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Solid Waste Committee for Trenton, Maine
Town of Trenton Solid Waste Committee
Agenda for September 3, 2008 meeting
1.
Attendees:
2.
Administrative:
-Vote to accept minutes from August
6, 2008 meeting
New and Old Business
by category:
3. Separation of waste materials
Bulk of separables:
Cardboard – where is dumpster?
Is someone buying cover tarps and ropes? Signs – refer to August 12
Selectman’s meeting.
Paper – same as for cardboard
Containers (plastic, glass,
metal) – nothing to discuss?
Fruit/vegetable/plant composting
– info from Bob Kates
Minority: (nothing to
discuss?)
Bulky
Construction Debris
Metal
Hazardous (batteries, mercury
bulbs, computers)
Remaining MSW – Tom
report on info from State Planning Office concerning centralized collection
(regulations involved are too burdensome)
4. Bypassing ‘middleman’
Possible curbside pickup and
take directly to PERC? Central
collection dumpster seems unlikely at this point. On hold for now.
5. Communication:
Website – Tom reports on current
status
Mailing – Review final draft of
first letter from Peter, and Universal Waste flier proposed to send with
it. To be combined with school board
mailing. They want to mail soon.
Town TV – nothing to discuss?
Radio Public Service
announcements – nothing to discuss
Newspaper Public Service or town
section notice – nothing to discuss
6. Other old or new business:
-status of Eastern Maine
Recycling (EMR) contract
-restrict recycling dumpsters to
residential use, or allow town businesses to use them as well (if they are
‘small’ producers)?
-reconciling total solid waste
costs – Tom to Selectmen meeting September 9.
7. Identified Action Items:
8. Adjourn meeting
Next
meeting is Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 7PM in the town office.
Attachments:
August
6 minutes from SWC meeting
August
12 report from Tom meeting with Selectmen
Peter’s
letter (most recent version)
Universal
Waste flier
Composter
information
Minutes for September 3, 2008
meeting (as accepted October 1, 2008)
1. 1. Attendees: Dotty Young, Peter Rees, Tom Sproule, Chuck
Starr, Eric White, Mike Gilmartin
2. 2. Administrative: Meeting
called to order 7:00PM. Peter Rees
moved, Eric White seconded, to approve minutes from the August 6, 2008
meeting. Unanimous, minutes approved.
New and old business by category:
3. 3. Separation of waste materials
Discussion
on hold up of dumpster procurement: Acton item: Eric White to find out from Janet Muise about
status.
Requirement
for tarps on dumpsters: Tremont
dumpsters have tarps but are susceptible to tearing from weather
damage. Action item: Eric White
to check on tarp requirement and procure when needed.
Signage for dumpsters:
Deferred until we see what is on dumpsters when delivered.
Business
use of recyclable dumpster:
Committee discussion leaned toward allowing businesses to use,
within reason. If too great a
volume, businesses must make their own arrangements.
Remaining
MSW: Tom reported that he checked
with the State Planning Office via their website, then email, then phone,
and determined that ANY attempt to have a dumpster next to the recycling
dumpsters for collection of regular trash (proposed as an incentive to
recycle) would turn the area into a “transfer station” requiring compliance
with burdensome and costly state regulations. Tom concluded that it would never be
worth our while to do that.
4. 4. Bypassing “middleman”
Nothing discussed.
5. 5. Communication:
Website:
Tom reported that the current arrangement of him editing website content
and then passing pages to Janet Muise for posting is working, though he
continues to pursue the idea of posting them himself as easier and more
efficient.
Version 5
of Peter Rees’ draft letter to town residents letting them know about the
dumpsters and the SWC actions was reviewed.
Eric White moved to accept version 5 as final, Dotty Young
seconded. Vote 5 for, 0 against and 1
abstention, approved as final.
Bulk
mailing procedure was discussed. Tom
Sproule to submit letter with school board letter to save on combining the
mailing.
News
release within local newspapers was discussed. Action
item: Peter Rees and Chuck Starr volunteered to contact
MDIslander, and other newspapers.
6. Other old or new
business:
No EMR town contact yet.
Composter sales to be deferred until spring when
residents may want to procure from the University of Maine Extension Service.
Reconciling total solid waste costs: Tom reported that he had spoken with the
Selectmen at their August 12 meeting concerning apparent discrepancies in
solid waste costs between bills reported in an Excel file and what is
printed in the Town Report. Tom is
concerned that there may be a significant component of the Solid Waste
budget, accounting for $16,000-$25,000 per year, which we are not
identifying and therefore not addressing in our waste management
considerations. Tom is to further
discuss the issue with the Selectmen at their September 9 meeting.
.
Meeting adjourned at 8:20. The next meeting is Wednesday, October 1,
2008.
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