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Salem Recycles Committee
Meeting Minutes
September 3, 2013
Attending: Erin Huggard, Julie Rose, Nancy Gilberg, Janis Breeze, Flora TonThat, Beth Melitto, Lynn Murray, Susan Yochelson, Eva Mossberg, Penny Neal, Liza Vago, Jennifer Percy, Tony Keck
7pm meeting called to order by Chair Erin Huggard
August 6, 2013 meeting minutes approved.
New Business:
- Textile Drive date and event discussed. Date of event is 11/23/2013 at Riley Plaza, same as last year. Erin is working on some ideas for an article to promote the event and asked for input. Susan reminded folks that stuffed animals can be included in the drive. Susan also wondered if LifeBridge could put textiles in the drive, and avoid putting such items in their dumpster. Lynn suggested that the word get out informing people what happens to the items collected at the textile drive. She mentioned many articles are reused/converted to useful products such as insulation, carpet padding. Ripped, stained, damaged textile items can be submitted, so long as they are not damp or covered in other material (i.e. paint soaked/dried, grease covered, etc.).
Liz suggested including something that would be topical in November such as using the “thankful” theme.
- Other new business topics covered: Nancy brought up the possibility of a blog on the website, posted on Constant Contact, in Newsletter, etc. Nancy and Beth sketched out some ideas to blog about, i.e. plastic bags, various ways to avoid Styrofoam and what to do with it, “Steps for Action” pieces. Nancy offered to send around a list of topics for input.
Old Business:
- Book Swap of 9/21/2013: Grubstakes update presented by Julie informed the committee that the remaining items from the swap will be collected by Grubstakes. It is a local non-profit that will convert the items into funds and then provides resources for the hungry in the community. Committee agreed to continue the partnership with this event.
There will be an up-cycle display at the swap. It is hoped that this will bring attention to crafters who may be interested in an up-cycle event, possibly in the winter.
- Children’s Parade October 3rd. Erin asked people to walk in the parade. Theme this year is: Books Come Alive. Erin, Eva and Tony offered to work on this for signage and posters, make sandwich boards for those in the parade and include information about future Recycling events on the boards.
- 2013 DEP Grant for home composters was the next item. Julie encouraged members to circulate the ways the public can participate in the survey to establish the test route for pick-up, and other input. The grant would provide up to 1500 toters at a cost of $20/toter. Each toter would include a gallon kitchen pail for collection. The compostable waste would be placed in the toter to be brought to the street for collection. The destiny of this grant will not be known until December. It was suggested that we table the topic until January to learn if the grant will be secured. There was interest expressed in the use of the compost material once it is composted. Penny pointed out that commercial composting is quite different from backyard composting. Commercial applications use
controlled heat and the materials collected include meat scraps, soiled pizza boxes, and possibly items that people who want to use compost for their gardens may not want. The composted materials would be distributed commercially and not brought back into the city to distribute for home use.
- GreenSalem.com and .org: Sites have been revised and Julie encouraged members to get people to view and explore the sites. Janice is working to add to the site. Questions about what can be added to calendar on the site and other information will be included.
- E-waste: Drop off is always the last Saturday of the month. A very positive response from the community about this opportunity. The program was included as a result of the trash contract and is only in effect for one year. Get the word out to people to bring their e-waste to the DPW on the last Saturday of the month.
- Constant Contact: Newsletter is closer to being up and running. Members need to sign up to receive it. To increase the distribution, members can send it to others and ask people to subscribe. A button is on the page to click to subscribe. The process is moving forward, but cannot be fully operational until the expense is approved by the city.
- Mandatory Recycling Update: Now in its 3rd month, the mandatory recycling program is still in the trial/warning stage. On October 1st, the program becomes mandatory. There was extensive discussion about ways to present the positive aspects of recycling. A phrase that can be used now is: This is what nearly every community is either doing or going to do soon.
- Monthly FaceBook Update: Nancy said there are now over 760 Likes to the page. Had a good month visit total for August. Getting great responses to the photos that are posted, including the up-cycle items. There is a concern that photos are getting more attention than the informational text. That is the nature of visual media, so some effort has to be made to direct people to the text using the photos. Suggestions are always welcome. The book swap will drive more activity in September.
- Other Business: “Bag It” will be shown at the Salem Cinema on November 3rd. It is open to the public. That is a Sunday and the showing will be in the morning.
- Announcements: Jim Markan is unable to participate with the committee at this time.
Julie discussed the possibility to develop some video for education about mandatory recycling. A puppet made of recycled will be used for the first video. A question was raised asking if the committee has a YouTube channel to broadcast videos. Nancy volunteered to explore this.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm.
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