Solid Waste Advisory Commission

Athens-Clarke County Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting of the Solid Waste Citizens Advisory Committee Wednesday, May 22, 2019 Location of Meeting: Solid Waste Administrative Office 725 Hancock Industrial Way Athens, GA 30605 Present at Meeting: Commissioner Patrick Davenport, Larry Dendy, Jared Harper, Christy Tweedy, Suki Janssen, Mason Towe, and Susan Lyon (minutes). I. Welcome Commissioner Davenport called the meeting to order at 5:36 pm. II. Public Comments Larry Dendy – Thank you to Suki for presenting at The Universal Unitarian Fellowship at the compost forum. III. Approval of Minutes: February 20, 2019 A quorum was not present, therefore a vote could not be taken for the adoption of the minutes from the February meeting. IV. Division Reports (ATTACHMENT I & II) Suki reviewed Division reports in Attachment I. Added Staff information: -There will be another scrap tire amnesty week in the fall. EPD reimburses us for scrap tire amnesty week through grant funding. -Collections division is running a dumpster pilot downtown using EcoStations. Dumpsters were placed on Clayton St., between Lumpkin St. and Thomas St., in front of Allgood Bar and Cloud 9 Bar. The plastic dumpsters are made in GA. from recycling plastic and are painted blue (trash) and green (recycling). The dumpsters are on castors and we are trying 2- and 4-yard containers during the pilot. Nothing else has changed during the pilot. Businesses are still using ACC bags. Korey and staff have used GoPro cameras during night collections and will be taking pictures during the weekend to show sidewalks without the trash/recycling bags. The pilot will run through the end of June to include AthFest weekend. Businesses were alerted to the pilot through a hand- delivered letter. There will be more education provided to the businesses. Carts may be included for businesses to use to transport bags of trash/recycling in the program is approved. The actual EcoStations, if approved, will included permanent enclosures with keypads so only businesses would have access to the dumpsters. -Rode-E-O Winners:  -Tommy Appling, First place in Dumptruck/Off Road Truck and Third place in Rubber-Tire loader -Jonathan Goodman – First place in Automated Collection and Second place in the Mechanics Division -Lavoris Huff – Third place in Roll-Off Division -Tommy and Jonathan will be competing at the National Road-E-O in Phoenix, AZ in October. -Oglethorpe County Landfill is expanding their C&D landfill. They are 2 years away from being at capacity. -Landfill has fully converted to aerated static piles for composting. ACC is offering a new drop-off program for residents. Cost is $5.00 for a 5-gallon bucket. Let Us Compost sold business to New Urban Forestry, which will offer pickup at a residence. The program started during the first week of May during International Compost Week. UGA Report – Christy (Sustainable Coordinator with UGA Housing) -Move out held recently at UGA. They filled 8 large freight trailers (approximately 20 roll-offs) of goods that were saved from the landfill. She is looking at other university programs around the country where they collect the materials during move out and then resale. America Thrift Stores, which raises funds for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, was a great partner for the event. Emails about the collection were sent to every UGA housing resident. They collected 200 lbs of food for local charities. 122 volunteers -Increased the residential composting program. During this last school year, started with one residence hall and ended the year with 12 residence halls, which included 4,000 students. The program is free for students. Looking for containers that residents can keep in their rooms. The cat litter buckets, which are donated to the CHaRM, was suggested as a good option. -Mason: During International Composting Week, staff took a tour of the UGA compost facility on Whitehall. Discussed opportunities for sharing ideas and resources between the County and UGA. -Christy congratulated ACC staff on the increase of food organics compost and revenue. (Suki - currently compost is sold for $20/cubic yard) V. Other Business Larry: Is the Solid Waste project (new MRF) still on the list for SPLOST? Suki and Commissioner Davenport: Yes. There are three more meetings in June before the list is finalized in July. Suki: Phase V construction at the landfill update – liner will be installed starting tomorrow. Interested members are invite to take a tour with Suki tomorrow at 1:00 pm (meet at the Outdoor Classroom at 1:00). Suki – Recycling markets are still not good. Staff has an upcoming work session with M&C to summarize the recycling markets and how much we have paid in processing fees. Mayor  Girtz may be assigning the committee with developing conversation points on recycling topics in the near future. VI. Next meeting is scheduled for August 21, 2019 The meeting was informally adjourned at 6:39 pm by Commissioner Davenport. A quorum was not present, so a vote was not possible for an official adjournment. Respectfully submitted by Susan Lyon 08.28.19 Minutes approved as submitted on 11.06.19