Committee for a Better Environment

Approved: 12/07/16 SMART/Pay as You Throw Meeting September 28, 2016 7:30 pm – Council Chambers Present: Suchitra Balachandran, Gemma Evans, Janis Oppelt, Matt Dernoga, Absent: Bob Stumpff, Councilmember Christine Nagle Guest: Sheryl DeWalt, contract secretary The meeting started at 7:40 pm. 1. The minutes from the July meeting were reviewed. Ms. Oppelt made a motion to approve the minutes with corrections. Mr. Dernoga seconded the motion. All in favor; no opposed. 2. Ms. Oppelt sent out a solid waste task force handbook from the Connecticut Department of the Environment. We may be able to use many of their ideas to accomplish our tasks. 3. Ms. Evans stated that she has files from the 1990s that contain information on zero waste. that she can share.. 4. There are many U.S. communities operate zero-waste programs. All are varied in costs and how it is accomplished. The committee is trying to find towns and cities that are university towns and how they work with the university on zero waste. One good comparison is the City of Attleborough in Massachusetts; information was emailed to the committee for review prior to the meeting. 5. The committee is still waiting to receive more financial information from Mr. Stumpff. Ms. Evans indicated she will work with him on the financial and physical information the committee wants: how many scheduled pickups, bulk trash costs, size and number of bins, carts. 6. Reviewed bulk trash information supplied by Mr. Dernoga. The next meeting will be held on November 2 at 7:30pm in the lower level conference room. Mr. Dernoga made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Ms. Evans seconded the motion. All in favor; no opposed. The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 pm.