.”
The contract was rejected as a cost-saving measure. It called for Casper to spend up to $57,000 per year to have electronics waste, which includes toxic metals, shipped to Denver and recycled.
The financial impact of the agreement was clouded by several different estimates for how much the city would actually pay per year, how much it would cost to instead dump electronics in the local landfill and whether a 12-cent monthly fee paid by residents toward the program would cover the full cost of recycling.
Councilman Chris Walsh, who led the push against the contract when it first came before Council, agreed to approve a new recycling contract on Tuesday.
But he had no regrets about his previous position, saying he was right to assume the city would be paying the full $57,000 each year.
“Every time I see a proposal like that, I’m going to be looking at the top end number,” he said. “I don’t count on the lower ones.”
Public Services director Andrew Beamer clarified that the contract was negotiated on a fee-per-ton basis and that it could be rewritten to authorize the city to spend a lower amount — such as $30,000 per year.
Council voted 7-2 to ask city staff to prepare a new contract, along the lines of the previous one, for future approval.
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