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January 5, 2010
Recycling committee meeting
January 5, 2010

Present: Marcia, Julie, Katie, Penny, Erin, Jennifer, Susan, Tony, new member Megan Sampson, and Liz (chair)


  • Most have not had a chance to read last month’s minutes. We will each read them and will notify Julie of any changes by the end of the day tomorrow. If there are no changes, the minutes will be deemed approved and will be posted after that.
  • Discussion of the upcoming book swap in February, and the date we have chosen.
  • Pro:  This is the same weekend as last year and it would be good to keep a fixed schedule, and the hall is booked for this date
  • Con:  May be too close to the recent swap last November—will people have books to swap?
The decision is made to maintain the planned date of February 27, 2010, and to maintain the current name of  “Free Book Swap”.
Discussion of how to get the word out now, so people will save / look around for unwanted books for the swap.
Penny and Julie will update the flyer for this year, and include a line at the top suggesting “Start collecting your unwanted books now.”
We need a press release; Julie will start one.
We need an announcement for published calendars and church bulletins; Susan will write this.
Discussion of hours for the swap—we decide on 10am -1 pm, with an early dropoff from 6 – 7 pm the night before, and beginning at 9:30am the day of the swap.
  • Salem State / Earth Day. Kevin Beckwith, an economics professor, has extended to us the opportunity to do a presentation as part of Salem State’s Earth Day observance. After discussion, it is decided that Julie will give a tentative “yes” and the committee will develop a presentation in the coming months.
  • Discussion of Salem’s Xmas tree burning—some committee members have concerns about this event. Katie points out that burning the trees releases no extra carbon into the atmosphere; Julie notes that only about 25% of the trees are actually burned and the rest are ground for mulch. Liz states what is adopted as our consensus, that many folks love this event and we don’t want to be the Grinches about it. After general discussion of some possible alternative events and uses for the trees, such as bird habitats, using intact branches as mulch, log furniture, doing a studio SATV program showing these and other possibilities, the decision is made that we will form a subcommittee to generate and promote alternative Xmas tree uses. Subcommittee is not formed today; Susan, Jennifer, and Marcia are available to help with certain specific tasks and/or events the subcommittee decides upon.
  • Discussion of an upcoming EPA video competition—short spots to promote recycling. Julie wonders if SATV-trained members could put something together for this. One idea we come up with is to take existing footage we have and to edit it into a speeded-up montage of digging through a trash bag and sorting it into recycling v. true trash, with humorous music over it such as “Flight of the Bumblebees”.  However, it is decided that creating something is a large project that none of us feel we have the ability to do right now. We will hang onto the idea to do something like this as a PSA for SATV.
  • Strategic planning and assessment:  Overall in Salem, trash tonnage is down 25% and recycling rate is 18%. We are told that a goal of 30% recycling is unreasonable.
  • E-waste—this program is a pilot program still, so it is difficult for us to promote. The pilot period has been repeatedly extended, so this type of recycling is still being offered.
  • Question arises of what the committee should best focus on. We agree that this is a large topic requiring and worthy of considerable attention. Julie suggests that we use our February meeting to plan the book swap, and schedule the March meeting for strategic planning.
  • We discuss arrangements some of us use to make home recycling easier, such as alternative bins that fit in a kitchen or pantry more easily. It is suggested that we all submit photos of solutions, and the committee will generate a poster and/or a news article showing these.
  • Lynn is putting her attention to an overall plan for our committee.
  • “Perfect Pickup” campaign has around 100 contestants signed up.
  • Julie is doing the bin evaluations. There have been 3 winners so far and 2 will be chosen this week as there were none last week.
  • We need to keep reminding folks about this campaign. Slogan:  “The Perfect Pickup Pays”.
  • The posters that Penny created have been circulated electronically and large ones are up at City Hall. Julie will generate 100 color copies and notify us when these are available. Each committee member will get 5 posted out in the community. Julie will send the image to SATV for possible broadcast as a static image. We will also explore the cost/feasibility of having CinemaSalem show it in their pre-movie montage.
  • Susan is willing to do presentations for neighborhood association meetings about this campaign.
  • Northside Carting has budgeted $5000/year for recycling/trash education. We decide to discuss how to best use this money at our March strategic planning meeting.
  • Discussion of this year’s Clean Sweep campaign and how to best partner with the Beautification committee to make the recycling component happen. Liz, Marcia, and Lynn will meet with Ellen Talkowski to do some planning.