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BWRC FINAL Minutes January 3 2019Beverly Waste Reduction Committee Meeting Minutes — January 3, 2019 Beverly Waste Reduction Committee MINUTES: Monthly Meeting, Thursday, January 3, 2019 6:00 PM, Beverly City Hall, Conference Room A CALL TO ORDER: 6:01 pm COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair - Susan Higgins, Sandy Burgess, Nancy Dillon, Joyce Herman, Toni Musante COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Rebecca Dupont -Coutu INVITED PARTICIPANTS AND GUESTS: John Swain, Meagan Riche, Mary Barthelmes, Ben Hacker APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of the December 2018 meeting were presented for approval. A correction was noted that Dupont -Coutu was absent from the December meeting. Dillon moved to approve the minutes with the correction. Herman seconded the motion. The motion carried (5 -0). Treasurer's Report Burgess reported that the account balance is $23,778.88 (no change since last month). Discussion with Meagan Riche — Community Engagement Fellow Meagan Riche is a community engagement fellow with the Beverly Council on Aging. She is working with Beverly's seniors and is planning to conduct an educational workshop in the spring to discuss environmental issues and ways that seniors can be involved. Joyce Herman met individually with Meagan and she was subsequently invited to attend the meeting to explore opportunities in more depth. Higgins provided background on the Waste Reduction Committee and its goals and objectives. Committee members and guests introduced themselves to Meagan. Meagan talked about her personal and educational background and her objectives for the workshop. She is working on senior empowerment and environmental issues and is seeking to provide an opportunity for seniors to voice their concerns and have a pathway to become more involved. She is planning a bruncheon workshop (`Brunch and Learn ") at the Council on Aging on March 12 from 9:30 -11:00 am. The format will be small group discussions. Meagan is inviting people and groups in the City that are involved in environmental issues. She is interested in having our Committee attend and participate in her workshop. The Committee expressed interest, and there was a discussion about possible materials that could be used for a display and /or handed out. There were a few questions asked and addressed, such as how the workshop will be promoted. Meagan said she will provide more information as it becomes available. Page 1 of 3 Beverly Waste Reduction Committee Meeting Minutes — January 3, 2019 Spring 2019 Electronics Collection Higgins provided an update on planning for electronics collection. Pricing will be available in January. Swain recommended reaching out to the football team early; Higgins agreed to contact Coach Morency this month. Hermon provided an update on a Styrofoam collection event that will be held in Hamilton. The materials will be brought to Newburyport. She reported that the material must be very clean (e.g., no tape). There was some discussion about if this could work for us, perhaps conducted at the same time as the electronics collection event. Musante advised that we need to make sure there is enough advanced notice to allow people to save the material for recycling. If it's too short notice, there may not be enough available to justify a collection event. There was also a discussion about the economic cost/benefit of collecting Styrofoam. Hermon agreed to follow -up with Gold Circuit, a company in Palmer that provides Styrofoam collection and recycling. Dillon suggested we follow -up with Hamilton to assess how it worked for them. There was some discussion about other materials we could possibly collect, including rigid plastics and textiles. The Committee is not aware of a current market for rigid plastics; textiles can be collected through the school program (bins are available at the high school, where our electronics event is held). There was also a discussion about having more educational outreach (at a table) during electronics collection. Old Business and Other Updates RDP Grant Funding — Beverly received RDP grant funding from MADEP in 2018. This was the first year the City was eligible for funding, which is due to the reduced barrel limit. Our Committee previously voted to send a letter to the Mayor's office providing a recommendation to use the grant funding to engage an education, outreach and enforcement coordinator. Higgins circulated a draft letter to Committee members, and it was agreed we should send the letter to Kevin Harutunian. Higgins reported that she met with Sharon Kishida, Kerin Cotter, and Stephanie Bilotti regarding the RDP grant application for next year. At that meeting, there was discussion about opportunities to undertake activities that may increase future funding. This includes the potential opening of Standley Street on a year -round basis as well as the Beverly Public Library's development of a Library of Things, both of which would increase our opportunity for grant funding. The Committee further discussed related items associated with RDP grant funding. • Standley Street Compost Operation — There was a brief discussion about Standley Street compost operations. The Committee has several questions about how the site operates and certain contractual conditions between JRM and the City. We agreed that the Committee should gain a better understanding of Standley Street compost operations. • Future Priorities — Higgins updated the Committee about informal discussions with Councilor Rand about future priorities. Event recycling, mandatory commercial Page 2 of 3 Beverly Waste Reduction Committee Meeting Minutes — January 3, 2019 recycling, and mandatory recycling (through comprehensive hauler regulations) are of a high priority moving ahead now that the plastic bag ban has been implemented. Social Media — Higgins thanked Mary Barthelmes for her volunteer work to establish an Instagram account and to begin to post information. There was a short discussion about managing social media and ideas about things to post. Swain brought up some questions about managing household hazardous waste (HHW) and opportunities to post information about disposing of HHW when there's not an event scheduled. Ben Hacker expressed interest in helping the Committee answer questions on social media. Curbside Composting — Higgins provided an update on the food waste curbside composting program. Approximately 300 accounts were delinquent, and after much follow -up by Black Earth many of these accounts have been terminated. Some of these are now starting to sign up again. This caused some confusion with bin distribution. Black Earth has changed the process to have two separate forms — one for new signups and one for renewal. The official program count is 1,006 participants as of January 3, 2019. There was a question about what happens with drop -outs and the bins. We don't have participants return the bins given to them by our Committee /the City. We suggest that they give it to someone that is in the program that may want a second, spare bin. Higgins asked if the Committee wants Black Earth to come in to meet with us for any reason. The Committee agreed that we could have one or two members meet or talk with Black Earth separately and report back. Hermon expressed interest in staying in touch with Black Earth on behalf of our Committee. Bring Your Own Bag Ordinance — Higgins reported that she talked to Councilor Rand, who asked if we could post the student artwork that was submitted for this ordinance. Higgins will share the artwork with Mary Barthelmes for posting on Instagram. Sale of Plastic Recycling Bags — Hamilton reported that Shaws has re- stocked plastic recycling bags. These were previously pulled from the shelf, because they cannot be used for recycling in Beverly or any of the other local communities. The Hamilton Waste Reduction Committee has sent a follow -up letter requesting these bags be removed from the shelf. There was a discussion about whether the stores will continue to collect plastic bags for recycling now that they cannot use plastic bags at the point -of -sale. If stores stop providing this recycling service, we may want to conduct outreach to promote continued recycling. Adjournment There being no further discussion this evening, the meeting was adjourned at 7:22 pm. Page 3 of 3