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r The Present <br />In addition to emphasizing the significance and importance of keeping <br />hazardous substances out of the waste stream, in 1998 the WHRC will <br />promote ‘Buy Recycled’, encouraging the purchasing of products produced <br />from the highest possible recycled materials content. <br />The WHRC continues efforts to build on the current 27% curbside recycling <br />abatement percentage (18% is mandated), and to explore and implement <br />strategies for saving time and money. Recycling information is included on <br />the Internet Home Pages in Independence and Maple Plain, and will be <br />included as other WHRC cities join the Internet. Your Recycling Coordinator <br />has email - ackroeger@aol.com. <br />The Future <br />Waste tonnages are increasing throughout the State, especially in the 7 county <br />metropolitan area. This reality has driven governmental environment <br />commissions, committees and departments to rethink plans for the future that <br />will more directly address the issue of overall waste reduction. There are <br />discussions currently underway that might redirect SCORE funds away from <br />Hennepin County Environmental Services after 1999. None of this has been <br />decided, yet it would be prudent for our cities to develop a plan that can at <br />least maintain the current level of recycling services to our residents and meet <br />the challenge of doing this with no grant dollars (Exhibit A). <br />It is time to determine if the benefits (Exhibit B) of our joint powers <br />agreement out weigh the possibility of increased actual cost to cities/residents <br />for recycling programs. Should the WHRC be phased out? What will it mean <br />to each city to go it alone? Are there ways we can do more to ensure that <br />curbside recycling eventually becomes self-sustaining? <br />These are difficult and challenging questions. We are the people who need to <br />address them. <br />4