Recycling Subcommittee Meeting Minutes 5/13/09

• Recycling accepted

Kelly Flynn discussed the recyclable items accepted at the Custer County Recycling Center. He stressed that copier toner cartridges and lead-acid batteries were accepted, along with rechargeable batteries. These need to be taken to the transfer station.

Recently the white paper, newspaper, and magazines have been combined into one bin. These go to create shredded paper insulation. The plastic goes to create fence posts from Spotanski Plastics in Hazard, NE. The acceptance criteria for the construction and demolition waste are posted on the city’s website and this should be mentioned on greenbrokenbow.org.

Kelly Flynn then mentioned that previous community education programs have decreased the percentage of non-recyclable items in the recycling bins, but the percentage of non-recyclable items in the bins is still estimated to be about 4% for plastic and glass, and lower than that for paper. Of particular difficulty is the fact that about 280 pounds of non-recyclable “trash” must be removed every 2 weeks from the recyclable items and disposed of at the expense of the recycling center.

It was mentioned that Omaha now gives citizens coupons based on how much people recycled. This was proposed as a far future plan to encourage recycling as currently the infrastructure is not in place to implement this.

WasteCap Nebraska publishes a booklet with information regarding the types of items accepted and other business that accept items such as scrap metal and motor oil.

• Construction and Demolition Waste

We then discussed construction and demolition waste recycling and the recently opened landfill south of Broken Bow. Shingles are not accepted at the landfill but can go to the transfer station. Joan Birnie inquired as to whether grants would be available to try to establish construction and demolition recycling as the first landfill is almost full particularly since the recent demolition of the trailers along 5th St.

Later in the meeting it was mentioned that there is a gentleman in Ansley, NE that will take scrap metal for recycling.

• Business recycling

Discussion then turned to a business recycling program. Kelly Flynn mentioned that he could perform an audit of businesses to determine what would be recyclable and it would work best if the businesses could then bring the materials to the recycling trailers. Interested business could contact Kelly Flynn to have him do a site visit to set up the program. The trailers are dumped twice a week Fridays and Mondays and business recycling could contribute to the trailers filling quicker. Kelly stated that he checks on the trailers frequently and tries to mitigate the problem by dumping full bins. If bins are full people could place recyclables in another bin, but he would prefer people sort the recyclables appropriately unless a bin is completely full. Waste Cap Nebraska could probably not assist with this.

We tried to determine what portion of the businesses would be interested in cardboard or paper recycling pickup, but funds are probably not available to start a program such as that. Discussion then turned to grants that could be obtained at the state and local level to implement this program. In order to implement this program another employee would be needed and a recycling truck would also be needed. There might be grant money to implement these but it would probably be a year before funds were available.

A survey of businesses was proposed to determine the interest and need for recycling. This would be promoted via local radio and newspapers but the focus would be on businesses bringing their recycling to the trailers as pickup would not be financially feasible at this time.

• Recycling information

Joan Birnie proposed that numbers from the recycling effort be released via greenbrokenbow.org in order to provide transparency about the impact of the recycling program. 13,000 trees were saved last year by recycling paper.

• Lawn Care

Guest posting on greenbrokenbow.org from Arrow Seed regarding pesticide and chemical free lawn care products was discussed. This is expected to be posted in the coming weeks.

• Action Items

Division of Labor was discussed and it was determined that Shaleah Jones would call the businesses and notify them about the recycling audit provided by Kelly Flynn. The Better Business Bureau of Broken Bow would be notified so that information should be disseminated. KBBN would also air information about the recylcing audit, but it was stressed that the audit would not be a guarantee of recycling pickup, only information regarding recycling strategies. Kelly Flynn would then provide information regarding the recycling statistics to be posted on greenbrokenbow.org.