Wildcat Solid Waste director reports on batteries, e-waste vendor change, smoke-detector disposal and grant opportunities

At its Dec. 30 meeting, Wildcat Solid Waste District Director Joel delivered an operations update covering hazardous waste shipments, recycling vendors, new disposal contracts for smoke detectors, and two grant opportunities.

Joel said the district sent ‘‘5,000 plus pounds' of lead-acid batteries to Wamplers,'' identifying the material as auto and sealed lead-acid batteries and noting it is one of the few recyclable items that produces revenue for the district.

On electronics recycling, Joel said the district moved to OmniSource earlier in the year because of lower pricing; he added that GreenWave subsequently provided an updated price list that may be comparable and that the district is not currently under contract with either vendor and could sign a pricing agreement for 2026.

Joel told the board the district engaged Curie Environmental to handle radioactive smoke-detector disposal. He said the district ordered two lab packs that should contain about 250 smoke detectors; lab packs bundle disposal and paperwork for shipment.

On grants, Joel described an Indiana tire-collection grant that will provide up to $10,000 per district for waste-tire disposal with an application due Jan. 16. He asked for help with application writing and said he would seek guidance about internal or contracted grant-writing support.

Joel also outlined a forthcoming state material-management planning process that will make pass-through funding available to solid-waste districts. He said county-level plan applications will be released in mid-January and accepted in early February and that, based on prior examples, writing a full plan could cost on the order of $250,000 if done by consultant contractors.

Board members urged Joel to pursue grant-writing help and to bring specific application details to the next meeting.