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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWaste Reduction & Recycling Comm. 01/12/2023Waste Reduction & Recycling Committee January 12 , 2023 RECEIVED TOWN CLERKS OFFICE MEETING MINUTES MEMBERS PRESENT: Neil Rhein, Select Board 20B MAR I b P 2: 51 Josh Reinke, Director of DPW ( *4gFIELD Christina Collins, DPW Office la*A C Ij S E T T S Matthew Jacques, School Department Graham Wilson, Board of Health Mark Corsillo, Resident Kristy Dunbar, Resident MEMBERS NOT PRESENT: Mike Ahern, Public Buildings Special Projects Called meeting to order at 4:30pm 1. Review & Approve Minutes from November 10, 2022 Neil made motion to approve minutes, all in favor. 2. Review and discuss Recycling Flyer/Postcard Christina printed out postcard for everyone. Josh commented on grant discussion (#6) possibly paying for this and other flyers could be built into the grant application. Neil asked everyone to review the content of the postcard which includes the first section (what should go in your bin) and the second section (what not to put in your bin). Mark tested the QR code on both sides and said that it was going to the right place. Neil asked Christina to run it by Allegra for comparison pricing. Mark questioned clean pizza boxes on the postcard and Neil mentioned that Recycle Smart said that a little grease is not an issue. Josh suggested that we replace it with empty pizza boxes (will replace clean pizza boxes) and everyone agrees. Once this is finalized Christina will call Pleasant Street Printing and Allegra and ask what the turnaround will be. Christina and Neil said that we should order around 10,000 so we have some extra. 3. Review and discuss draft trash and recycling bylaws for residents and businesses; along with method of enforcement Josh wants to make a robust presentation later regarding recycling bylaws. Graham said regarding Board of Health regulations he looked at some towns already including Easton, Norton, Sharon, Foxboro, Plainville, Attleboro and Needham and also somewhere else to see where they are for a slightly bigger town. Graham will coordinate with Josh and then Josh will plan to draft it up as a final form then we can pick and choose. 4. Review and discuss revising Mansfield Green fees Mike is not at this meeting but he wanted to speak regarding the fees at the Mansfield green but Josh had something that Mike put together last year for comparison. Josh gave a handout to everyone. Josh said that if Mansfield falls behind other towns it could be an issue so he wants to stay competitive with other towns. Neil thought tv's need a little more discussion. Mark looked tv's on the waste wizard and said it didn't give the prices only for flat screens so the waste wizard needs to be updated. Mark said that best buy is charging $30 and Staples will take computer monitors for free. Josh will have a discussion with Mike regarding Tires to see how many we usually get above certain sizes. Josh said regarding appliances it's free because we make money for the metal. Josh said that we can add to the waste wizard that staples takes computer monitors for free. Neil said to make action steps for the next meeting regarding tv's. 5. Review and discuss creation of donation bin bylaws Neil said that there have been issues with donation bin on business property as they turn into a mess. Graham has done some research with the Board of Health on updating the commercial trash container regulations and is wondering if these could be added to the by-laws. These changes would have to be approved at Town Meeting. Graham said we have been having issues with rats due to dumpster being left opened. Neil ask regarding mattresses have we had any issues and Christina said we have had some issues with mattresses. She believes it was around 11 mattresses dumped in various locations. Graham said that the donation bins are very specific to what can be left in them like clothing, Etc. and people are leaving everything like car seat and other things that don't belong and, in his opinion, Graham believes this is littering as those things are not allowed. Neil believes he has had emails in the past regarding the by-laws from a few other towns. Josh wanted to know what some of the specifics are. Neil believes the main problem was if you didn't keep it clean then there would be consequences such as fines. Graham is questioning if the owners of the donation bin don't come pick it up would it be between the owner of the property and the owner of the donation bin. Mark thinks that the town would say the owner is out of compliance and if the property owner blames the owner of the bin he believes it.is the property owner's responsibility. Neil said it makes sense to have this added to the by- laws. Mark said that no donation bin can be left at a property without owner permission. Neil said it is still the property owner's responsibility. Neil said regarding donation bins that they wanted to get them into the Mansfield schools but Matthew said that it would just become a - dumping ground. Matthew said that they have specific bins at the school now and they always 6. Revise and discuss seeking grants to fund recycling improvements Josh discussed a grant is fiom EPA consumer recycling education grant program. This program is. to inform the public to increase collection rates and to decrease contamination in resident recycling programs which is a lot of educational directive. The deadline is February 15th which is next month and that is approaching quickly. The amount of money that they award is between $250,000 and $2 million and it is a huge threshold. There are no matching funds required, all directly from them. The awarding process will start in October of this year. Some of the things that could be used that were discussed were staffing at the recycle park, teaching people in different grade levels at the school, educational days, signs, stickers, tv setup in various location, tv in the town hall that has a scroll that might be educational, tv's setup that kids could see in schools, education information during the election and town meeting for people to view when they come to those events. Mark asked if it would be possible to go in with other towns on this grant. Josh will reach out to other towns regarding this program. 7. Schedule a Talking Trash & Recycling presentation Neil has given this presentation around the state and also on zoom and in person. His thought was to do one here in Mansfield publish to town channels sometime near spring. He has done this in the schools in the past for the third, sixth and ninth grade classes for the first year in their new school about how to recycle in their new school. This became a state-wide thing and got a grant from Mass DEP and they were getting reimbursed through Mass DEP for each presentation that was given. This rolled out when covid hit around spring 2020. Neil will be recording it on zoom and making it public to be shown in the classroom but it wouldn't be customized to the specific town it would be Massachusetts wide. The one that he will do in Mansfield could be done for Mansfield specific. He is happy to do a live-in person presentation at the schools or the library then record it then it could be put on the town website. Neil will email a date that works for him. 8. Resident's comments and questions No Residents comments or questions. 9. Member's comments and questions Member's comments and questions Mark asked if we ever had a town wide yard sale. Neil said some nonprofit groups did it a few years ago. We could either do a centralized location where people could do it out of their trunks or have one day that everyone has a yard sale in their driveway and could possibly donate to Mansfield beautiful. Neil said that this would eliminate ail --the yard sale signs around town. It would be a lot easier to pull stuff into your drive then have to :transport it to town hall. Neil said that this would have to be well managed. Mark will look into this idea. Mark said that the benefit of doing it this way would be the publicity and, you don't have to worry about putting up signs as there would be a map where the yard sales would be. There would be an online map that could show the locations. Neil said Keep Mansfield Beautiful might be interested in this. Mark said that he will contact them. 1 A T}nmo not on4inina4nA dQ hn» nrinr to mnn4inrt None I I. Adjourn Christina makes motion to adjourn meeting; Mark seconds the motion to adjourn the meeting; all in favor; meeting is adjourned at 5:54 p.m. Respectfully Submitted