Salem Recycling Committee
Meeting of June 2, 2009
Attendees: Katie Giddings, Erin Huggard, Tony Keck, Carly McClain, Don Morgan (Marblehead) Jennifer Percy, Liz Vago, Penny Whitlock, and Susan Yochelson
1. Introduce and Welcome New Committee Members
Liz Vago commenced the June meeting by introducing and welcoming three new committee members: Erin Huggard, Tony Keck, and Carly McClain.
2. May Meeting Minutes Approval
Liz continued the meeting by asking the committee about circulating May meeting minutes and if there were any comments, additions or errors. Meeting notes were accepted as written.
3. Strategic Planning Review
Liz continued by addressing the strategic plan commenting that it needs revisions with some fine tuning. A baseline assessment of Salem's recycling numbers will occur with the assistance of Julie Rose and Robby George. At the this time, Salem is at a recycling rate of 19% as measured by tonnage. The question of what the percentages mean was asked at a previous meeting (Percentage of curbside trash versus recycled material excluding white goods by weight/tonnage with value subjective to the market demands.) Northside Carting notes that at present Tuesday's numbers are the highest. The goal is to increase the
entire city's numbers and set a strategic goal for the upcoming year. The question was asked if there was a percentage that the state was striving to achieve — 40% is the current high end figure for some communities.
Also discussed for the strategic plan were: the website, education plan and city-wide outreach. To these three areas, there was a suggestion that a new committee be formed to address education. At which point, there was an alternative suggestion that "task" groups might be more effective than all-encompassing "committees." People could join groups for specific tasks, getting excited about specific events versus groups that are all encompassing. There needs to be more activity in the outreach to the city.
Liz will be meeting with Lynn Murray to review the strategic plan. Liz will then edit and send out to the committee for review.
4. Event Calendar
Liz created calendars indicating meetings and recycling events for both 2008 and 2009. Liz will update each with a few changes specifically SATV programs in September and December. It was mentioned that the recycling piece filmed at SATV is now running on Greenscaping/Earthcare.
Scheduling “Shredding Days.” Possibly schedule Shredding Day with Earth Day events. There was a suggestion that shredding events might happen with high school functions. Some students might be interested in taking on the challenge. It needs to be better advertised. People don't know about it and they also don't know that you can go to
North Shore Recycled Fibers anytime with financial and personal documents.
The E-Waste services that are in effect until July also need to be publicized. There is an E-Waste flyer on the website, but an article in the Gazette would be a good idea.
5. Upcoming Events
a. Potluck Dinner
There will be a potluck dinner for the committee at Julie Rose's house at 6pm on June 10th. Committee members are asked to email Julie Rose with what they can contribute and Julie will fill in the remaining items.
b. Living Green & Renewable Energy Fair
The event is scheduled for Saturday June 13th from 10 to 3pm at Old Town Hall. Katie Giddings, Erin Huggard, Julie Rose, Jennifer Percy, Marcia Lambert and Liz Vago are available to attend the fair and will coordinate coverage for the day.
Ideas about how to engage fair goers in talking about recycling were discussed. Ideas include bringing items that people aren't sure about how to dispose of such as light bulbs, batteries, and thermometers. We need to encourage fair goers to bring their items in question. How do we get the word out? Announcement in the Gazette and Salem News with the tagline "Bring your Questions!" The Earth Day photos of the decorated recycling bins were discussed. There was question about whether they were in the paper. Additional ideas for the fair included: "Stump the Chumps" activities where the public asks committee members questions. What doe we do if the committee member is stumped? Articles might be written with "Stump the Chumps" type question, brain teasers, and spin-the-dial
games.
What is the goal of the fair? Clear up questions but don't make recycling complicated. Keep it simple. Questions should illustrate how easy it is to recycle, not complicate it. Don asked about fines and what happens when people don't recycle mandatory items such as cardboard? At this point, the goal is not to punish people but to get the word out so fines are not given. Trash isn't picked up if there's cardboard — Less enforcer and more educator.
c. Event Proposal —"Great Salem Recycling Challenge"
Susan had the idea of the "Great Salem Recycling Challenge." It's time to ramp up and get the word out there. How do we encourage recycling? The committee needs a goal. There is an urgency in ramping things up and one thought was to create competition amongst neighborhoods. Northside is giving a tree to the neighborhood that has the highest recycling number, but that may not be incentive enough to encourage a change. What about competing with surrounding communities. Get the mayors involved.
A few ideas: New slogan: It's not Trash, It's Cash! Motivators? What are good motivators. Carbon imprint. Impact.,Revenue for the City, Cash Value of reused items via yard sales etc. A task committee should be organized to discuss what can happen here and tie into strategic plan schedule.
6. Greensalem.com — Website Update
The name "Greensalem.com" has been purchased and is guaranteed for the next three years. A sub-committee needs to revisit and get the site going. Katie, Lynn and Liz will meet about progress made on this front. Katie has ideas about hosting. Carly suggested someone at the company Prometheus who would be willing to design and host the site. They offer 100 hours of free design and client pays monthly for hosting and maintenance.
7. Community Outreach — Getting the Word Out
a. Articles in the Gazette
Recycling articles could be written based on press releases that are waiting to be published. Ideas for engaging articles also were discussed. One idea was to make the article more visual and use a photo to identify recycling errors. One titled discussed was "what's wrong with this picture?" We would publish a photo of a recycling bin asking the viewer to identify the mistakes made in recycling. The concept is to highlight "Do’s" and "Don'ts" with visual cues such as newspapers packed in plastic bags. The committee is sensitive to always harping on the negative so it's important to emphasize the positive along with mistakes. It was suggest that committee members take photos of full recycle bins in their neighborhoods, but there is concern about people recognizing their bins. It was determined that
it would be more effective to stage photos. We would determine the "do's" and "don'ts" to be highlighted and stage accordingly.
The article might include two columns: one indicating the "good" recycling; and the other column indicating what would make the photo "perfect." No negatives. The article could be presented as a contest by encouraging readers to submit three things wrong in the photo. The committee voiced concerns about the incentive for viewers to participate in such a contest? What do they win? One suggestion was the mayor's voice on the winner's answering machine. Another idea was not making it a contest, but simply a puzzle-type exercise and publish the answers upside down beneath the photo.
Another article suggestion is about Salem's recycling rates —measuring and celebrating the past year's progress.
b. Farmers' Market
Beginning Thursday, June 25th, there will be a Farmers' Market a Old City Hall and the recycling committee should have a presence there. Marblehead's committee is present at their Saturday Farmers' Market.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 4th at 6:30 pm at the City Hall Annex.
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