Solid Waste Advisory Commission

Athens-Clarke County Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the Solid Waste Citizens Advisory Committee Wednesday, May 9, 2018 Location of Meeting: Solid Waste Administrative Office 725 Hancock Industrial Way Athens, GA 30605 Present at Meeting: Commissioner Jared Bailey, Commissioner Sharyn Dickerson, Michael Brugger, Jere Bowden, Larry Dendy, Jared Harper, Christy Tweedy, Abigail West, Suki Janssen, Mason Towe, and Susan Lyon (minutes). I. Welcome Commissioner Jared Bailey called the meeting to order at 5:32 pm. II. Public Comments None III. Approval of Minutes Correction to the spelling of Sharyn’s first name. Sharyn made a motion to accept the minutes with the amendment, Jared H. seconded the motion, and the minutes were accepted unanimously. IV. Division Reports (ATTACHMENT I) Suki informed everyone that Andrew Bielecki left his position as SW Superintendent to take a position with WasteBuilt. Angela Finch, Admin. Secretary, will be retiring in August after 43 years of service. Suki reviewed the KACCB report. Larry would like to commend KACCB for all of their work in the community; however, he would like to highlight how spectacular the daffodils were this year. Christy asked how KACCB recruited volunteers for AAH. Suki explained that groups can adopt a specific section of an available road and then complete a minimum of 4 clean-ups a year with our tools. Also, individuals can volunteer to work one time with a Down-n-Dirty cleanup, which identifies one road that is heavily littered and volunteers do a one-time pick- up. Any individuals or groups interested in roadside litter clean-ups should contact Stacy Smith in our office. Sharyn reported that Eastside Spring Fling raised $4,500 and will present a check at the next M&C meeting to KACCB to be used exclusively for the beautification of Lexington Road (US Hwy 78 E) corridor between Southeast Clarke Park and AMC Theatres. Litter Abatement Powerpoint Presentation – (ATTACHMENT II) -Two (2) reasons for litter and illegal dumping:  a. high poverty rate b. transient population – temporary residents do not treat ACC as well as they would their home community. The next Litter Abatement committee meeting will be Thursday at the Police Dept. on Lexington Rd. from 2:00 – 3:30 pm. All are welcome to attend. There is no meeting schedule set for the future at this time. The next date is set at each meeting. The litter hotline is operational. Our staff sends reports to our Police Dept. contact. The tag number is used to identify car owner and the owners are sent a form letter educating them on the litter laws. Staff is faced with educating the new students every year and there is limited money for marketing campaigns. Anyone can be reported for littering, including pedestrians; however, it is hard to identify a mailing address for pedestrians. An additional position, Litter Abatement Specialist, has been requested for the FY19 and is still being considered by the Commission even though it was not included in the Mayor’s proposed budget. If anyone has any ideas about how to address the litter issue, please send an email to Suki or Stacee Farrell, KACCB Director. (Jared had to leave the meeting at 5:59 pm – Sharyn took over meeting facilitation) Recovered Materials Processing Facility (RMPF)/Recycling/CHaRM (ATTACHMENT III): Suki reviewed the written report. -Main contaminant right now is film plastic, food, “tanglers” (green garden hose, string), scrap metal (especially car parts). Scrap metal is sold and proceeds fund the 4-H programs in the area. Majority of containments are coming from drop off sites: sites on ACC property tend to have the cleanest material and the Mall has the most contamination. SW is not able to staff the sites due to lack of resources. The mall site might move to the new Fire Station #2 on Cleveland Rd when it is built. This move would cut down on dumping. Most dumping is done at night; therefore it is difficult to catch or use volunteers to watch the sites. -ACC Materials Recycling Facility staff and Manager Darryl Brooks are producing the lowest percentage of containments of all the Republic Facilities. ACC is their smallest MRF. Currently we are not counting aggregate glass as contamination because we still are able to sell it. -April Shred Event was the largest one ever. Staff serviced 520 cars and collected 9.62 tons of paper plus eighteen (18) roll-carts of material for shredding. The material is sold to tissue plants in GA and sales for $200-$300 per ton when markets are good. Shredded paper is bailed as high-grade office paper and brings a good price. Larry suggested that we host four shred events a year. Currently ACC staff is looking at the possibility of taking material to be shredded at the CHaRM. Staff will need to run numbers to see if it is a possibility. -Joe Dunlop, Waste Reduction Administrator presented to the M&C work session in March a proposal to reduce glass in the downtown area. Bars will be given the opportunity to replace the top five (5) domestic beer brands with aluminum cans. This would reduce the amount of glass in the downtown business district. Bars that  participate are given a reduction in fees paid for their liquor license for the following year. It is expected to be voted on in July and effective November 1st. -The following awards were presented at the 2018 GreenFest Awards: -GreenLabs @ UGA: Waste Reduction Award for Business -Whit Davis: Green School the Year -Winterville Worms – Rock Star Award -Recycling “Oscar” – Mark Sizemore, ACC Police Dept. Collections Division (Attachment I) Suki review the written report. Staff will present downtown collection alternatives to M&C at work session in July and if approved, will roll-out plans in 2021 with the new Clayton St. Streetscape project. Landfill (ATTACHMENT I)  A check in the amount of $2,000 will be cut on Friday to the EPD for our permit for the expansion work. Work should begin in late Fall and is projected to be completed in August 2019.  ACC landfill will host a one (1) day training in fall presented by Peter Moon on aerated static piles in composting. Mr. Moon is from the State of Washington and is considered an expert on the subject. Aerated static piles allows for blowers to oxygenate the piles so that the piles do not need turning. Brad has been testing the process for months at the landfill using blowers from children’s blow-ups to blow area into the piles. An RFP will be sent for a private company to oversee the process and ACC will receive a percentage of the revenue from the finished product sales. ACC will hold the permit.  Bulky Waste Collection Day is scheduled for the CHaRM on May 19th from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. Staff hope to host this event twice a year to help with illegal dumping of bulky items around town (sofas, mattresses, tires).  Teacher Reuse Store is doing well and is open whenever the CHaRM is open for teachers to shop. Right now there are an abundance of filing cabinets with many of them going to scrap metal for 4-H. V. Other Business None Meeting was adjourned at 6:32 pm. Respectfully submitted by Susan Lyon