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HomeMy Public PortalAboutRecycling Commission -- 2023-11-21 MinutesBrewster Recycling Commission Meeting Minutes for November 21, 2023 -- - `--" 2198 Main Street, Conference Room A In Attendance: Meg Morris (Chair), Pat Semple, Katie Scott, Griffin Ryder, Annie Dugan, Commissioners and Donna Kalinick (Town Administration Liaison) Excused: Peter Johnson, Sue Skidmore 1. Call to Order: Meeting called to order by Chair Morris at 2:02 PM. 2. A quorum was present. 3. Chair Morris reads aloud the Meeting Participation Statement. 4. Chair Morris reads aloud the Recording Statement. 5. Chair Morris sees no hands raised for Public Announcements and Comments. 6. Minutes from September 2023 are approved. 7. Solid Waste and Recycling Information, Griffin Ryder: a. Textiles weights as reported by Bay State Textiles for September were 2,825 lbs. (revenue $159.00) and in October 3.045 lbs. (revenue $182.79). The program continues to work well, no issues. b. Scout deposit container recycling continues to move along nicely. c. There is a new employee serving as gatekeeper, Lynn. d. Last summer the town received a state grant to build a new hazardous waste shed to replace the old one. It is the holding area for specialty waste items like lightbulbs, batteries, and paint. i. Question: How is our mercury collection going? Answer: it appears to have dropped off a bit, which may be a good sign because it means that the public is no longer buying items with mercury in them. e. Covered Load Issues: The Cape Cod Anti -Litter Coalition has offered to provide signage regarding the transportation of debris in the open beds of trucks. Such loads should be covered with a tarp or some sort of material that will contain the load a prevent items from being blown out of the bed and onto the roadside. Other recycling centers have received similar offers and letters, Mr. Ryder would like to have a discussion about the scope of the problem and possible solutions. i. Chair Morris reports that she is a member of the group that sent the letter. She shared the group's findings that too often material from pickup trucks ends up roadside. There is a state law that all loads should be covered, but Chair Morris admits it is a little ambiguous. On our smaller roads, especially those on the way to the dump, there is a lot of litter that appears to have come out of pickup trucks. If the town were to post a sign with some sort of gentle request, as in "Please Contain Your Load," that might be enough to remind people to secure their loads. It might result in less litter and a more beautiful Brewster. Yarmouth has agreed to accept the signage for some of the side streets that funnel into their transfer station. ii. Ms. Kalinick looked up state law and agrees that it is ambiguous. There have been previous discussions about this matter in other venues. The Town of Brewster does not have a specific bylaw or regulation about truck -bed covers. If we were to have such a bylaw, she said it probably would not be enforceable; it would merely be an encouragement as we do not have the resources to enforce it. iii. Mr. Ryder's concern is that such a policy would burden the DPW employees who (logically) would get tasked with enforcing or intervening with drivers who bring uncovered loads into the transfer station. iv. Ms. Kalinick says we have received complaints about roadside litter in different areas of the town, especially along Lower Road. The town does not have the capacity to clean the roads any more frequently than they already do. Traditionally, our focus on litter has been the public beaches. Her short answer is that any sort of bylaw or policy addressing littering would be unenforceable. She notes that she would need to do some research and talk to other towns, perhaps Yarmouth first. v. Chair Morris suggests that the next town to talk to would be Bourne, as they have a littering law on the books and signage and penalties for violators (up to $10K). She suggests that one alternative would be to try and get a bylaw established through town meeting regarding litter in general, not just trucks. Another avenue would be, as noted earlier, signage that encourages compliance such as, "We appreciate you covering your load." The Cape Cod Anti -Litter Coalition would be willing to pay for such a sign if the town would put up the pole. vi. Question: Is there a bylaw about yard waste, tree branches? Answer: No. vii. Mr. Ryder reached out to other towns about anti -litter signs and learned that Sandwich has a sign from the state on one of their roads similar to the one in Brewster that is located at Exit 82 on Route 6. viii. Discussion ensued about motives and intentions behind people who litter. Why do people dump couches and mattresses? It's good that we've started talking about it, it contributes to momentum. ix. Ms. Kalinick stated that like anything the town considers, we have to engage stakeholders and touch base with other towns to find out how they are navigating it. f. MRF Site Visit: Chair Morris suggests that we wait until after Christmas, maybe mid-January. It would involve a half-day commitment as the facility is located in Mansfield and is about a 90 -minute drive. The consensus is that 11:00 AM would be a good time to have the tour. 8. Recycling Outreach Programs a. Fix -It clinic is on the calendar for Saturday, February 24, at Brewster Ladies Library. b. Chair Morris is conferring with the Department of Natural Resources about the recycling education program at Stony Brook Elementary. She notes that the topics span quite a range, from the herring seasons to recycling. c. Chair Morris and the DNR will also initiate talks with Brewster Ladies Library about including a litter -pickup kit in their Library of Things. It would include the picker, bags, and a safety vest. Chair Morris will need to meet with the library's new director to see if such a kit could be added to their collection. The Falmouth Libraries have kits already; in monitoring the returns, it appears to be real road- side trash, not just household trash. d There have also been discussions with DNR and Brewster Recycling Commission about having a special litter -cleanup event on Slough Road, which seems to be especially affected. e. At Chair Morris's request, a Recycling Messaging Working Group was formed to help the Commission come up with ideas about what and how to message the Brewster community about recycling. General, specific, overall — get it whittled down to bite -sized pieces. What kind of information do we need to get out there? How do we get people to recycle more of what's on our list? L Question for Mr. Ryder: How is the community been treating the mixed container bin, i.e. do they understand what can and cannot go in there, and maybe even the "why" behind those rules? Answer: He has not had much feedback from workers about any persistent problems. Furthermore, it seems to be the case that the workers have to pull fewer items out of the mixed container. Chair Morris notes that we are fortunate in that our MRF operator takes whatever we give him without complaint. However, she raises the issue of plastic flowerpots in the springtime as an example; can we get the local nurseries interested in serving as collection point for reusing and or recycling the pots? This could be one of the discussion points for the Recycling Messaging group. f. Ms. Dugan and Ms. Semple volunteered. They will have something ready to share by the January meeting. 9. Swap Shop, Ms. Kalinick: a. Things are going really well this season. The last day will be Saturday, December 30. Until then, they are open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Both the Swap Shop and the Recycling Center will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Christmas Eve. b. This year there was a marked improvement in the curating of what items could and could not be dropped off, and similarly the public seems to be accepting of the limits the volunteers established. c. Looking ahead, the staff would like to open earlier in 2024, maybe April. Ms. Kalinick is thankful for Betty Wrightson, who does all of the scheduling, and also Robin Zelnick. Even though there was some turnover in the ranks of volunteers, new people have stepped in and stepped up. i. Questions for Mr. Ryder: Will DPW be collecting used and broken Christmas lights this year? Answer: Yes. There will be a designated bin and they will be sent to Americorp. In addition, the town will also take Christmas trees, as per usual. 10. Town Department Liaison Reports Relative to Recycling and Solid Waste: a. The Nip Ban will go into effect on January 1, 2024. There will be no grace period. The Town is at the point of issuing licenses for the year; a reminder about nips ban has been sent out now and will again be sent when they receive their licenses. It is Ms. Kalinick's experience that enforcement of this policy will be crowd sourced as it has for other initiatives, i.e. townspeople calling the town offices and reporting where they have seen violations. Chair Morris is happy to see everything functioning as it should with regard to the ban. 13. Next meeting is December 19 at 2:0013M. We will need to talk about a potential increase in the per item fee structure. By way of example Mr. Ryder notes that there has been an increase in the cost of grinding brush. 14. Meeting Adjourned at 2:53 PM. Minutes submitted by Pat Semple.