On Oct. 16, the Oberlin City Council resolved to adopt the Lorain County 2024–33 Solid Waste Management Plan. The plan is the result of Ohio House Bill 592, which stipulated that all 88 Ohio counties must be a member of a solid waste management district. There are currently 52 districts. Oberlin is part of the Lorain County Solid Waste Management District, which has prepared this current plan to last for the next 10 years.
The State of Ohio has outlined the goals behind their push for solid waste management plans: first, 80 percent of the population should have access to recycling; second, at least 25 percent of all residential and commercial waste should be recycled. The Lorain Solid Waste Management District is already in compliance with the first objective and aims to meet the second goal with this plan. The district has decided to aim for a higher threshold of recycling 35 percent of all residential and commercial waste by the end of the plan period.
In his letter to City Council asking for it to ratify the plan, Director of Public Works Jeff Baumann called the plan “realistic though not ambitious,” with the City of Oberlin itself having a much more aggressive goal of achieving 90 percent waste reduction over the next 30 years.