HomeMy WebLinkAbout01.25.18 SWAC Minutes
JEFFERSON COUNTY
SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES – Thursday, January 25, 2018
Jefferson County Public Works Building, Conference Room
Opening Business:
Meeting called to order at 3:00 P.M by Bart Kale, Chair
Members Present:
Kathleen Kler County Commissioner Chris Giraldes Waste Connections
Lisa Crosby District #1 Jenifer Taylor District #2
Bart Kale Citizen-at-Large Glenn Gately County Conservation District
John Merchant City of Port Townsend Stacy Hall Skookum Contract
Chad Young DM/Murrey’s Disposal
Staff Present:
Tom Boatman Public Works SW Manager Jerry Mingo Public Works MRW Coordinator
Tina Anderson Public Works Support Staff Chris Spall Public Works Support Staff
Laura Tucker Public Health, Education
Members Absent:
Carol Cummins District #1 Jean Ball District #3
Alysa Russell Skookum Contract
There is a quorum.
Approval of October 26, 2017 Minutes: Chris moved and Lisa seconded to approve. Motion carried.
Correspondence: None received.
Business
1. Manager’s Report given by Tom Boatman.
Tom welcomed everyone to the first of the 2018 SWAC meetings, reminding everyone that the meetings
are open to the public. He spoke about John Merchant’s contribution to the SWAC and the committee’s
appreciation for John’s work. John Merchant joined the meeting later. He said he is retiring May 1st. Tom
said Jefferson County has benefitted from John’s work.
Governor’s signing of the Capital Budget releases funding for the biannual Solid Waste Assistance Grant,
which funds should be available summer 2018. A portion of the grant is for Health Departments to use for
enforcement programs (illegal dumping, etc.,) and a portion is for implementation programs. Jefferson
County elects to leaves 55% of the available implementation funds on the table for the Health Department
to apply for to use for SW education. Laura Tucker added that about $68,000 is available to the Health
Department for outreach and education and does not include a 25% match on public health’s part. The
grant can be charged as if it started July 1, and funds from July to January, not designated for salary, can
fund community outreach for National SWORD and lowering contamination rates in recovered
recyclables. Community outreach normally has a very tight budget. Jerry asked about enforcement budget,
which Kathleen said is funded to about $50k per year.
Tom, Kathleen, and Greg Lanning, PT Public Works Director, did a full day tour of Republic’s landfill in
Roosevelt and looked at many different environmental protection systems including leachate/condensing
disposal system, LFG collection system, LFG to energy system, working face procedures, evidence of the
particulate monitoring system and, ash waste mining and recover system. Roosevelt gets ash from
Spokane, and an Austrian company set up a mining operation there to mine metals from the ash, generating
enough money to pay Roosevelt and make a profit. All were impressed with the landfill’s operations.
The House introduced two bills. HB 2380 from environmental committee, concerning Washington’s
economic development potential as a world leader in stewardship of postconsumer materials, and HB 2411
reducing waste of edible food by 50% and directing the state to come up with a plan in order to fight
hunger and reduce environmental impacts.
Received a letter from Local 20/20 that discussed food composting opportunities. The letter is listed under
business on today’s meeting agenda.
China’s National Sword (quality rules on importing recyclables, focused on mixed paper and 3-7 plastics)
ban on recyclables began 1/1/2018 and its impact is being felt in the US, as roughly 1.7 million tons of
recyclable materials are exported to China each year. Its immediate impact on markets is being felt locally.
Waste Connections reports market pricing of recyclable materials down $100/ton, and that some
processors are disposing of up to 40% of recyclables. Skookum reports pricing for cardboard down by
$65/ton, and mixed residential paper down to $25/ton. TAP Tin/Aluminum/Plastics mix should now be
sorted due to the plastics ban. Stacy Hall, speaking for Skookum, said none of Jefferson County’s material
is being disposed of now. Lisa emailed Republic asking how they are handling the ban. They said they are
not stock piling materials and are connecting with other markets. Tom said recycling centers in states east
of the Mississippi, for the most part, use markets other than China. Those markets are available but we’d
have to determine if shipping is affordable and capacity levels at those facilities. Recycling market troubles
have happened before due to oil prices. Laura said that because plastics 3-7 have little to no resin value
China was burning them for energy, but now that China is making enough money they can afford to care
more about their environment, which could mean the ban may not change. Landfill companies might do
quite well in the short term. May have to determine price point for what people would be willing to pay to
ship it back east until market adjustments are complete. Lisa pointed out that this could be an opportunity
to spur manufacturers to change packaging; sell the idea that consumers will not buy products if packaging
does not change. Example was given of German shoppers discarding packaging in stores because of the
high cost for residential garbage collection. Jefferson County SW has developed with Skookum a
framework for a community outreach plan to use if necessary, if a change to our recycling program
becomes necessary. For now will wait to see if the ban changes before considering changing our list of
recyclables; easy to remove items from the list but hard to add them back. Outreach to get the
contamination rate down was discussed. What should our outreach message be: Now may be an
opportunity to change and stop using 3 – 7; or market may come back, but for now let’s consider getting
rid of it? What makes sense ecologically, environmentally, and socially?
2. Discussion of 20/20 letter. Laura said not a week goes by that someone does not ask about organic collection.
Tom said Jefferson County does not have a collection system or a disposal district, which are both necessary
for a composting system. The solid waste management plan addresses this by way of inviting the commercial
sector to provide this service with the support of the county. While PT has a collection system, the carbon
component (yard waste) that would be used for composting are already being used by PT Bio Composting
Facility. Lisa pointed out that the letter simply asks that we commit to considering a program. She suggested
scheduling meetings to look at just this. Questions to consider: What would be the cost of a collection system?
What is the process to evaluate this happening - RFP or letter of inquiry? Would have to know how much
compostable material there is and figure out the transportation cost. If we want to setup a county wide
composting of non-edible food, what does the system need to look like, and what is the cost of this? Chris
Giraldes asked if there currently is any commercial setup for composting that is a short hall a way. He
suggested setting up an informational meeting with an operation to find out what it would take to setup a
composting operation. If you had an operation here what would be the roadblocks to get it from the door to the
yard across town. Collection and storage. Would the committee like to have Jeff West speak to the committee?
Email Chris Giraldes to setup a 15 minute presentation about what it would take to setup an operation here.
District 3 has a lot of people who compost, especially the farm community. Larger input would be from
schools, restaurants, hospitals, grocery stores. A mandatory program would be needed to achieve a successful
system. Tom said that this community could expect about a 5% reduction is solid waste from a mature
compositing system. Waste Connections has composting facilities and could do a presentation as well.
3. Battery presentation by Jerry Mingo. SW is expanding its battery collection program to include especially
lithium and rechargeables at the Jacob Miller transfer station and the Quilcene transfer station. Outreach will
be included to educate the public starting sometime in 2018. There are dozens of chemistry types of batteries,
with five different classifications that go into eight different streams. We accept rechargeable batteries of any
kind, lithium primary, button or coin batteries, automotive batteries. Rechargeable lithium ion and polymer,
with polymer lacking a hard case. Those go to ‘Call to Recycle,’ a stewardship program of a consortium of
manufacturers. Nickel based are shipped in drums to ‘Call to recycle’. Sealed lead acid batteries in car
recharging batteries, computer backup batteries. Button batteries go out with a pay for service program at
$63/box. Lithium disposable coin batteries get turned into battery pepperoni in terminal protected plastic. DDR
batteries are damaged defective or recalled. Jerry showed a swelled lithium battery short-circuited, water
breach. Up to 4.4 lbs of DDR batteries can be disposed of in DOT specialized packaging for $100, which is
quite expensive. Lithium is the lightest metal used in high performance batteries. When Lithium batteries ignite
they get very hot. Overcharging, damage, short circuitry or water exposure can cause ignition. Jerry Mingo
showed a video of a lithium battery being compressed in a vice causing it to short circuit, then ignite and
explode. Our battery collection program is expanding to collect these in a proper way to ensure proper
disposal.
Next Meeting will be Thursday, March 22, 2018.
Adjournment at 4:30 PM