articles

Zero Waste Boundary County - Agenda March 5, 2002

Mayors Commission on Recycling

   Present: Mayor Kerby, Kathy Nussberger-Bonners Ferry, Herald
   Woody Watts-Clain Skeen Wilbur and Ron Frederickson, Toni
   Hollingsworth (Chairperson), Luise Peyton

Mission Statement:
Review every aspect of waste management in the community to maximize reduction reuse and recycling and recommend ways to accomplish this with minimum cost to the taxpayer.

Agenda March 5, 2002
1. Discuss mission statement –and general ideas on waste reduction and identify some initial objectives for waste reduction program.
2. Set time for meetings
Identify key participants:
3. Agree on a decision making process for issues that require decisions by the group.
4. Discuss statement to the newspaper

To Do:
1. Analyze the waste stream
2 Discuss our recycling plans with representatives of nearby communities A regional approach presents more options than planning for a single community. Work on networking with other communities. Attend networking meeting in Wenatchee in May
Look at a regional approach to recycling-Possibly a Regional Recycling Center-one large enough to hold full truckload quantities-20 to 30 tons of baled product.
4. Contact Trucking firms and find out if there are back haul possibilities between Bonners Ferry, Spokane, Boise and other towns.
5. Contact recycling companies in Boise, Spokane, Sandpoint etc. and find out what items they are accepting-how they want them and the prices
5. Find End Users for recycled material so entire truckloads can be shipped.
8. Plan an initial meeting for interested citizens-invite
Key participants. Get committees organized at this meeting. This will happen several weeks after the Mayors announcement. And after an appearance at the coalition for families.

Notes- Minutes of March 5 meeting

    The Mayor started the 10 :00 AM meeting with a general explanation of his ideas for a Boundary County waste reduction project. He said “ Since local citizens are researching ways to expand recycling he thought it a good time to get a Mayor’s Commission on recycling together and try to extend the life of the landfill.” The Mayor noted that the committee includes key individuals involved in solid waste: the local garbage hauler, Wilbur Fredrickson and Woody Watts, the Landfill Supervisor. The Mayor said he met with and got the approval of the County Commissioners and City Council-the City and County government will be involved with the project. Clain Skeen, Landfill Supervisor attended the meeting in place of Woody Watts- who was attending a meeting with the Commissioners.
    The Mayor remarked that this is a rural community where money is tight and citizens are wary of government. The best program would be a voluntary one, but some ordinances and or laws might be necessary. Darrell mentioned Moscow Idaho as a city that had its program ebb and flow-the market for recyclables is subject to change
     Wilbur Frederickson described several lawsuits he was involved with: One was with the State Health Department and the County in 1970, the other was with a man who was collecting cardboard from local businesses.
     Wilbur Frederickson requested that we discuss Local, State and Federal Laws at the next meeting.
   Mayor Kerby said it would be a good idea to invite Ken Lustig from the Panhandle Health District in Coeur d’Alene to a meeting. Mr. Kustig is now the Director of Panhandle Health, he and the man who took his place, Ed Hale will come to a Tuesday Meeting at 2:00PM on March 19th.
    We discussed a time for future meetings: The next one will be March 12th at 2:00PM in the City Hall. The meetings will not last more than one hour.
   Clain Skeen brought a copy of the Waste Characterization Report from Panhandle Health. He also brought a copy of a national publication on MSW that had an article about New York City cutting back on recycling of metal, glass and plastic. He expressed concerns about collecting recyclables before there was a good way to get them to market.
   Toni Hollingsworth suggested an initial Public Meeting to set up various research committees and get interested citizens involved-this will happen after the Mayor makes his announcement and after an appearance at the Coalition of Families. Education and citizen involvement is crucial to the success project.
   Discussion of the mission statement: Wilbur Frederickson wanted to be sure his interests were considered Mayor Kerby thought we might add cooperation between government, private citizens and independent franchisees to the mission statement.
     The committee will work together to come up with a plan Mayor Kerby will settle disputes.
     Wilbur said he saves aluminum cans from his garbage route and sells them. Darrell asked Wilbur if he would make more money if people separated recyclables so he didn’t have to-Wilbur said he would not.
    Luise asked if anyone besides residents of Boundary County could use the landfill-Clain and Wilbur both said only Boundary County citizens can use the landfill.

Back Home

Zero Waste Boundary County - Meeting - March 12, 2002

Mayors Commission on Recycling

Present: Toni Hollingsworth (Chairperson), Luise Peyton, Woody Watts, Wilbur & Ron Frederickson

Mission Statement:
Review every aspect of waste management in the community to maximize reduction, reuse, and recycling, and, through cooperation between government, private citizens, and independent contractors; create a plan to accomplish this with minimum cost to the taxpayer.

Meeting began at 2:00PM

Additions to the minutes of March 5 meeting:

? Toni Hollingsworth mentioned that education is essential to the success of a recycling program-education begins with the school kids-it is important to get school participation included in a County recycling program.
? Mayor Kerby said that information on recycling program can be sent out on an 8x 11 insert in electric bills.

All present approved the revised mission statement.

Wilbur Frederickson gave each member of the committee a copy of a research paper that outlines his ideas on a recycling project. All present looked through the information and discussed various items:
* Boundary County Population MSW output-Wilbur’s information says 9,250 tons of residential waste per year-Woody Watts says it’s more like 6,400 tons per year according to a live waste stream analysis that averaged the loaded weight of trucks coming to the landfill.
* Plastic Recycling failing in the United States-
* Woody Watts mentioned that this is the first year the County has failed to receive money for iron recycling.
Once a year the iron recycling company comes to the landfill and bales the iron-Woody says that if the market doesn’t improve the County may have to pay to have the iron removed.
* No market for glass-Toni Hollingsworth noted that some municipalities are crushing glass in order to save space in the landfill

Other Topics:

Woody Watts emphasized the fact that change is difficult in Boundary County. Last year he wanted to move the dumpsters, located near the Good Grief Tavern, half a mile down the road. He wanted to do this because vehicles parked in front of the dumpsters and it was difficult to empty the dumpsters. In addition, he had concerns about contamination of private property. The commissioners received a petition with 50 signatures against moving the dumpsters because local residents thought it inconvenient to go ½ mile down the road. The dumpsters were not moved.

* Luise Peyton said that grant money is available for hiring a consultant.
* Toni Hollingsworth said she thought it unlikely that composting at the landfill would work because there is no way to keep out contaminants, but home composting was a good possibility.
* Woody Watts mentioned that Panhandle Health might have money available for home composters
* Ed Hale from Panhandle Health is coming to our next meeting which will be on March 19, at 2:00 PM at City Hall
* Woody Watts said he would meet with Toni Hollingsworth and Luise Peyton on March 20, at 9:00AM to discuss the county municipal solid waste budget

Back Home

Zero Waste Boundary County - Meeting - March 19, 2002

Meeting began at 2:00PM
Zero Waste Boundary County
Mayors Commission on Recycling

Present: Panhandle Health Representative, Ed Hale, Members: Toni Hollingsworth (Chairperson)
Woody Watts, Wilbur Frederickson, Luise Peyton

Non-members of the committee in attendance were: Ron and Jan Frederickson

1. Toni read the Mission Statement: Review every aspect of waste management in the community to maximize reduction, reuse and recycling, and through cooperation between government, private citizens, and independent contractors; create a plan to accomplish this with minimum cost to the taxpayers.
2. Additions or subtractions to the minutes of the last meeting-there were no changes.
.
3. Rules and Regulation

There are no state laws or regulations on recycling. There are no specific state laws that ban certain type of waste including: hazardous waste and medicinal waste from Idaho municipal landfills.

Bonners Ferry landfill tries to recycle some of the questionable materials
such as automobile batteries and so forth. But there are no restrictions
for Bonners Ferry residents. Anything can be dumped into the household waste
garbage bag.
Medicinal waste large amounts of hazardous waste is not accepted at
the Bonners Ferry landfill.
Ed Hale will send us a binder with existing laws on waste management and landfills
.
3. Other current recycling activities:
According to Woody:
It takes 2 months to generate 3 tons of cardboard in winter
It takes 3 weeks to generate cardboard in summer
Woody has baler for basic cardboard baling activities

4. Definition of non municipal solid waste:
Anything not generated from household waste is considered non municipal solid waste.

5. VermiComposting:
Toni asked Ed Hale to look into vermicomposting at the local Jr High School. John Beck, a teacher wants to compost waste from the school lunch program: apple cores, orange rinds, milk cartons and other organic things
6. Plastics:
Toni said plastic recycling is generally failing in the United States.-it takes a 40 yard roll off container full of plastic milk jugs to make one bale, and partial bales of jugs have to remain in the baler as the plastic will expand if is pressure released. This means that the plastic requires a separate baler which costs around 17,00 dollars as well as lots of storage space. Ed Hale said HDPE should be shredded and the market is currently good enough to consider it as a recycling commodity. The County does not have a shredder-we are looking into the price of a shredder.

7. Grants:
Ed Hale will look into a USDA Grant for Waste Management Plan, and the possibility of a reduced price on home composters
8. Discussed a plan for manned sites, that Woody Watts has been working on for a number of years. He says we need to look at lowering the volume of the waste stream going into the landfill-if implemented, 520 tons a year would not be going into the landfill, this means 20% of the waste stream could be recycled or burned.
9. Toni asked Wilbur and Ron Frederickson , “if it were a perfect world, what kind of a recycling-program would you like?” She asked them to think about it for the next meeting which will be in 2-3 weeks.

Back Home

Zero Waste Boundary County-
Mayors Commission on Recycling Agenda April 23, 2002
Present: Woody Watts, Wilbur Frederickson and Ron Frederickson, Toni Hollingsworth ,

Mission Statement:
Review every aspect of waste management in the community to maximize reduction, reuse and recycling, and, through cooperation between government, private citizens, and independent contractors; create a plan to accomplish this with minimum cost to the taxpayers.

1. Additions to the minutes of last meeting:

2. Recycle depot at Jr. High School.

3. Questions for Woody-Where does the County take recycled material? How much are you paying per mile?
What action have the Commissioners taken on your proposal for manned sites. Would you like a survey that explains your ideas and asks for public opinion?
Estimate of Expenses for last year, actual expenses last year. Do you expect any increases this year?

4. Who, in the community, is collecting copper and brass for recycling.

5. Metal, cans, mixed paper, magazines, cardboard-price now on each item, total revenue for last year on recycled material
6. Take It or leave it Day at the landfill-possible problems
7. Questions for Ron and or Wilbur: Have you thought about collecting recyclables from Rocky Mountain Academy?
8. Estimate of Expenses for last year, actual expenses last year. Do you expect any increases this year?

Zero Waste Boundary County
Mayors Commission on Recycling
Minutes-April 23, 2002

Present: Toni Hollingsworth, (Jan Frederickson, Wilbur Frederickson, Ron Frederickson,) Woody Watts: Cathy Thompson-representing the Boundary County Jr. High Recycling Business.

Meeting was called to order at 2:00 PM. There were no additions to the minutes of the last meeting.

Toni gave Woody Watts and the Fredericksons a notebook with information on rural recycling programs in Republic Washington, Moscow Idaho, Sleepy Eye Minnesota, end markets in our area.

Cathy Thompson explained that her School to Work grant, funding the Boundary County Jr. High Recycling Business, will end at the end of June. Because the recycling program is rewarding for the students, Cathy wants to make sure the program continues. She is hoping to use grant money to purchase recycle bins and possibly a trailer to haul recyclables to market. Cathy said that her research has shown that schools which start a recycling program discontinue the program when it stops making money-in other words, the program will need community support.

Woody came to the meeting with pictures of recycling bins and a trailer that might work for Cathy at the Jr. High School. He had done a cost analysis-and is going to speak with the commissioners about county pick up of recyclables at the school. He says she will need 6 bins.

Wilbur Frederickson has a hooklift truck which can be converted to a flatbed that could be used to pick up school recyclables. Woody thought this might be a better arrangement than the County picking up the recyclables.

Woody Watts is going to speak to the Commissioners about the feasibility of a Take It or Leave It day at the landfill.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00PM
Back Home