Canton Sustainability Minutes June 27 2022

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Canton Sustainability Committee
Minutes
June 27, 2022 
Members Present:Christine Smith, Katy Clark, Tarini Dasari, Andrea Stuart, Erin Connor, Patricia McDermott
Review and approval of minutes from May 2, 2022
Motion made and seconded to approve the minutes. Motion passed unanimously.
Sustainability Day at Canton Farmer’s Market
Christine Smith explained that the Committee had been invited to attend Sustainability Day at the Canton Farmer’s Market on August 7. The theme is sustainability in farming, healthy
soils, local food, etc. Black Earth Compost has agreed to attend the Farmer’s Market with the committee. They can do a presentation and bring a composting bin. This tabling event
is going to focus on composting. Christine Smith said she could bring the brochures about composting at home if people are interested in that instead. There was further discussion about
messaging at the farmer’s market event and the possibility of offering a raffle. The Committee cannot hold a raffle as a town organization but perhaps Black Earth could offer the raffle.

Our goals at this event would be to educate the public on composting, soil health, eating and growing food locally and getting more subscribers to the curbside composting program. 
Motion made and seconded that the Sustainability Committee cover the cost of a 6 month subscription plus a starter kit for the composting program, with the subscription and kit to be
raffled off by Black Earth. Motion passed unanimously. Christine Smith said she would check with Randy Scollins to make sure that this would be allowed. 
Report on status of Municipal Energy Aggregation 
Christine Smith reported that the Canton Energy Advisory Committee and the Select Board had awarded the broker contract to Mass Power Choice. This is the first step in moving forward
with the Municipal 
Mass DEP RDP Grant Update 
Christine Smith reported that the DPW had submitted the required information for the RDP grant. Josh might have some ideas of his own on how to use the grant funds; Christine Smith
said she would try to coordinate with him.
Curbside Composting 
Christine Smith reported that the Committee received a request from the Town of Milton to partner with Canton. She’s waiting for more information from Milton before bringing the proposal
forward. 
Christine Smith also reported she became aware of a USDA Grant that can be used to divert food waste from the waste stream and increase composting. Potential Grant to Increase Curbside
Composting. The minimum grant amount is $45,000.00 and the town would have to fund 25% of it; staff time can be used to meet that amount. 
One suggestion had been to partner with the schools and use the grant to support composting at the schools. Black Earth provided a cost estimate to fund the schools for a year at $11,000.00.
 There was further discussion around the feasibility of composting at the schools. Andrea Stuart noted it might be difficult because the custodians were stretch pretty thin. She had
worked in Hingham where they composted in the schools but it only worked there because of parent volunteers. Patricia McDermott stated she had broached the subject with one school and
they were not enthusiastic about composting. 
One other suggestion was to have commercial compost pickup but we would need a lot of businesses in order to make it worthwhile.
Erin Connor asked about the fire station or police station. Christine Smith said that would be an option, although not enough for the grant. Erin Connor said she would contact the fire
department and police department and report back if they would be willing to start curbside composting. 
One other suggestion was the library, although there is probably not a lot of food waste at the library. 
Another suggestion for the schools was the teacher lounges. While it would not meet the cost of the grant it might be a good place to start. The middle school has a garden and rain
barrels and sustainability is in the curriculum. The Hansen and JFK also have gardens. Katy Clark said she would reach out to the schools in the fall to ask about composting for the
teacher lounges. 
Another option would be to fund residential composting subscriptions. If we get 400 subscribers the cost goes down for all. There are currently 115 subscribers so the Committee could
potentially subsidize subscribers until we reach the 400. 
The downside is that there is a better chance to get the grant if there is the ability to continue the service afterward and it is not clear that is an option. 
Terracycle Discussion
The Committee had talked about a municipal program for Teracycle but it’s unclear how that would work.
Patricia McDermott suggested starting a program with the school cafeterias. There is a bin for plastic gloves and the workers go through a lot of plastic gloves so this would be an
option. She said she had mentioned it to one school cafeteria and they were interested. The cost is $136 for one 11 x 20 bin ($257 for an 11x 40 bin). We could fund 5 boxes for each
of the cafeteria. We would need to coordinate bringing the full bins to UPS. Patricia McDermott said she would look into this further. We would probably need School Committee approval.

 Discussion of Rainbarrel Program
Christine Smith reported that we have had several inquiries about whether we are doing rain barrels again. The rain barrel company is still running the program and it could be done
in the fall. After further discussion, the members present decided that Spring was a better time and the Committee can take this up again in the spring. 
Motion made and seconded to adjourn the meeting at 8:15 pm. Motion passed unanimously.