Resource Recycling Advisory Council

Resource Recycling Advisory Commission Meeting of October 22, 2018 Middletown Senior Center, 7 PM Members Present: Alison Johnson, Darrell Gagnon, Debbie Stanley, Krishna Winston. Members not present: Harold Panciera, Chantal DeArmitt, Christine Sherwood, Monica Belyea, Rebecca MacLachlan, Bessie Bianco Member of the Public Present: Raffie Bianco, Jeff Myjak, Janice Ehle Meyer Public Works Staff Present: Kim O’Rourke The meeting was called to order at 7pm by Ms. Winston. The minutes of the September meeting were approved as mailed. Ms. Winston also provided a revised version of the August meeting minutes. Typos were corrected. Mr. Myjak explained his project of collecting redeemable bottles and cans and donating the money towards local projects. He said $35 million annually go to the state in unclaimed deposits. So he is trying to claim as much as he can and help local charities. He has already donated backpacks to St. Vincent de Paul, Vets 4 Vets, now he is collecting for the Middletown Thanksgiving Day project and next will be the toy drive. He said he collects about $50-60 a week. Janice Ehle Meyer, from the Lower CT River Council of Governments, discussed the Household Hazardous Waste Collection on October 13th. She thanked everyone who helped with this event. The group discussed the input form and whether all that information was absolutely necessary. They also felt it would be helpful to hand out information on Paintcare at the Paper Shredding event and put a poster up at the Swap Shack to try to reduce the amount of paint that comes in. Members also felt it might be worthwhile to take paint at the transfer station. Ms. O’Rourke said she reviewed this possibility in the past, and it does require some staff time. She said she will look at it again to see if anything has changed. Ms. O’Rourke gave an update on the food waste initiative. She is working with the Sanitation District to try to have them collect food waste from the school kitchens and restaurants. The Directors are supportive but she has to discuss it with the foreman. Ms. O’Rourke said she also discussed the packaging reduction idea with the purchasing office and they said that most of what the city buys is off of state contract, so she asked if the state contract has any language. She is currently waiting to hear back from the state on this. America Recycles Day is Nov. 15 and Ms. Stanley recommended having the Mayor send out a notice to city employees on recycling. Ms. O’Rourke said she spoke with All Waste about including information on plastic bags on their postcard and they said they would “get their team on it”. The Simple Recycling program was scheduled to launch Oct. 22nd, but there have been some issues with delivering the bags from the post office. Ms. O’Rourke also distributed the project list for the next few years. Mr. Bianco suggested adding sustainability education in the next 2-5 years. Ms. Winston discussed the showing of A Plastic Ocean at Wesleyan on Oct. 16th. She said it was a great success. The room was full and there was a lively panel discussion afterwards. They offered many examples of what to use instead of plastic and there was quite a bit of interest in the bag ban idea. Swap Shack Schedule Wed Oct. 24 Krishna Wed Oct. 31 Raffie Sat. Nov. 3 Krishna Wed Nov. 7 Debbie Sat Nov. 17 Bessie Sat. Nov. 24 Alison Ms. O’Rourke will ask the members not present if they can volunteer on the days not taken. The Swap Shack building does need some serious maintenance and will need some structural work done next year. Members discussed the interest in the plastic bag ban and will discuss the details further at the next meeting. Meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Kim O’Rourke Kim O’Rourke Recycling Coordinator