Attending Members: Barbara McMillan, Silke Psula, Tom Richter

Invited Guests: Ron Laurence, Jack Copeland, Sherry Mitsui

Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.

1. Old Business:

Action Item for Tom Coleman to submit names to Mayor for membership to the committee.

Tom Coleman has been activated in the Military Reserves supporting homeland defense operations. In light of the life changing events he was unable to follow through. However at the conclusion of this meeting Tom directed Invitees to go to City Hall to sign the “Membership Ledger”.

Action Item to draft survey questions to field to Portsmouth residents regarding recycling. Item taken up at this meeting.

Action Item to address recycling at the public schools. Silke Psula, Barbara McMillan and Ron Laurence met December 27^th in an informal (subcommittee) meeting. Minutes were not taken. At the meeting it was determined to assess the current recycling volumes at the schools and establish recycling objectives. Silke Psula will make assessment. There remains a need to get each of the schools enrolled in the Gov. Recycling Club.

2. New Business:

A. It is now a little more than half a year that Coastline has been providing curbside collection of recyclables. In July the contract may be renewed for another year. It was concluded to field a survey to Portsmouth residents to assess residents’ satisfaction with their service. It was determined to distribute a five-question survey throughout the City.

The Committee then discussed its general sentiment / perceived satisfaction with Coastline. Silke Psula has been reviewing the disposal receipts provided by Coastline. While actual copies of receipts are being provided, it is difficult to say whether the receipts reflect recyclable material collected exclusively from Portsmouth. Also, the receipts do not show much variation. It is difficult to objectively tell if recycling has improved, declined or stabilized. Regardless, the general sentiment was that there needs to be a revitalization/re-education of recycling in Portsmouth.

Silke Psula observed that throughout the City cardboard and items other than 1 & 2 recyclables are being placed curbside. Coupled with the fact that Coastline is becoming more stringent about the materials they are collecting, this puts a burden on PW as the customer complaints are increasing due to materials not being collected.

It was also noted customer service is decreasing due to Coastline’s shortage of drivers. Stops are being missed and the drop off service has not been regularly picked up in the last month.

In general, Coastline is not communicating with Portsmouth residents about the recycling program or who to call for customer concerns. (The customer complaint log indicates a majority of calls from PWD personnel on behalf of the resident.) Further they are not supplying the requested extra totes for the PWD drop off site.

If we are to express our concerns with Coastlines performance against the contract, we will need to document the concerns. (These minutes go toward that.)

B. Options / Ideas to re-education Portsmouth residents about recycling initiatives was discussed. (See Action Items for ideas to be acted upon.)

Action Items:

AI # 1: Develop and field a five-question survey to be distributed throughout the City.

Responsible Party: Silke Psula

AI # 2: Develop a Welcome Package for Realtors to distribute to new residents. Package would include different categories pertaining to Portsmouth (i.e. “around town”, PWD services and of course recycling information).

Responsible Party: Silke Psula (to work in conjunction with Tina Sagris).

AI # 3: Consider advertising in the official Welcome Wagon.

Responsible Party: Sherry Mitsui to obtain contact info and provide to Silke Psula; Silke to pursue viability of using the service.

AI # 4: Consider getting information to Portsmouth residents through the water bill and/or the tax bill.

Responsible Party: Silke to pursue viability; Committee members and invited guests to suggest information /comments to be disseminated.

AI # 5: Next meeting to include discussion regarding re-education of recycling objectives.

AI # 6: Assess actual recycling volumes at the Public Schools and get each of the schools enrolled in the Gov. Recycling Club.

Responsible Party: Silke to determine actual volumes being recycled at the Public Schools. Barbara McMillan to contact Liz Bedard, Governor’s Recycling Program, Barbara Early, Dondero Elementary School and Kurt Bernard, Portsmouth High School to initiate school enrollment in the Recycling Club.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, FEBRUARY 12, 2002 at 7:00 p.m.

Meeting Adjourned.