Tom Darcy, with IBM Smarter Cities, started his presentation by refuting many claims made by residents who spoke in opposition to EcoHub during the earlier public comment portion of the meeting.
Darcy said that despite residents' claims that minimum wage workers would be sorting through the waste collected in the one-bin system, EcoHub has the potential to create 900 living-wage jobs.
Darcy said that he agrees with comments made by various residents, including EcoCycle spokesman David Fridland, such as wanting to use the maximum amount of waste and reduce material going to the landfill.
"The biggest area where we differ is how to fund that and how quickly we can get to those goals," Darcy said. The first EcoHub is currently in the negotiation stage with the city of Houston and any effort on the part of Longmont to get involved would likely need to be a regional approach in partnership with other municipalities.
Fridland said EcoCycle is still advocating for a three-bin system where residents sort out recycling and composting, calling the EcoHub concept unproven.
"EcoHub is chasing the holy grail that has eluded everyone for over 20 years — a machine that will sort our trash for us so we don't have to," Fridland said during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Mayor Dennis Coombs in March requested curbside composting — adding a third bin and fleet of collection trucks for organic material to the city sanitation services — on the November ballot. Early staff estimates that the measure would cost approximately $6 extra for waste collection ratepayers caused months of cost-related complaints from residents.
Coombs in June, however, dropped the push for the ballot measure after learning of the Houston-based company EcoHub.
On Tuesday Coombs referenced his career in engineering and said he was intrigued by the concepts but concerned about building the regional partnership.
"Sometimes saying something hasn't been done before doesn't mean it can't be done successfully," Coombs said. "We would need partners — a Denver or Aurora or Fort Collins or other people and building those coalitions, you know, it's hard work. It would be a lot easier for us if there was a Denver that stepped forward and said 'we're excited about this and want to lead the way.'"
Councilwoman Sarah Levison said she couldn't support the idea at this time.
"This is too big of a leap for me, I'd be waiting and seeing what is going to happen in Houston," Levison said.
Councilwoman Bonnie Finley said she liked the idea and "would sign up today if she could."
Fridland said EcoCycle would be presenting about a three-bin system at the next council meeting and Longmont operations manager Bob Allen said that a waste consultant would also be available at that Aug. 25 meeting to answer questions.
©2015 the Daily Times-Call (Longmont, Colo.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
