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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-03-13 Solid Waste Advisory Committee MinutesSOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE March 13, 1996 - Berger Room, Town Hall Annex, Reading Present - Members: Lynda Zarrow, Sally Sabo, Martha. Moore, Anne Mark, Jean Krogh, Kay Clark, Bob Brown. Staff: Ruth Clay; Ted McIntire (late due to another commitment). The meeting was called to order by Sally Sabo at 7:35 p.m. The February minutes were approved with one correction. Reports, Comments, and Events : • 2.6 oz. of button batteries were collected. • Bob attended the DPW budget review Feb. 21St. FinCom will recommend a July '97 start date for condo trash collection, should Town Meeting approve this service. • We need articles for local newspapers. • Anne and Martha spoke about recycling in Reading at a recent Women's Club meeting. • EMARC may no longer accept paper for recycling. Jean will call Michael Berardo for information. • Anne is working on getting a speaker from Waste Cap to speak at the April 7th Chamber of Commerce meeting. • Anne reported that Gloucester Town Council had considered getting rid of their sticker system; however, town residents were very supportive of the sticker system, so Town Council backed down. We will get a packet of info. from Gloucester. • Ruth Said the Mass. Environmental Health annual meeting in May will probably be a tour of Wheelabrator in Shrewsbury. • Earth Day ideas: 1) Encourage the Atlantic to sell canvas bags again in conjunction with Earth Day. (Bread & Circus and Shaw's give discounts if people bring their own bags); 2) Daily or weekly Earth Day hints on recycling, reducing, reusing, submitted by SWAC and appearing in the Chronicle; 3) Lynda may demonstrate compost bins if someone else can do it with her. Drop-off Location for Recyclables: Discussion postponed until next month. Clothing and Textile Drop-off: Anne reported that the Unitarian Church is sponsoring a clothing and textile drive on March 30th. EcoSmith will pick everything up and pay per pound of textiles. Proceeds will go to the Reading Human Service Revolving Fund. The committee discussed Reading's report card grade (B). Bob wrote a letter to Peter Hechenblechner, suggesting that this grade not lead to complacence on the part of town residents; we need to continue to improve our recycling rate. How can SWAC encourage the town to buy more recycled items? We could encourage the Board of Selectpeople to establish a buy-recycled policy. We could also offer to speak to the School Committee about buying more recycled products. Lynda volunteered to draft letters to the Select Board and the School Committee, and Sally will call Camille Anthony, our Select Board liaison. Status Disposal and Recycling Contracts: The town is still negotiating with Waste Management, Ted reported.' Unit Pricing: The unit pricing subcommittee went through the presentation to the Board of Selectpeople, scheduled for March 26"'. Discussion followed. Computer Recycling: 'Linda King came to the meeting to discuss organizing a computer recycling day. The East-West Foundation in South Boston would take our surplus computers; they remanufacture computers and give them to charitable organizations. What is not used is recycled. It would cost a resident $5.00 to leave a broken monitor - that's East-West's cost of disposing of the monitor. A subcommittee - Sally, Bob, Jean, and Linda King - will meet to discuss details. Ted had two items of new business: 1) The recycle phone's outgoing message is gone. Martha will record a new one. 2) The town has started a new system of employee evaluations. One aspect of this is that committee members will have an opportunity to evaluate staff liaisons. Jean moved that the meeting be adjourned. Lynda seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 10:OOp.m. Submitted by Jean Krogh SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE March 13, 1996 - Berger Room, Town Hall Annex, Reading Present - Members: Lynda Zarrow, Sally Sabo, Martha. Moore, Anne Mark, Jean Krogh, Kay Clark, Bob Brown. Staff: Ruth Clay, Ted McIntire (late due to another commitment). The meeting was called to order by Sally Sabo at 7:35 p.m. The February minutes were approved with one correction. Reports, Comments, and Events : • 2.6 oz. of button batteries were collected. • Bob attended the DPW budget review Feb. 215`. FinCom will recommend a July '97 start date for condo trash collection, should Town Meeting approve this service. • We need articles for local newspapers. • Anne and Martha spoke about recycling in Reading at a recent Women's Club meeting. • EMARC may no longer accept paper for recycling. Jean will call Michael Berardo for information. • Anne is working on getting a speaker from Waste Cap to speak at the April 7'h Chamber of Commerce meeting. • Anne reported that Gloucester Town Council had considered getting rid of their sticker system; however, town residents were very supportive of the sticker system, so Town Council backed down. We will get a packet of info. from Gloucester. • Ruth Said the Mass. Environmental Health annual meeting in May will probably be a tour of Wheelabrator in Shrewsbury. • Earth Day ideas: 1) Encourage the Atlantic to sell canvas bags again in conjunction with Earth Day. (Bread & Circus and Shaw's give discounts if people bring their own bags); 2) Daily or weekly Earth Day hints on recycling, reducing, reusing, submitted by SWAC and appearing in the Chronicle; 3) Lynda may demonstrate compost bins if someone else can do it with her. Drop-off Location for Recyclables: Discussion postponed until next month. Clothing and Textile Drop-off: Anne reported that the Unitarian Church is sponsoring a clothing and textile drive on March 30'h. EcoSmith will pick everything up and pay per pound of textiles. Proceeds will go to the Reading Human Service Revolving Fund. The committee discussed Reading's report card grade (B). Bob wrote a letter to Peter Hechenblechner, suggesting that this grade not lead to complacence on the part of town residents; we need to continue to improve our recycling rate. How can SWAC encourage the town to buy more recycled items? We could encourage the Board of Selectpeople to establish a buy-recycled policy. We could also offer to speak to the School Committee about buying more recycled products. Lynda volunteered to draft letters to the Select Board and the School Committee, and Sally will call Camille Anthony, our Select Board liaison.