Environmental Advisory Committee

The City of Cortland Environmental Advisory Committee February 6, 2023 Wastewater Treatment Facility The committee convened at 7:10 PM Monday 6 February 2023 at the Wastewater Treatment Facility. In attendance were members John Busch, Steve Broyles, Diane Chu and Donald Chu. Also attending were advisor Annika Huber, city government liaison Bruce Adams, BOCES science teacher Bonnie Quackenbush and Chris Spadolini director of the County Recycling Center. 1. Approval of the Minutes Chairman Busch called the meeting to order. Steve moved to accept the January meeting minutes and Diane seconded the motion. The minutes were unanimously accepted. 2. Reports Water Works Usage Steve recommended that the Soil and Water Conservation District advise us. Steve offered to reach out to Amanda Barber at Soil and Water and to the DEC. He said the key is to protect the aquifer but not so much the vegetation. No Mow May (NMM) Diane met with Captain Roy Everett of the Code Enforcement Division. Based on what she learned about how the division would like to implement NMM, she had flyers printed, shared them with the group and has begun distributing them in the community. People must register by April 21st and comply with the 6” height limit by June 5th. Diane had suggested hanging a banner across Main Street, and Annika said that advisor Szilvia Kadas would be willing to design it. Katie Silliman had also wanted school children to design posters. Bonnie asked about the college and city participating. Steve says SUNY Cortland no longer has wild space. Bruce said the Wastewater Facility could mow in front of the outer fence and not mow inside. As for city parks, the EAC could ask Cortland Youth Bureau director Andrea Piedigrossi to consider NMM. Tompkins County Recycling Diane researched tours of the Tompkins County Recycling and Solid Waste Center. Annika will set up a Doodle Poll to find a convenient morning or afternoon sometime in the first two weeks of March – 7/23/23 EAC minutes 20230206 1 weekdays or Saturday morning. Chris has toured their facility. It has a $7M budget compared to his $750k budget. He said that Cortland County is far behind Tompkins and Madison counties. Cortland Electrical Infrastructure Not discussed to allow more time to discuss county recycling CNY RPDB Availability Not discussed to allow more time to discuss county recycling 3. Unfinished Business Not discussed to allow more time to discuss county recycling 4. New Business Discussion with Cortland County Recycling Director Chris Spadolini Operations The county recycling center on Pendleton Street has been improved with more signs and categories of recyclables. It now also accepts fluorescent lights plus paints and stains 1. Sunnking in Brockport still takes electronics. 2 Chris has two employees but could use more help. With the start of 2023, the city switched to Blue Moose Sanitation Services of Marathon for recycling collection. There are two trucks that can lift the new blue totes which they collect four days a week. One truck load is an eighth of the city’s recycling. With the switch from “blue bags” to totes, Chris worried that the volume of recycling would decrease since there was no longer an economic incentive to reduce trash. That, however, hasn’t been seen in the volume of glass coming to the center. Each week, Blue Moose takes 60 tons of recyclables to Southern Tier Recyclers Inc. in Apalachin, NY where it is separated for sale or disposal. The county pays $65 per ton to get rid of its recyclables but gets $35/ton for crushed glass that it takes back to cover the landfill each day. Federal regulations require that 6” of “earthen materials” cover the landfill each day but allow a number of Alternative Daily Covers (ADC). 3 The county used to purchase shale to use as cover, but since September 2013 the DEC has approved using crushed glass. 4 Education Chris wants to be a source of answers about the county recycling program. To that end, he posts on Facebook, attends town board meetings, gives facility tours, keeps in touch with the newspapers and talks to school children. Public relations and outreach are part of his job. 1 https://wladislawfirm.com/blog/nysdec-unveils-paint-recycling-program-in-new-york-state/ 2 https://www.sunnking.com/ 3 https://www.waste360.com/Landfill_Management/landfill-alternative-daily-covers-201101 4 https://www.brookhavenny.gov/DocumentCenter/View/5932/2013-09-09-New-York-State-DEC-Approves-Use- of-Crushed-Recycled-Glass-for-Town-Landfill-Construction-and-Capping-PDF 7/23/23 EAC minutes 20230206 2 Still, some people continue to put trash and non-recyclable plastics in their blue totes or even bring it to the recycling center. Homer had to have officials spot check recycling containers and issue fines. Virgil has been very strict in its messaging, and its recyclables are relatively clean. The Blue Moose drivers have been very helpful fishing out the trash contamination they’ve collected, but it’s not sustainable. It was suggested that the EAC could enlist “street administrators” to take responsibility for educating their neighbors. Syracuse Haulers has a camera that sees what comes out of the totes. Having the truck drivers take pictures was suggested as a way to enforce the rules. Another was to enlist the eight city council members to take responsibility for their wards’ compliance. Sorting recyclables is critical. Madison County got $18k on container deposits. Although cardboard is down to $50/ton, office paper has gone up. It would, however, take people sorting their paper and additional collections. One possibility would be to have neighborhood collection centers. Additional Recyclables The city no longer collects glass. Unless people bring their glass to the center, it is treated as trash. Glass brought in is crushed and used as landfill cover. More is brought back from Southern Tier Recycling. Tompkins County recycles its glass by taking it to TOMRA outside Rochester. 5 The glass then goes to Auburn (Owens-Illinois) 6 or Elmira Heights (Anchor Glass) 7 to become beverage containers. Glass must be separated by color and ground. Pure color finely-ground glass can go for almost $100/ton. 8 Tompkins County also recycles polypropylene (5) in addition to the polyethylene terephthalate (1) and high-density polyethylene (2) plastics that Cortland County does. It also reputedly collects FOG (fats, oils and grease), food scraps and textiles. Chris was interested in the economics and separation requirements but thought the county would not change its practices quickly. He also spoke of getting to “zero waste” and not landfilling anything in the next 10 years. The meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM. The next meeting will be March 6th. Action Items 1. Contact Soil and Water Conservation and DEC about Water Works Usage. (Steve) 2. Draft memo recommending kinds of street trees. (Steve) 3. Request copy of college’s draft MOU for using Water Works grounds. (Bruce) 4. Doodle Poll for Tompkins Recycling Center tour. (Annika) 5. Check on Cortland City electrical capacity and facilities. (Donald) 6. Invite CNY RPDB to present to the committee about Cortland electric capacity. (Bruce) 5 https://www.tomra.com/en 6 https://www.o-i.com/ 7 http://anchorglass.com/about/sustainability/ 8 https://www.recyclingproductnews.com/article/27088/breaking-down-the-factors-behind-scrap-glass-prices 7/23/23 EAC minutes 20230206 3 Proposed Agenda – 6 March 2023 1. Approve Minutes 2. Reports a. Soil and Water Conservation recommendation about Water Works use (Steve) b. Tompkins County Recycling Center tour date (Annika) c. Glass sorting requirements and prices (Diane) d. Cortland electrical infrastructure overview (Donald) e. CNY RPDB availability to present about electrical capacity (Bruce) 3. Unfinished Business a. Municipal Trees recommendations (Steve) b. FOG recommendations memo (Annika) c. Vermicomposting recommendations memo (Donald) 4. New Business a. Getting Cortland to Zero Waste – Donald b. Green Purchasing (https://ogs.ny.gov/green-purchasing-communities) - Donald c. Other topics of interest 7/23/23 EAC minutes 20230206 4