Recycling in Cochise County

I was recently appointed to the Cochise County Solid Waste Recycling Committee, with a term ending in June 30, 2009. The committee consists of nine members, three from each district. Our basic mandate is to advise the Board of Supervisors on recycling within the County, but we may end up looking into the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, and recycle. We had our first meeting last Tuesday (Feb. 19) at the Board of Supervisors Conference Room in Bisbee and the second meeting will be on Thursday March 6 at 5:30.
Developing a comprehensive county-wide recycling plan will not be simple. Cochise County is a large county (6,219 sq ml - or almost 80 mls x 80 mls) with a relatively low population (Currently 139,000; was 118,000 in 2000) and seven incorporated cities. Last year over 90,000 tons of solid waste were hauled to the Whetsone landfill, with the haulers covering over 400,000 miles. Some of the cities do some recycling, and Sierra Vista recently introduced a limited curbside recycling program. The County operates five urban transfer stations and 11 rural transfer stations (but this tally includes both Portal and Paradise as transfer stations!). The urban transfer stations collect trash and separate appliances, tires, used motor oil, batteries, and hazardous waster. Inmate labor at the Douglas, Bisbee, and Sierra Vista stations keep costs down. Any recycling plan will need to be incorporated across the County and within all the incorporated cities.
Cochise County has also hired consultants (R. W. Beck) to assess the overall solid waste program and make recommendations; their final report is expected in May.
Once we're up to speed, we'll be meeting more or less monthly. All the meetings are open to the public, and any and all are welcome to attend. I'll be posting findings, meeting times and places, and exciting developments here on a relatively regular basis. In the meantime, I'll be looking more closely at recycling options and waste handling and pickup across the County, as well as checking out adopted plans and programs elsewhere. Please contact me (e-mail works best!) with relevant input, comments, and suggestions. We can't work in isolation from County citizens and we'll be able to do a much better job with your open feedback. Thanks in advance!
As the Committee will be making recommendations to the Board of Supervisors, which could in turn be the basis for legal actions, all our meetings and deliberations are subject to the Open Meeting Law. All discussions and votes must be done at public meetings, and the public must receive notice of these meetings at least 24 hours in advance along with an agenda. Meetings can only consider matters listed on the agenda. This means that we can't really answer questions from the public at the meeting (as the questions weren't on the agenda); best done by adding it to the agenda of the next meeting. Furthermore, discussions between committee members outside of meetings are taboo. Technically, it's OK for two people to discuss matters when the quorum is five, but we were advised that this can very quickly become a slippery slope. However, communication between committee members and citizens is encouraged. And a committee member can't promise immediate action or results, however worthy as a suggestion may be; the suggestion has to be incorporated into an agenda and openly discussed at a meeting.