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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSWAC 3 Final April 2015 Minutes JEFFERSON COUNTY SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES – Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 Jefferson County Public Works Building, Conference Room 1. OPENING BUSINESS: Meeting called to order by Al Cairns at 3:03 PM Members Present: Lisa Crosby District #1 John Merchant City of Port Townsend Kent Kovalenko DM/Murrey’s Disposal Al Cairns Port Of Port Townsend Kathleen Kler Commissioner Jenifer Taylor Citizen at Large Members Absent: Matt Hall Skookum Hank Fly District #1 Staff Present: Jerry Mingo PW MRW/Solid Waste Coordinator Laura Tucker Public Health Education Tina Anderson PW Support Staff Guests: Steve Gilmore Republic Services Rick Hlavke Green Solutions, LLC There is a quorum. Approval of minutes from March 26, 2015 meeting: Lisa would like to add in reference to the Table 1-1, Accomplished does not mean that it isn’t still ongoing. John re page 2-5: meant to say Under Current Solid Waste Quantities: does the sign say Management rather than Disposal instead of Facility. Change Facility to Disposal. Kathleen motioned and John seconded to accept the minutes with the above changes. Motion carried. No correspondence Guest speaker will be Rick Hlavke to work on the Solid Waste Management Plan Jerry introduced Steve Gilmore representative of Republic Services, the company that owns the regional land fill where our waste is sent. They occasionally give approval to dispose of special wastes example: sand blasting waste. Al asked about shipping contaminated soils, where the first stop should be for approval. Jerry request to be the initial contact, but has the forms and would like to be kept in the informational loop no matter what company is used for the process. 2. OPERATIONAL REPORTS: No presentations. This meeting is for reviewing the Solid Waste Management Plan sections. 3. OLD BUSINESS: None 4. NEW BUSINESS: SWMP: Rick He will track changes in the document in progress rather than going back to the current plan. Jerry noted the addition of 3 extra meetings for working on the plan. The intention is to set aside the normal SWAC business at these additional meetings. SWMP: Chapter 3: Page 3-3: section 8.8 is highlighted for going back to since it is not known if this will be the section to reference. Page 3-4: 3.2 Existing Conditions for Waste Reduction Education; Laura and Jerry are working on this. Rick asked about tracking the changes from the meetings. Jerry, Rick and Tina will share notes. Reuse – Big Brothers & Big Sisters collect used clothes for turning over to Value Village for rags. US Again also accepts used clothing for turning into rags etc. Could be in the plan to promote opportunities for outside parties. Backyard composting there’s nothing for food waste composting. Organic, vegetative food scrapes, Al: On-going activity: through grants from Ecology, Public Works did a series of workshops on different types of composting. Community Gardens staged several large scale composting bins for those communities. The numbers of food waste composted was surprisingly high. Volume-Based waste collection rates could be made available on the City website. The variable rates go out once a year with a Helpful Hints to reduce your costs. Suggestion to the language that “however, this information is not easily accessible on the haulers or City’s websites” to “however, this information could be made more easily accessible on the....” This is a recommendation to an existing condition. Plastic Bag Ban enacted by the City is not enforced but is more of a voluntary action by vendors. Waste-Not-Want-Not discussed for taking paint. They are not a constant recipient for listing. Reuse: Trading Post is gone and the Free Cycle (which can replace it) is not a Yahoo group. Rather than naming all the thrift stores add “and a number of thrift stores in the area”. 3.3 Planning Issues for Waste Reduction The idea of the Planning issues in each chapter is to key in on service gaps, conditions or new regulations. These are things to address as options. Food Waste: about food compost facility – address in the Organics chapter. Promotion of Volume-Based Garbage Rates: The city is volume based and DM has to factor in fuel charges. The highlighted section will be removed and John will work on the city to get rates on their site. Measuring and Evaluating Waste Reduction Activities: How to rephrase that activities should continue to be supported even though the numbers are difficult to measure. Caution about using numbers due to the fluctuation of the economy that impact the waste flow. The numbers from Ecology include Navy Magazine Indian Island and P. T. Paper that do not come through the Jefferson County facility. Can this be addressed to identify that their numbers askew the Jefferson County diversion rates? Include the point about industrial waste making it difficult? Part of planning you have to measure and evaluate and you are stating that this part of the plan is difficult. 3.4 Alternative Waste Reduction Strategies: Alternative B – 3%? Based on comparable studies. Based on nearby waste composition studies or waste characterization ours may be upwards of 3%. Compost facility for food waste – Ban Food Waste. Ban Pet Waste. What is currently Alternative C would be to Ban other products Food waste diversion program F could say Focus on Edible Food Waste or Waste and Food. Dovetailed: Ban the waste and build a facility for handling? How to phrase? Broadly stated? Fixed facility? Should the opportunity arise this would be good to have in the plan. Revisit this. Alternative G: The city is monitoring this. John gave reports to Rick. Alternative D: Bulleted items: What degree of concentrates? Still pertinent Avoiding over-packaged items? May be difficult Add Co-ownership of items Alternative E: Fix-it Workshops: Good item to keep Alternative F: Expiration dates. Campaign to explain Alternative H: currently have green business - EnviroStars. This is being done, but more could be done. The port has thru the Clean Boating foundation a recognition program for a Clean Boatyard and Clean Marina 3.5 Evaluation of Waste Reduction Alternatives Add column for Diversion Potential Add line for Potential destabilization of the fund? Feasibility: looks at technical political 3.6 Waste Reduction Recommendations Recommendation that the table be used to inform a discussion not to decide a rating. Between meetings look at a new revised table as an exercise for rerating. Get a feel f or the process. Rick will send out a blank table for an exercise for discussion at next meeting. This is the opportunity to make a difference and there are some things that are worthy of some time. It can’t all happen at this meeting, thinking about this on our own is good. Diversion potential as a percentage of the total waste stream. Revisit this. This is a good stopping point. Do the exercise on the rating system and the recommendations need to be based on that exercise. More time may be spent on chapters 3, 4 & 5 as they are the key. Laura shared the Green Living section of the Leader with our first half page ad. She would love feedback on this ad. There are temporary signs/images from the recycle brochure on the bins and permanent ones will done soon. Next scheduled meeting will be May 28. Kathleen moved and Lisa seconded to adjourn at 4:33 PM.