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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-07-10 Solid Waste Advisory Committee Minutes,J Solid Waste Advisory Committee July 10, 1996; Berger Room, Reading Town Hall Annex b Members Present: Bob Brown, Jackie Chipman, Kay Clark, Jean Krogh, Anne Mark, Carol Nelson, Lynda Zarrow Staff: Ted McIntire Ted McIntire called the meeting to order at 7:35 p. m.. The June meeting minutes were amended as follows: under Present Members change Carol Nelson to Associate Member, change Jackie Chipman to guest. Under Reports and Comments change "Johnson's Hardware, who will" to "Johnson's Hardware, we will"; change "in vessel composting" to "composting"; change NSSRC to NSRRC ; change "Hazard Waste Committee" to "Hazardous Waste Committee". Under Old Business change DPW to DEP, change "shipped from" to "chipped at". Jean Krogh moved that the minutes be accepted as amended. The motion was seconded by Lynda Zarrow and the minutes were approved 7-0-0. The minutes of the Unit Pricing Subcommittee were amended as follows: the meeting place was changed from "Anne Mark's House" to "2$4 Summer Ave."; in the second paragraph, "PAYT" was changed to "Pay-As-You-Throw"; the town name "Hapax" was corrected to "Halifax"; the names "Bruce M. or Dan E." were changed to "Bruce MacDonald and Dan Ensminger"; and Lynda took an action to clarify the last sentences in the ninth paragraph regarding resistance to PAYT improving participation. Lynda Zarrow moved to approve the minutes as amended. The motion was seconded by Jean Krogh and the minutes were approved 4-0-3. Organization Questions were raised on whether the Selectmen and the Finance Committee had selected liaisons to work with our committee. Ted reported that Bruce MacDonald had mentioned an interest at the Selectmen's meeting. We will need to contact the Board of Selectmen for a decision. Kay Clark nominated Bob Brown to be Chair of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC); the nomination was seconded by Anne Mark. During discussion Bob indicated that he would serve as chair if elected. Jean Krogh was nominated by Bob Brown but declined the nomination before the motion was seconded. Bob Brown nominated Kay Clark which was seconded by Carol Nelson. Kay stated that she would prefer to serve at least one more year on SWAC before being chair. The committee voted 6-0-1 for Bob as chair. Ted McIntire now placed Bob Brown in charge of the meeting. Jean Krogh nominated Kay Clark for Vice-Chair which was seconded by Lynda Zarrow. Kay would serve if elected. The vote was 6-0-1 in favor of Kay as vice-chair. Jean Krogh nominated Anne Mark for the Chair of the Unit Pricing Subcommittee which was seconded by Jackie Chipman. The vote was 7-0-0 in favor of Anne as chair of the Unit-Pricing Subcommittee. Reports and Comments: Button Batteries: Bob and Lynda collected 1 oz. of button batteries. Bob reported that as button battery recycling was phasing out, the state was increasing awareness of recycling rechargeable batteries. There is a Hotline Number that one could call, enter the Reading Zip Code, and find out that Johnson's Hardware is the local recycling site. Anne Mark will check the recycling boxes to find the Hotline Phone Number. Library Box: Bob explained the use of the library box and passed out articles for review. Jackie suggested that we include a brief discussion of any interesting article during the "library box" reporting time at each meeting. We will start including this at the next meeting. At a later point in the meeting, Bob told us of an article from the NY Times that refuted the need for recycling. He recommended that we review that article. Articles for the Paper: Jean's article on the new paper now included in recycling was published in the Suburban News and later on the front page of the Chronicle. The article on the computer recycling day was submitted to both the Suburban News and the Chronicle as a letter to the editor. Carol suggested an article about SWAC information being added to the Reading Web Site. She will write this once the committee has reviewed her Web Site information package. Meetings The next meeting of the NSRRC on July 18 will include a speaker from the Department of Procurement and General Services to discuss use of recycled products by Town Governments. Anne asked if there were someone in our town to invite to the meeting. Ted identified the town manager, Peter Hechenbleikner, as the appropriate individual. Jackie suggested that SWAC make an instructional motion at Town Meeting to direct town purchasing agents to use only recycled products when available. Lynda had written letters to the Selectmen and the School Committee alerting them to the availability of these products. Jackie offered to follow up on this suggestion by the September meeting after reviewing the available products and identifying which ones would be appropriate for the town to use. Unit Pricing The Unit Pricing Subcommittee members reported on their meeting. There was much discussion about the future direction of this effort. The general feelings were: an education campaign on waste reduction might be more effective than pursuing implementation of unit pricing at this time; that the original timetable that showed unit pricing starting in July of 1997 was impractical; and that in the face of negative comments from townspeople, SWAC was no longer clear on what the direction from the Board of Selectmen might be. SWAC resolved to take the following actions before continuing with this issue: o The Subcommittee would look at implementing unit pricing in stages with the first stage starring recycling for condominiums in 1997. The second stage would be town-wide implementation of unit pricing in 1998. o Anne Mark will draft a letter to the Selectmen advising them of this change to our implementation strategy and requesting a meeting with the full Board to clarify SWAC's direction from them. o Ted McIntire will forward minutes from SWAC's meetings with the Selectmen on October 24 and March 26 to Anne to help her in drafting the letter. o The Subcommittee will review Anne's draft and use it to complete a letter to the Selectmen at a Subcommittee meeting on July 29 at 284 Summer Ave. (Ted to post the meeting notice.) Status: Disposal contract, recycling contract, yard waste drop-off: Ted reported that a Request for Bids was ready to go out next week with options for : collection alone, recycling alone, collection with recycling, and collection, recycling and disposal. They will continue to look at a disposal option with Ogden/Martin. The educational part of the contract will be for flyers, questionnaires, and programs for the Elementary schools. There would be two events required the first fiscal year, and one each following year. We have a temporary agreement in place with Waste Management to continue with the recycling. SWAC suggested that we add a requirement to report what is done with the recyclables by the contractor as part of the contract. Carol was concerned with educating folks about the change to include junk mail with the recycling. She would like to get started on a flyer that could be distributed before waiting for a contract. She offered use of the information she collected for the Web Site page. Old Business Landfill closure: The bidding process produced seven proposals. Final interviews are scheduled for August 12. The selection committee will recommend one firm to the Town Manager who will negotiate the contract. It is too soon in the process to determine whether landfill mining is an option for Reading. Bob mentioned that Sustainable Development Challenge Grants are available from the EPA that may be applicable to the capping costs. Mandatory Recycling: Ted distributed the Rules and Regulations for Rubbish Collection for the SWAC to review. He recommended that the committee review and revise them to answer this question. New Business Web Site: Carol distributed her Web Site information package. She asked the committee to review the information and call her with changes. She volunteered to be the point person to keep the information, especially the dates, current. After we review the material, she will work with other committee members to draft a flyer using this information. Kay asked if the committee could get copies of each other's phone numbers. Ted will distribute in the next package. Bob mentioned his concern that Mercury from incinerators has become an environmental problem and would like the committee to investigate this. Anne added that a study of bald eagles showed extremely high Mercury levels. Jean moved that we adjourn the meeting. This was seconded by Lynda Zarrow and passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 10:10 PM. Kay Clark