PORTSMOUTH RECYCLING COMMITTEE MEETING
Attending Members: Barbara McMillan, Carol Hollis,
Ad hoc Members: Joanne Grasso, Silke Psula<
Invited Guests: Ron Laurence,Kurt Barnard, Rich Curry
Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m.
- 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".
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.
AI # 7: Discuss the issue of recycling for multifamily units, downtown and commercial businesses.
Responsible Party: Silke to add the topic to the next agenda.
AI # 8: Provide outline of proposed Recycling Drop-off Center.
Responsible Party: Silke to add the topic to the next agenda.
AI # 9: Rich Curry to provide log monitoring the Drop-off site; advise in writing how Coastline will handle the collection of paper in plastic bags; provide an outreach model; and provide tonnage / volumes being recycled at the Public Schools.
AI # 10: A tree and site needs to be picked for the commemoration of Earth Day. Contractor is to provide a tree. Public Works will coordinate with Coastline in picking an appropriate tree that will thrive in this climate. A site for the tree needs to be determined.
- New Business:
Silke provided a draft copy of the proposed survey to field to Portsmouth residents. Regrettably the survey would cost about $4,000.00. The committee discussed the pros and cons of fielding the survey and discussed alternate options in gauging the sentiment of residents and the effectiveness of the contractor’s performance. Tabled Action Item 1 for the time being.
The remainder of the meeting focused on the recycling curbside program, Coastline’s service and identified areas of opportunity to improve and educate the community. Issues revolved around lack of toters at the Drop-off site; lack of regular collection at the Drop-off site; in general lack of expanded hours at the Drop-off site; lack of education to customers and schools; manifest / receipts and whether they were Public Work’s concern; communication lines between Public Works, School and Contractor; collection routes commencing before or at 7:00 A.M. (City Ordinance technically prohibits residents from placing anything curbside before 7:30 A.M.); certain routes (or roads) being missed due to construction
In summary, the conclusion to these issues were:
- Work on addressing and recognizing trends and staying ahead of them, i.e. toters filling up might require additional toters, utilizing a roll-off or increasing the number of scheduled collections. Specifically Rich Curry will visit the site daily (unspecified duration), "eye-ball" the Drop-off site and set up a log to monitor the situation.
- Rich Curry will be the direct point of contact for operational issues.
- It was suggested to have the trucks collect recyclables at the Drop-off site first and then commence with the curbside collection. This would solve the early curbside problem. Rich agreed to look into it.
- The use of stickers would be used more sensibly, i.e. the material that was not recyclable would have a sticker placed on it verses the entire bin, which has only a one time effect (and negatively bands the customer as a "bad" recycler.
- The question was raised, "how does Coastline handle paper materials placed in plastic bags?" Rich offered to look into this and revert in writing.
- Rich offered to work on an outreach model and run it by the committee;
- Rich will assist the committee with getting an idea of what and how much is being recycled at the schools.
- Rich and Kurt Barnard will join the School Recycling Sub-Committee.
In addition to areas of opportunity for improvement, it was noted that a member of the High School involved with recycling program was pleased with the service provided by Coastline; Donna, Coastline’s receptionist is doing a fantastic job.
Joanne Grasso provided more formalized information regarding committee membership. As a council member, she is an ad hoc advisory member (and the committee is very appreciative of her involvement); Public Works’ employees are also ad hoc members; the Recycling Contractor is an invited guest. Other members are appointed by the Mayor.
The issue of recycling for multifamily units, downtown and for commercial businesses was raised. To be discussed at a later meeting.
Silke provided a brief outline of the proposal to reorganize the bulky waste collection process. This proposal will go before the Council members in March. Members of the committee asked for more details. Silke will provide more at the next committee meeting.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 5, 2002 at 6:30 p.m.
Meeting Adjourned.