SalemRecycles committee meeting July 13, 2010
Present: Jennifer (secretary), Tony, Erin, Marcia, Liz, Lynn, Megan, Susan.
Before regular agenda is begun, Jennifer brought up the recent email she and others received, containing summary by city attorney of changes/clarifications to open meetings law. Liz will put a full discussion of this on the agenda for our next meeting, which is in September. Not all members present have received this email so Jennifer will forward it to all committee members.
- Review of last month’s minutes. Minutes have been emailed and are available tonight to members who want a hard copy; Liz requests we all review them and notify Julie of any corrections.
- Flyer draft review. Penny has drafted a flyer to put in residents’ recycle bins, “Do’s and Don’ts for curbside recycling”. Purpose is to further the cause of proper sorting of items in the bins. Discussion ensued:
Liz—a problem is that the “no” items shows things that can be recycled elsewhere, such as CFL’s.
Jennifer—add the word “curbside” to the Yes and No areas
Susan—is there any way to add the message to separate paper from mixed containers?
Liz—do we need to specify types of cardboard?
Erin—what about splitting the Yes section vertically to make a visual separation between paper and the mixed containers?
Susan—how about adding “step 1: separate paper from containers”?
Many different ideas were brainstormed. Summary: Liz—we need to decide the overall message and purpose for this flyer.
2-3 annotated sample flyers are collected by Liz to pass on to Penny for revisions.
- Strategic plan. Subcommittees present draft summaries of ideas to further each goal of our strategic plan. Each group will summarize their ideas, then we will see what themes have developed and organize it all down into goals and action items with dates involved.
Goal 1—Increase recycling rate. Erin and Jennifer discuss:
“Reduce the Use” campaign to reduce the creation of trash. Idea is to show how long different materials remain with us before biodegrading.
Art installations around Salem: 3-D bar graphs showing how long various materials take to degrade.
Partnering with Salem Cyberspace on ESL class with presentation and English conversation on topic of recycling in Salem; screensaver showing properly sorted recycling bins.
Goal 2—Divert usable items from waste stream (reduce and reuse). Marcia and Lynn discuss:
Redo our original color postcard
Take info on existing website and organize it
Create a new website as a resource for Salemites.
Question is raised of whether realtors would be a good resource to pass out educational information; per Erin she has talked to one and they don’t really give handouts of local community information any more. Tony mentions that as an attorney he often does house closings and could pass on recycling information to new Salem homeowners.
Goal 3—Education. Liz presents several very detailed draft charts:
Who are audiences for educational efforts? What motivates each group? How are ways to motivate each? Subcommittee has brainstormed questions 1 and 2; remaining are ideas and plan for how to motivate people to recycle properly.
Action plan will include budget ideas for educational efforts, including potential grant that is applied for, and other monies.
Goal 4—Develop partnerships. Liz presents a draft list of various groups/stakeholders in Salem for potential partnerships, including specific Federal, State/Regional, Local/City of Salem, Business, and Nonprofit groups.
Susan adds: Major commercial landowners in town, such as Rocket Management, RCG, Shetland Park, and others.
Themes that emerge:
Erin: recycling correctly curbside
Lynn: educating for the above; making it easy
Jennifer: alternatives to throwing away things not recyclable curbside
Marcia: appliances, ewaste, sticker items
Lynn: Beyond curbside recycling, which is a 1st path of recycling, there is a 2nd path, Salem-sponsored resources such as what Marcia mentioned, and finally a 3rd path is events like the book swap.
Jennifer: do the goals developed at planning meeting still apply? Still appropriate/pertinent?
Liz, Lynn: yes, stick with these goals. All agree that they overlap.
Lynn—where to go from here? We need to boil this all down and organize the ideas, then get agreement amongst committee members, then develop action plan with timelines.
Susan—one way is to choose the most immediate goal or need, then break down all possibilities into how/what items and ideas serve that goal. Proceed like that on a type of ad hoc basis.
Lynn—let’s set the structure first, then set dates.
One goal overall is raising awareness, so recycling becomes the natural thing to do. Curbside recycling is the first priority.
Megan—for example, the July 4 festivities had no recycling.
Lynn—for things like this, a plan must be in place in advance to cover trash/recycling.
Marcia—Cancer walk had no trash bins even. It would be good if our committee had someone in charge of recycling at events.
Liz—Agreed, but we don’t have the reach, as a small committee. Thus we need to prioritize, focus. Can we train others to handle recycling at events? Other volunteers?
Susan—can we have a fleet of temporary recycling containers for events? The cardboard type, with bags within?
Liz—they are single use only
Lynn—back to the specific events we’d mentioned above—recycling plan would need to be part of the event permitting process to really make it happen.
Liz—remember that we have a priority—getting curbside recycling done correctly
Megan—event recycling and other public recycling feeds into this: people see it done correctly downtown and out in other public areas, and it feeds the message to do it right at home.
Susan—event recycling also saves DPW a lot of time and money because there is less waste to pick up later.
Next Steps:
Lynn, Megan, and Marcia will work to boil down each Goal’s draft notes and ideas into a single format, so we can see areas of overlap, determine priorities, and develop messages. To focus and clarify.
Liz suggests we all read over each group’s drafts and send any contributions or new things to consider to Lynn/Megan/Marcia.
- Living Green Fair debriefing
Consensus is that the new displays were great. Julie has ordered some wire panels for future use, like the ones we borrowed.
Erin—it seemed easier to talk to folks this year. The corner space was very good to have. The survey questions that Susan and Liz developed to ask “patrons” sparked good discussions with fairgoers. Cheryl was a great addition to the volunteer team at the fair.
Jennifer discussed conversing with a resident who is a non-recycler. Important to meet people on their own ground psychologically. Find reasons to recycle that resonate with the individual, then help him/her with logistics on how to do it. Everyone needn’t jump in fully—why not start with just paper recycling?
- Gazette articles—tabled until next meeting
- August—no formal meeting. We will gather at Lynn’s for a casual dinner.
- Book swap date is Sept 11th at St. Anne’s. This does conflict with the Salem Athenaeum’s book sale scheduled for that date also. We should possibly reschedule although Julie has cleared this date with the church. Liz will speak to Julie. Volunteers are needed for various tasks: working the swap, updating the flyer with correct dates, listing on Salem.com and other places, for example.
- Next meeting is Tuesday, September 7th.
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