Solid Waste & Recycling Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
City of Gardiner
Solid Waste & Recycling Advisory Committee
June 29, 2023
4:30pm
Members in Attendance: Judith Dorsey; Nancy Rines; Kathleen Brown, City Councilor; Vanessa Berry; Greg Rand; Terry Berry City Councilor; John Cameron, Public Works Director; Kelly Hare, Public Works Admin.
- Question and answer session with TJ Troiano, Chief Operating Officer for Troiano regarding Gardiner Transfer Station
Q - What materials will the transfer station be taking in and who will be able to use it?
A – The plan is to allow anyone to use the transfer station. Currently the commercial design is a paid system by weight. At this time, there is not a residential design due to not knowing how many plan to use the transfer station. The idea for the residential design is a prepaid system where residents purchase bags to dispose of their trash. Acceptable items will be construction debris, metals, bulky waste, wood waste, cardboard, plastic, paper, tires, and universal waste, as well as household trash.
Recycling - There is no plan for recycling at this time. Some ideas are to have a “silver bullet”; however, there is a cost involved with this.
Q – Will our commercial trash haulers be able to continue picking up these items (recycling) curbside and bring them to you separately? For example, Riverside, which does the most residential recycling -- if they wanted to use your facility for recycling, would they be able to?
A- If the Trash Hauler has enough volume, yes. There is no plan for recycling at this time because if there is not enough volume, it is not cost effective.
Judith stated that because many of our haulers do not have a viable way to get rid of the recycling, they do not pick up recyclables from our residents. T.J. spoke about the rising cost of recycling. He added that the best idea at this time will be a mixed recycling container “silver bullet” that goes down to Portland to dispose of. T.J. added they (Troiano) are open to accepting recycling, once a safe and economical process has been figured out. Judith mentioned that she can provide TJ with the most recent quarterly report to show the volume of trash and recycling the commercial waste haulers dispose of.
Q – Will residents from other communities be able to purchase bags and use the transfer station?
A – Yes, the more volume we can get will only help this facility mature.
Q – At one point in the application you mentioned you may have to go back to the planning board; what is the reason for this?
A –There was a possibility of redesign if the DEP did not like the original plans.
Q – We are not going to have a fee structure, nor will there be a permit system; we will only have tipping fees, is this correct?
A- This is correct
Q – Do you have fears that you will have more trash than you can handle?
A – No. As the design stands now, without any residential bunkers, we can accept 1500 tons per day, and at this time, we will accept 600 tons per day.
Q – Do you know what an Apparel Impact bin is? (Textile recycling) Is this something we can do?
A – This would be fine as long as we can find a space to put it. Another option is the silver bullet, but the question is who will monitor it.
Q – How do you envision monitoring this recycling bin?
A – The recycling bin will be on the same property as trash disposal, so there will always be someone there, and residents will not be able to dump items without being seen. In addition, if it seems there is a lot of flow, there may have to be a scheduled time for residential drop off. This is still in the brainstorm process and a survey will be helpful to determine how many people are willing to separate their recycling as well as how many people are willing to use the transfer station.
Q – If there is a way to monitor, would you object to a bin where residents can dispose of food waste?
A – I (T.J.) would not object. At this time, we (Troiano) deal with Agricycle to compost the food waste. Scrapdogs is another company who will service a food-composting bin. They provide a tote for the compost and a kiosk explaining what can and cannot go in the bin. However, we may need to check with code enforcement due to the food-composting ordinance.
Using a map of the property, T.J. demonstrated the plans for the layout of the facility.
Q – Do you use the bag system anywhere else?
A – No, but for this facility, we (Troiano) are trying to avoid having residents come in and have to use the scale, to make it as easy as possible. We do not want to have to track permits.
Discussion about the cost of disposing of trash and recycling at Hatch Hill with the downside of having to travel there to do it.
Q – What would be the cost to the city? Is there going to be an expense that the city is responsible for?
A – There will be a cost for recycling. This cost will be the responsibility of either the City or the residents.
Short discussion about costs;
-Concerns about citizens of Gardiner paying for the cost of recycling if you allow anyone to use the facility. Possible solutions:: checking for ID, building it into the cost of the recycling bags.
Recycling costs $15 more than trash per ton to dispose of. It was said that costs vary between trash and recycling because for trash you just dispose of in the landfill, where recycling has to be separated and be sent to a designated facility then exported.
Higher volumes make more sense for transportation needs.
Bags will cost more because the cost of the trash and recycling is factored into the cost of the bag.
Concerns and discussion regarding the bag system;
“Usually a bag system is to get people to recycle because then they have to buy fewer bags.”
We will not be able to subsidize recycling through the trash bags.
Hypothetically, “If it costs $10 to take care of a white bag of trash and $15 to take care of a blue bag of recyclables why not charge $13 for both bags?” The bottom line is that people just have to want to do the right thing by recycling.
TJ noted that if the bag costs too much to purchase, there won’t be enough volume.
Judith noted that unlike Gardiner, most communities that use Hatch Hill already have recycling in their towns.
TJ noted some communities have decided to discontinue their recycling programs due to costs; some have changed to using the silver bullet and place that at their public works department behind a gate where residency can be verified.
There are concerns about contamination in recycling with lack of staff there to monitor.
Possibility of using a punch card for recycling rather than bag system
Q – Will the city pay for the hauling costs and tonnage too?
A – Yes. We would be willing to pilot program with a discount to see if this works.
Q – Is the end destination something the City has control over?
A – We use all three recycling facilities, everything north of Freeport/Durham goes to Lewiston and Hatch Hill, everything south of that goes to to ecomaine or to Troiano or to Casella in Scarborough.
Q – What is the timeline for construction?
A – We (Troiano) are unsure of when we will begin at this time; the bids just went out for construction. We can’t start until we get the permits and hope to start construction in the fall. We’re going to want to figure out the trash solution first; we can be open to the public either way whether we use bags or have residents cross the scales. It’s possible to have a recycling day at the facility while we are still figuring this part out.
Q – Would it be beneficial for members of the committee to visit the South Portland facility to view operations?
A – Absolutely, I (T.J.) can be available to give tours to anyone who in interested.
- Review and approval of 5/22/23 minutes
Terry Berry made a motion to approve minutes.
Kathy Brown seconded the motion.
Vote is unanimous to accept the minutes.
- Status report regarding timeline for community survey
Kathy Brown spoke with Kathy Cutler, City Clerk, and Andy Carleton, City Manager, about sending the survey out with the next tax bill. Together, they agreed that this might not be a good idea because many people do not look at their tax bills and may not see the survey. Another option may be to send the survey out with the sewer bill; however, this timeline does not coincide with the timeline to send the survey out. Kathy stated she would like to speak with Kathy Cutler and Andy Carleton to settle this and decide how to disseminate this survey to the residents. She added that the committee only needs to provide the survey, which the City can then send out via Survey Monkey and/or hard copy. The information from the survey will then be turned back over to the committee for review at no cost to the committee. Kathy added she will update the committee at the next meeting. She added she feels it’s important to use this time before the facility is built to bring education to Gardiner about recycling.
- Schedule for summer meetings
July 24, 2023 4:30p
August 28, 2023 4:30p
Meeting adjourned at 5:38pm