Info on Summit, the Summit scholarships, STAR membership, and upcoming events can all be found on the STAR website: https://www.recyclingstar.org/

Feel free to drop questions in the chat or raise your hand if you'd like to speak your question.

Curious what Bob thinks the future looks like for commodity prices (prices are up significantly from last year). Are high commodity prices here to stay or more so a factor of COVID-related resource shortages?

Did you have many Covid cases at the MRF?

Did the addition of some of the robotic sorters benefit the operation during Covid?

Can you tell us more about your buyers and give us specifics on how they use the materials? Any place locally we can buy recycled products from your buyers?

Did the switch from commercial to residential material sources affect quality, that is, contamination levels?

What Outreach and Education topics does Balcones need to address in the Central Texas area? Also, is there any coordination/cooperation between Balcones and TDS on Outreach and Education, or recycling stream feedstock capabilities, e.g., pizza boxes? What can we all do to assist reducing contamination rates at Balcones?

What % of Balcones recovered materials stay in Texas? stay in the US?

Feel free to keep dropping questions in the chat - or raise your hand if you'd like to unmute and ask a question yourself.

Did you hear any requests from large manufacturers or suppliers to make sure recycling was labeled an essential service to provide feedstocks for common household goods like beverage cans and toilet paper

Can the 90 second video be shared with us?

Filled White plastic bags are considered trash also?

Are there any items that are hard to find markets for like #3-7 plastics? Or are there any discussions with the city to talk about removing undesirable or hard to recycle items from the accepted materials list?

Bob - Have you had a chance to review the RMDS? Thoughts about the recommendations or results?

What's the minimum size of items that can be recycled? and I've heard you can ball aluminum foil up into a 2" diameter ball and it will be recycled, is that actually true?

https://www.tceq.texas.gov/p2/recycle/recyclable-materials-feedstock-study

Great discussion. Thank you!

bob3@balconesresources.com

thank you