Canton Sustainability Minutes Feb 3 2020

Source page 1

Canton Sustainability Committee
Minutes
FEBRUARY 3, 2020 – 7:00 pm 
Canton Public Library
786 Washington Street, Canton, MA
Maker Space Room
Members Present: Christine Smith, Andrea Stuart, Phil Brown, Patty McDermott, Trish Boyden, Tim Calabrese, CarolynElkort
Guests: Kathy Mirza, MA DEP; Erin Connor, Canton resident
January 2020minutes: Motion made and seconded to approve the January minutes; motion passed unanimously.
Kathy Mirza, Comm. Of MA DEP
Kathy provide an overview of trash and recycling statistics, costs and ways to reduce items in the trash stream. 
Kathy’s job is to provide grant support and technical assistance to communities in her service area which covers Milton out to Holliston and down to Fall River, New Bedford areas
Her goal is to make programs better in order to save money
First step is to reduce Trash. Kathy provided a map of cities/towns in the Commonwealth. The municipalities in red have more waste generated per household and the ones in green have
less. Canton is in the red zone, meaning we have a lot of trash waste. This is based on 2018 data submitted by DPW (Gigi – who no longer works at DPW), we have more than one ton per
household. This includes 1-4 family households, condos/apartments where Republic picks up trash and the schools.
Ideas to tackle trash and reduce costs:
Education: Pick What Resonates with Residents: greenhouse gas impacts resulting from our consumption; 42% of emissions comes from the production of foods and consumer goods; NRDC reducing
food waste program.
Get an understanding on where service is provided and where the gaps are; who/what is contributing to high rate of trash
Overflow trash dumpster at Pine Street: this is very unusual (most towns don’t have something like this). There is zero cost to use dumpster and no incentive to reduce waste.
Canton’s trash cart size is very generous and larger than most towns. Most towns are going to a smaller 35-gallon cart AND a PAYT system
Textile Recycling: Good step that the town has taken to get textiles out of trash stream. We should encourage more use. Put Baystate Textile flyers in Town Hall display. Get the numbers
and use for a newspaper article.
Other ways to reduce waste are: Reuse & Repair Events, Library of Things (for people to borrow), Promote Consignment
Composting: March 11th from 9-12 DEP is doing presentation in Carver on Composting and will focus on both curbside and drop-off composting. Municipal officials are invited.
Recycling Education: In addition to presentation on website, ask Gretchen at Republic for videos to post – what happens to recycling once it leaves the curb; School Outreach
Add Waste Ban information to town website
Grants
Josh Gittings is new DPW contact for DEP; Re-Trac 2019 Recycling and Solid Waste survey needs to be complete by 2/15 in order to apply for any Grant; Kathy available to help. Christine
will follow up with DPW
Once done the Town can apply for the Sustainable Materials Recovery Program (SMRP) opens in April and closes June 10th. Small, easy grant for $1250 for small scale initiatives – everyone
who applies receives it.
School Recycling Grant: Green Team in Schools (Free); Erin Connor has started this in the Hansen & Kathy can follow up with her.
Recycling IQ Kit Grant: for better recycling
Mattress Recycling Grant: provides a container for recycling
Curbside Organics: provides $20 curbside cart for pilot pickup program; need 400 households
Cardboard Dropoff Location
Most Popular Grant: Recycling Dividends: Best Practices for Waste Reduction earns you $1100 per point
Costs to the Town: (estimated) $70/ton for Trash; $88/ton for Recycling: Wherever we can reduce tonnage, we can save money
Follow Up on Projects for 2020
City Compost: Phil has confirmed that City Compost can do a presentation on curbside composting; Scheduled for March 9th; Carolyn will reserve Community Room
Energy Aggregation Presentation: Christine confirmed that MCAN will do a public energy aggregation presentation on April 15th; Carolyn will reserve Community Room.
School Recycling: 
Andrea reported on the difficulties with recycling in the schools. She spoke to GMS head custodian. Custodians do bring out recycling bins to be put out with trash collection. It is
a lot of additional work for the custodians. The Cafeteria has a lot of food waste plus carboard boxes. Solution is to talk with Superintendent.
Erin Connor has started the Green Team as a pilot program at the Hansen. If successful there, she plans to bring to the other schools
Recycling Bins at Hagan Court/Senior Housing: Trish Boyden reported on her conversations with the Housing Authority. They could have recycling put out but they’d need the bins from the
town; Christine will reach out to DPW/BOS.
Town Planner/Master Plan: As a follow up to last meeting, Christine reached out to Town Planner to identify areas where the Sustainability Committee could assist and/or had already taken
steps on. Town Planner also had energy aggregation on her list so Christine will reach out further to see how we can coordinate. 
Meeting adjourned at 8:50 pm.