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Home My WebLink About2011-08-09-TAR-min Trash and Recycling Collection Task Force Meeting Wednesday, August 9, 2011 Samuel Hadley Public Services Building 830 am Minutes Present R Beaudon, J Krieger, J Carroll, S Mayo, and P Kelley Vendor presentations F.W. Russell and Sons Russell serves communities around Lexington such as Dedham, Methuen, Cambridge, etc In some communities, they do everything in others, they collect only solid waste or recycling Russell is a collection company who owns the recycling not the trash The hiring town decides where the trash goes They can do whatever Lexington decided is best for the town single or dual stream Single stream vs dual stream recycling Russell believes single stream will turn to be more costly in the long run Single stream is fashionable right now, companies make it cheaper or the same price as dual-stream Many communities moved to single stream between 2008-2010 because it was more "convenient" for the residents However, he believes the price of single stream will go up in a few years and will become more expensive than dual-stream Paper mills prefer dual stream material because is cleaner, gets less contaminated So, even though it is easier for residents to recycle and they might recycle more, it doesn't necessary mean more gets recycled at the end Lexington has an already high recycling rate (32-33%), switching to dual stream won't necessarily bring those numbers up Also, once you move to single stream and people get use to place everything in one container, it will be very hard to go back to dual-stream Cambridge had a 10% increase recycling with single stream The city paid $300,000 for the barrels The city of Cambridge will pilot a commercial food waste program with them Most of the mills in the US are closing Most of the US recycling is sent overseas 50-60%was taken by China until the Olympics Community Education/Increasing recycling Dedham had a very weak recycling program Russell met with key people in the community for one year and they ended up saving 4,000 tons of trash Reading won't take the trash unless there are recyclables The town considers the program a success Woburn implemented a two-week collection program, dual stream with a 90 gallon barrel No advantage in multi-town collection bid as each town is a separate entity No savings Waste Management (Roy and Jim) WM serves between others, Newton, Medford, Arlington and Woburn (tree waste), Newton moved recently to a single stream Arlington does weekly single stream, manual collection Ashland uses the Pay as you Throw system In NH a sticker system was put in place where residents need to get a sticker in order to throw the trash What makes the most sense? It is best, what you think makes the most sense to Lexington What are our priorities? Environmental issues? Budget issues? WM can design a program for Lexington In writing the RFP they suggest to go broad (not so prescriptive) and allow vendors to develop a program that they recommend to Lexington which meets the town goals Single stream vs dual stream Single stream is cheaper There is a lot of money invested in single stream Single operated track is more efficient and saves one salary ($60-70,000 ) and avoids accidents as there is no other employee running around the track when the track is moving When the amount of trash and recyclables is equivalent WM offers co- collection, when the track is full, it goes to two different disposal sites, Auburn (trash) and Mulbury (recyclables) Single stream increases recycling because is easier for residents Other way to increase recycling is having a policy regarding the trash, limiting what residents can throw weekly, forces recycling There is a 3% or 4% residue at the recycling facility with the single stream system With the DEP mandate, the food waste world will change dramatically in the next 5 years Companies will partner for collection and delivery of commercial food waste to composting facilities Peter inquired about having a different color bag for trash for example a purple bag instead of containers WM said it is possible but didn't see much advantage in doing so also, animals get into the trash at night so it is better protected by a plastic container Can we get to 50%recycling rate? If there is a community that can do it, Lexington will be the one WM invited the task force to take a tour and watch automated collection in Newton and Medford Housekeeping J Krieger appointed Chair