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HomeMy Public PortalAboutRecycling Commission -- 2015-07-16 Minutes Recycling Commission July 16, 2015 Present: Members: Chairman Meg Morris, John Cunningham, Bill Barnstead, Brenda Locke, Patrick Ellis, Annie Dugan Members Absent: Joe Prevost Liaisons present: Jillian Douglass- Assistant Town Administrator, Donna Kalinick- Town Hall Department of Public Work Staff: James Jones, James Dewitt, Karen Halloran Citizens Present: None Chairman Meg Morris called the meeting to order at 4:03 pm 1, Correspondence: Chairman Morris said there was nothing official received, but when she was at Brewster Conservation Day, she was given a flyer about a new group on Cape Cod working on litter issues. She passed out the flyer and will discuss it under item #5. 2. Approve Minutes of June 11, 2015: Annie Dugan moved to approve the minutes of June 11, 2015, Bill Barnstead second. The Commission voted 6-Yes, 0-No. 3. PAYT Quarterly Update- End of Town Fiscal Year: Chairman Morris explained that it is important to get the trash and recycling numbers plugged in at the end of a quarter and get it to the Board of Selectmen within 15 days of the end of the quarter. Chairman Morris spoke to Ms. Halloran about this, Mr. Ellis said they should be able to accomplish this task. The same should be done for each quarter. 4. Brewster Beach Recycling & Waste Collection: Recycling Commission members reported on the beaches they volunteered to check. Bill Barnstead said he has not seen any overflow at Saints Landing. Brenda Locke said she thinks they could remove one of the recycling toters at Drummer Boy as it has not been full. Peter Johnson reported that Paines Creek has looked good every day. John Cunningham said Ellis Landing has looked good. Mr. Cunningham also visited Breakwater, Saints and Mants Landing over the weekend. He did not see any overflow of containers, just a few items like beach chairs placed near the bins and lots of parking issues. Mr. Johnson noted at this point he believes the new trash & recycling program can be deemed an unqualified success. Mr. Johnson said there is a change in the appearance of the beaches; the bins look better, trash is not piled up, Ms. Kallnick said she has been checking Crosby Landing and has not found any issues there. Crosby is being picked up 7 days a week. Chairman Morris is also checking Crosby and has found household trash in the toters. There has not been any trash outside the cans, but she has found the lids open. Crosby is the most challenging location, but overall it does look good and the change sends a good message. It was suggested that we check in with Nauset Disposal to find out if the bins on average are being picked up full or not. Ms. Kalinick thanked the DPW staff for going out early on the Sunday after the 41" of July to check the beaches. Mr. Jones reported that they removed a lot of debris from the beaches, mostly firework related. S, Capewide Litter Campaign; Chairman Morris explained this item refers back to the correspondence she handed out earlier. The Campaign is being led by Peter Scheibel and he is looking for a steering group. Chairman Morris and her husband have signed up to help and if anyone else is interested, they should contact him. It will be a smaller group to start. Mr. Johnson said if they get something rolling, we should support it as a Commission. b. Liaison Updates if any (BOS,FC, TH, DPW) Jillian Douglass reported that there has been no call back from the swap shop. No one came to the scheduled meeting. Ms. Douglass asked if she should wait for them to set a new date or set another meeting at the location. Chairman Morris asked how the waste amount from the Swap Shop to the BRC has been. Mr. Dewitt said they emptied it on Wednesday and it is full again. Mr. Johnson noted that there is usually only one volunteer at the Swap Shop and that is not enough to handle the volume of users. Mr. Jones asked how many volunteers they have. There are 10 to 12, about 8 that are active. Chairman Morris asked if they keep the same schedule as the BRC. Mr. Dewitt said sometimes they close at noon. Ms. Halloran said she takes numerous calls asking if they are open or not. Mr. Jones said their hours can be hit or miss and that a lot of other swap shops are open on weekends only and perhaps they should try that. Chairman Morris noted that the Swap Shop is not under the Recycle Commission's purview but we hear about the problems there. Ms. Douglass said there is a need to re-organize it and it has been on her mind about how to deal with the issue. The Swap Shop is a town property and there is no control; it needs resolution. Mr. Ellis and Ms. Kalinick recently met with Waste Zero to talk about PAYT as they have a number of other Cape towns interested. It looks like Dennis would be the most likely to adopt. Chairman Morris said she did take some complaints about bag shortages at Brewster Conservation Day. Annie Dugan noted that before the 4th, Stop & Shop in Orleans was out. Ms. Kalinick said she has not received any calls at Town Hall about bags not being in stores. She noted that Waste Zero called all the stores before the summer season to talk about what their needs were, The only store that is no longer selling the bags is Lukes Liquors. Ms. Douglass told everyone that there will be an Open House at the Crosby Mansion in honor of Mr. Sumner on September 27th. His last official day of work will be October 31St. Patrick Ellis said that hauling the trash to Yarmouth has been working out well for the DPW. Chairman Morris asked where the recyclables are going. The glass is going to Strategic Materials in Franklin and all other recyclables are going to Weymouth. Chairman Morris said that Bourne is taking some municipalities and Mr. Ellis should reach out to the Bourne DPW. Mr. Jones noted that in the winter, it takes 3.5 hours to get to Weymouth and back. Mr. Ellis said there is a need to look at the whole system. If they could collaborate with other towns, haul somewhere closer and get another box that would help with expenses. Mr. Ellis noted that the BRC is equipped very well for something they don't do which is direct haul. He would like to reconfigure the set up at the Transfer Station, perhaps to an all compactor system like Dennis has. Mr. Ellis will be working on plans to sell some of the bigger equipment while it still has value and reconfigure the site with Kleinfelder's assistance. Chairman Morris asked if Mr. Ellis had reviewed the drawings from the county engineer. He did, but nothing was ever done with them because of the cost. Mr. Ellis will bring more information forward as he works on this plan.