Meeting was called to order at 7:10.m.

1. Old Business:

• Silke provided a synopsis regarding Coastline and how well they are satisfying the contract. For the most part, they are fulfilling the requirements. They needed prompting to provide:

• Portsmouth residents with ‘stickers’ to communicate why recyclables placed curbside were not picked up;
• Silke with tonnage receipts (this still needs to be fulfilled – while they are providing information indicating how much was collected, these are not original receipts providing proof that items were recycled in accordance with industry standards);
• How they address customer complaints;
• School out reach / educational programs (this has not really been addressed as of yet).

• Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day: Yet another success. Most of the credit goes to Tom Richter for having laid a solid foundation for the program. This allowed for a seamless transition for Silke to take over the coordination of the project and grow the program. Since the last collection there was more outreach and information provided to the public resulting in a 28% increase of residents using the service.
• Bulky Waste Collection Week resulted in 382 tons of bulky waste disposed of at the land fill; 100 tons of scrap metal collected; 60 tons of scrap wood; 249 units with freon; 7.2 tons of tires; and approximately 19,000 units of scrap electronics (computer monitors, tvs, microwaves, printers, etc.)

2) New Business:

• Tom Coleman proposed renaming the Committee. Currently the official name is Recycle Project Oversight Committee. Much discussion ensued. However the renaming was tabled until a later date.

• Silke provided input as to what City Hall’s priorities are with regard to recycling:

• Primarily to revamp the bulk waste program. Silke advised the committee she provided City Hall with a rough draft of how to revamp the program which included setting up a Recycling Center for drop off service 6 days a week.
• Second priority was to make recycling mandatory. The Committee had many questions and comments to offer, i.e. "why mandatory?" "how would it be enforced?" "Why spend our energies in mandatory when perhaps its better vested in pay-as-you-throw?" "How will the downtown area be able to comply with no convenient recycling offered? It tentatively was concluded that mandatory was before the Committee because that was the interest of the City Manager. The Committee recognizes that the first step in going mandatory would be to increase education and out reach that way when mandatory is proposed to council it becomes more of a paper exercise. Educational out reach initiatives to be discussed at the next meeting.

• Silke raised the question, "how effective is our curbside recycling program?" Tonnage information gathered from Coastline needs to be analyzed and compared to information provided from Waste Management the previous years. On average 12 (tons/pounds? I’ll find out what the unit of measurement is) of commingle is being collected weekly; 18.39 (units) of paper is collected weekly; and 1.7 (units) of cardboard is collected weekly. It is Silke’s general sentiment that recycling through out Portsmouth could be greatly increased. Tom Coleman will draft survey questions to put out in the field to find out, who is recycling, why (so that we may tap into their motivations), how effective is Coastline’s curbside, drop off and customer service and how could we make it easier for everybody to recycle.

• Silke shared her observations from the walk through she conducted of the 7 public schools. Attached are observations made. It is in the best interest for recycling that the Recycling Committee provide support and direction to the schools. Barbara McMillan and Ron Laurance with the assistance of Silke agreed to liaise with Kurt Barnard to rejuvenate recycling initiatives.

• Recycling Membership: Tom Coleman provided a brief overview of membership requirements: members are to be Portsmouth residents and agree to participate and assist with the committee’s objectives; persons interested in membership are to submit their names to the Mayor via Tom Coleman; and upon appointment to the committee, members are to sign an non-conflict of interest affidavit. Visiting guests all expressed interest in becoming full members. Tom Coleman will submit their names to the Mayor.

Tom Coleman: Submit names to Mayor for membership to the committee;

Meeting Adjourned.