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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrash/Recycling Comm. 7/13/20Trash & Recycling Task Force Ad Hoc Committee July 13, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. Virtual Meeting �c O ICE MEETING MINUTES i`Y MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathy Aguiar, Finance Committee Lee Azinheira, DPW Director Christina Collins, DPW Office Manager T `- Mike Ahern, Public Buildings/Special Projects Manager Steve Schoonveld, Select Board Member Neil Rhein, Select Board Cleric Graham Wilson, Board of Health Amy Donovan -Palmer, Health Agent MEMBERS NOT PRESENT: Kevin Dumas, Town Manager 1. Call to Order — 2. Reorganization of Committee Officers Due to the new fiscal year, nominations for a new Committee Chair are presented. Neil nominates Mr. Schoonveld to be the chair; Mike Ahern seconds the nomination. Discussion ensues about Mr. Schoonveld being chair with Lee helping out and they will work together. Vote is taken and is unanimous Mr. Schoonveld will become Committee Chair. Neil Rhein will remain as Vice Chair; Christina Collins will become Clerk Mr. Schoonveld acknowledges residents are very important and wants to include residents at every meeting and will take their questions or comments. Lee did talk to a resident before this meeting and will discuss that issue later in the meeting. Mr. Schoonveld wants to refocus and narrow it down to two major goals: Lower costs of trash and recycling today and in future; and Become more trash and recycling responsible as a community Mr. Schoonveld feels the Committee has had a lot of great discussions but lost opportunities In depth discussion about how to move forward with all the information and how to keep residents in the loop; will create a working spreadsheet to keep track of all information and set goals and will keep everything organized and on track; Lee would like to see discussions of the curbside program separate for the discussions about the condominiums/apartments/businesses; would like to stay focused on the curbside aspect, the updating of the Mansfield Green and possibly update the 25 year old curbside and recycling by-laws 3. Approvals of Minutes — continued to later in the meeting 4. Bylaw Review & Continued Discussion Began reaching out to apartment/condo/business owners; started at Webb Place; basically, owner's comment was that he didn't want to see the Town get involved in the operating of his business; Also, Town needs to do an inventory of the carts to make sure those getting curbside service are eligible; Discussion ensues about dumpsters; recycling in condos/apartments and such; Graham will look into surrounding Towns to see how they deal with this issue; also Lee thinks we should just encourage the use of the Green no matter if they are single household or apartment/condo residents Two issues with private dumpsters at condo/apartment/businesses — they should have to be completely covered and should we require that they offer recycling By-laws for residential aspect of trash and recycling do we want to address or should we have a review — Lee/Christina will reach out to Kathy Mirza to see if she can provide any examples 5. Mansfield Green Layout and Field Trip to Other Recycle Parks The design that was given was very preliminary; committee discusses a field trip to three local recycle parks to see how they operate and how they are set-up; set for Saturday, July 25, 2020 will visit Norfolk, North Attleboro and Franklin; will discuss layouts and such after the field trip 6. Update on Metrics Lee provided a lot of information with regard to the end of the fiscal year 2020; which included all the trash and recycling costs to various vendors; including fees; tonnage; bulky & white goods etc. From FY01 to FY20 Mansfield went from 81 tons of trash to 53 tons of trash amid a growing population; may be a slight uptick this year due to the covid-19 pandemic; With regard to Simple Recycling; Mansfield residents are really utilizing the pink bags —16000 pounds were collected in May 2020 and 12,000 pounds were collected in June 2020; 7. Promoting Composting Discussions about Town compost bins that are purchased and the Black Earth composting program; is there a way to track these figures at all; would Black Earth be able to give the number of participants they currently have in the Town; start tracking the purchase of Town compost bins and keep track quarterly; maybe figure out a way to encourage residents to compost Graham will be hopefully doing a PSA for composting in the upcoming months to try and encourage people to look into backyard composting; may reach out to Jessica for her input as to how to create same; Graham will hope to have a few ideas before the next meeting; 8. Items Not Known 48 hours prior to meeting 9. Next Meeting - Next meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 3, 2020 Mike Ahern makes a motion to approve the minutes of May 18`h and June 81h; Lee seconds the motion; Amy abstains as she was not at either meeting and Graham abstains from one as he wasn't present; motion passes 6-0 with 2 abstains; Quick question is brought up about the plastic bag ban which has been rescinded and reusable bags can now be brought to grocery store; how to get the word back out there is discussed 10. Adjournment Mike Ahern makes a motion to adjourn; second by Graham; vote is unanimous to adjourn. Respectfully Submitted Christina Collins Signature of Commission Clerk Date of Acceptance