ADEM pitches in to help with new recycling center

Benjamin Bullard, The Cullman Times, Ala.
·4 min read

Aug. 23—Cullman's sanitation department is readying a new recycling center that will expand its offerings for both residential and commercial customers, while hopefully saving the city some money in the process.

Department superintendent Sam Dillinder presented the Cullman City Council this week with a $154,000 check from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to help fund the new $400,000 recycling facility, which will be located at the department's operating headquarters near Convent Road. The ADEM funds, said Dillinder, come from the state agency's annual disbursement of recycling grants raised through a tonnage-based levy assessed on trash sent to landfills statewide.

Dillinder said the 12,000-square-foot center will allow the city to scale up its ability to accept cardboard for recycling, as well as streamline its handling of household waste items it sends along to regional recycling facilities.

"We will be able to bale and ship out cardboard, as well as to semi-process our single-stream recycling [recycling of unsorted, single-bin items] which we pick up from residents," Dillinder explained. "That means taking out all the contaminants, if we see any 'trash' in the trash that's sent to be recycled, because it becomes highly costly if we send that to the processor with contaminants in it."

In other words, the facility will improve the department's capacity for sorting recyclable material from the non-recyclable waste that often arrives mixed in with it. Because of the costs associated with separating what's recyclable from what isn't, he explained, the new center should save the city money by fetching the low end of fee range — currently $26 per ton, but rising to more than $100 per ton for trash-contaminated material — that regional recycling processors, where Cullman recyclables are sent, charge the city for the service.

Currently, Cullman Sanitation offers residential recycling pickups once per week, with more limited service for commercial customers. "On the commercial/industrial side, we currently haul two roll-off boxes every other week up to a processing facility in Huntsville," said Dillinder. "We're going to open up the cardboard recycling to retail businesses with a front-load service as well — and that truck is already on site. Our goal is to use assets that we already have to maintain a quality cost structure."

The new recycling center is expected to be finished an operational before the end of this year.

In other business at its regular meeting, the city council:

Authorized the operation of medical cannabis dispensing sites within the City of Cullman, with council members noting the move — already approved by the Cullman County Commission for neighboring unincorporated areas — comes in

* response to the state's recent passage of regulated medical cannabis production and sales statewide.

* Rescheduled the planned Monday, Sept. 26 regular city council meeting for Friday, Sept. 30 in order to allow time for budget hearings ahead of the Oct. 1 deadline for approving a city budget for the 2023 fiscal year. The council is expected to pass the FY 2023 budget at the rescheduled Sept. 26 meeting.

* Approved a request from Blue Moon Bottles and Cans, LLC for a package store alcohol license, after the request received a favorable recommendation from the city Alcohol Review Committee. The store is located at 1108 4th Street SW, near the intersection of U.S. Highway 278 and Main Avenue.

* Approved a special event request from Kelly Pullia

* m of Cullman Parks & Recreation to hold the annual Oktoberfest festival from Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, as well as the annual Oktoberfest 5k and 10k runs, starting at the Festhalle, at 8 a.m. on Oct. 1.

* Adopted a resolution entering into an agreement with Birmingham-based insurer Anderson Williams McKinnis & Co Inc. to administer the cafeteria plan for municipal employees electing to tailor their health coverage beyond the basic service.

* Adopted a resolution entering into an agreement with Jasper-based insurer Byars|Wright, Inc. for various optional insurance coverag

* e items for city employees.

* Adopted a reso

* lution increasing to $20,000 the threshold for municipal capital asset depreciation.

* Extended for one year the current bid for hot and cold mix with Wiregrass Construction Co., at no change

* in cost, for use by the street department. The council also extended for one year the current bid to lay hot mix with Wiregrass Construction Co., at no change in cost.

* Vacated and declared surplus a parcel of residential property located at 1015 Sheraton Road SW on land adjacent to the new WildWater park.

* Amended the city position control schedule, which governs each department's maximum number of positioned employees, to add one new dispatcher role.

* Approved the minutes of the council's Aug.

* 8 regular meeting.

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 234.