HomeMy WebLinkAbout07.22.2021 SWAC Minutes DRAFT
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Solid Waste Advisory Committee (SWAC)
Regular Meeting Minutes
Thursday, July 22, 2021
3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Virtual Meeting – No In-Person Attendance.
Meeting conducted via GoToMeeting
Public Access: (872) 240-3212; Access Code: 867-505-741#
OPENING BUSINESS
Meeting properly advertised and agenda posted on July 15, 2021.
Roll Call and Introductions – Bart Kale, Chair
Committee Members Present:
Bart Kale, Chair & Citizen at Large Heidi Eisenhour, County Commissioner
Lisa Crosby, District #1 Steve King, City of Port Townsend
Stacy Hall, Skookum Alternate
Committee Members Absent
Jenifer Taylor, District #2 Tracy Grisman, District #1
Glenn Gately, Conservation District Tim Deverin, District #3
Alysa Thomas, Skookum Chad Young, Waste Connection
Staff Present
Al Cairns, Solid Waste (SW) Division Manager Chris Spall, Public Works Support Staff
Laura Tucker, Public Health, SW Education
Guests/Visitors:
David Pater, WA State Dept. of Ecology, Steve Gilmore, Republic Services
Quorum Determination: No quorum because only five members present.
Approval/Correction of Draft of Minutes for 5/27/2021 Regular Meeting: No vote taken to approve due to
lack of a quorum. No one present had changes for the May minutes. Approval vote moved next meeting on 9/23.
Correspondence received for discussion: None.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Recycling RFP/CROP – Al Cairns
Received proposals from Skookum and Waste Connections (WC) and have questions for both in order to
understand the numbers in their proposals. The seven criteria in the RFP will be used to score the
proposals, with a numerical value assigned for each criteria. Hope to publish proposal for September
SWAC meeting, but may need a special meeting, before presenting recommendation for awarding the
contract to the Board of County Commissioners (BoCC.) WC requires we meet with City to discuss
changes they may need to make. It will take a while to work through the proposals. No difference in cost
with plastics in or out. Cost of cleaning up contamination is on the County, not on the collector or MRF.
Clearly the system is broken. County assumes all risk and collector reaps all the reward. No incentive for
the collector, broker, or MRF to clean up the material. Timeline for a contract decision is March 2022.
One proposal is for curb side pickup only, the other is to maintain the status quo with more education.
There is an $80,000 spread, but proposals are so different that the initial numbers do not reflect actual
costs. WC proposal is for single stream with glass out. Looking for clarity if there will be a roll cart or 3
bin system, all potential revenue back to county.
2. IDD Employment Program – Al Cairns
Second draft under review at Public Health. Hope to have RFP published shortly.
3. Wood Waste Market Development Study – Al Cairns
Capital cost associated with a centralized facility to process wood waste is not financially viable. Simply
not enough feedstock to make the system viable. Modern framing does not generate much waste. Plywood
cannot be used as feedstock. Agricultural has a very high demand for Biochar. Edensaw, Pacific
Northwest Timbers, and Mahan Log and Lumber are sources for feedstock. A centralized biochar facility
is an expensive solution to a problem that does not exist. If we coordinate with Clallam, would there be
enough feedstock to make it viable? Unlikely a program would be viable because of the lack of wood
waste in building.
4. Brinnon/Quilcene Update – Al Cairns
With closure of recycling site in Brinnon, a lot of people are using the Quilcene Drop Box. Skookum has
added bins and increased the pickup schedule to accommodate the influx. Also seeing a lot more solid
waste at the Quilcene Drop Box. Surveyed customers and found out that many had been taking their solid
waste to Mason County which means the recycling service was not being supported by everyone using the
service.
5. Capital Plan Process/SWMP Update – Al Cairns
This process will take up a lot of time. Hope to have draft schedule for the September meeting. Want the
Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) to reflect that the Solid Waste enterprise fund operates like a
triple bottom-line business and makes investment decisions based on: finance, environment, and social
responsibility. Would like to work with SWAC to develop criteria, processes, and decisions with this in
mind.
6. SWAC in-person meetings
Bart ready for in-person meetings in a wide-open space. Other venues might be good and allow remote
participation by call in or Zoom to allow more people to attend. Lisa said she’s comfortable with in-
person meetings if we can know if people are vaccinated. Al said County policy for employees is an
attestation of vaccination must be signed or person must wear a mask. Unvaccinated people are required
to wear masks at all times in county buildings. Possible venues allowing for more space between people
were suggested: County library conference room, Tri-Area center, Quimper Grange, and Fort Worden. Al
asked how the group would feel about an outdoor meeting. Everyone was good with that. Please send
additional meeting venue suggestions to Al.
7. Solid Waste Education – Laura Tucker
Contamination audits of recycling were done in December and June. Audits showed marked improvement
in recycling contamination, especially TAP, at the Transfer Station. Port Ludlow had a lot of chipboard in
the OCC. Contamination at Quilcene went up a lot (to 61% from 15% due to a lot of bagged recycling)
No audit done at Hadlock site due to health safety concerns (human waste thrown in bins.) Recycling
being put in plastic bags is a big problem. Drop boxes invite contamination. Signage clear but people
don’t pay attention. What kind of education actions did we do? Recycling flyer was included in PUD bill
in January, 2021 with a focus on contamination at the top of the flyer.
Discussion: Manned sites only solution for drop-off locations? Some people using drop-off sites as free
place to dump their stuff. Have we looked at staffing drop-off sites and what the cost would be? Transfer
Station and Quilcene sites are staffed. Skookum’s Recycling proposal has full FTE for site monitoring and
educational material (5 sites.) Close Hadlock site? Limit facility to cleanest commodity? TAP
contamination is the biggest problem. Could run another RFP with plastics out. Al said a lot of time is
being spent on this. Need to be working on capital facility planning and the $500k in capital repairs
needed at the Transfer Station. Recycling broken on a national level.
8. Partner Updates
a. Skookum, Stacy Hall - Glass back to being hauled two days a week. Prices looking good. Glass
going to Seattle. Market for glass better over last two months after going down six months ago.
Laura commented that our glass becomes more glass bottles, whereas from a lot of other places it
becomes landfill cover.
b. Waste Connections/Olympic Disposal, Chad Young – no report
c. City solid waste/recycling/composting, Steve King - Tentatively have a presentation planned
for City Council in August, but may have to postpone that because of proposal.
4:15 Committee and Public Open Discussion
Bart talked about balancing operational costs and what the public wants. It might be a challenge to continue
recycling certain items but it may still be worth finding ways to do it. Laura said aluminum has highest value and
quickest turnaround. Steel cans value is a tad lower followed by glass. In terms of pollution from recycling,
aluminum is lowest. Plastic can be recycled once, and pollutes environment as it breaks down and sheds micro
plastics. Glass has higher carbon footprint but no endocrine disrupters like plastic. When talking about recycling,
Heidi suggested rather than emphasizing “don’t do this or that” offer examples of alternatives. For instance,
instead of buying juice in plastic bottles, buy frozen juice concentrate that can be mixed up in a reusable pitcher.
We need to reorient how we talk to our community about recycling to change behaviors. Negative is not helpful.
Modeling what we want is more helpful.
ADJOURNMENT
Bart adjourned the meeting at 4:30 pm.
Next Meeting Date: September 23, 2021.
2021 Regular Meeting Dates
January 28 July 22
March 25 September 23
May 27 December 2