Meridian Citizen Recycling Advisory Committee

Meridian Citizen Recycling Advisory Committee: Jan 12, 2009

Attending: Joyce Benvenuto, Barbara Curtis, Mindy Kraus, Jerry Richards, LeRoy Harvey, Sharon Grabski, Kit Rich, Tonia Olson, and Tonia VanOrder

Announcements: Kit mentioned several events coming up at Harris Nature Center including Winter Wonderland, a Native Plant Sale is coming this spring, and a silent auction.

Minutes: Attached.

Committee Reports/Dialogue

Recycling Center: LeRoy distributed a summary of the discussion in November. Issues such as staffing and location are still up for discussion. People prefer an elevated stairway for accessibility. Nancy Moore Park might be a potential space to consider. An ongoing issue is “decentralized vs centralized” – many locations or one. Tonia mentioned that small systems – like the apartment size units – can be serviced by the curbside recycling trucks on a bi-weekly curbside route. This might be something to consider for a “pilot project” at a local school. We might also ask folks about recycling center preferences in a survey (on-line or at next event) A resident mentioned Beaver Island’s facility as a model. They take EVERYTHING. A center might be staffed in partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

Education: Tonia Van Order – gave an update on her efforts. Here first effort is to find what’s already going on and who might be doing things already. She’s focusing on Cornell for now. Cornell might become the 1st Green School in Meridian. Edgewood Montessori might be interested in becoming a Green School and getting involved in the Educational Committee.

Special Events: Mindy and Kit gave a brief update. Barbara was ill, but provided the attached electronic update. Committee members will be contacting businesses as sponsors. A couple electronic recycling events are coming up. See the calendar at www.re-news.net/meridian

Meridian Commercial Recycling Group: A successful Green Star Event was held in November. We’re working on a news column in the Towne Courier. Green Star membership is growing. There’s an opportunity for a shared table at the MABA Expo on the 14th of March.

Multi-family Committee: Story that Joyce wrote has not been published yet. Jerry will call Dawn to check on. We have a new participant: Arrowtree!

Granger: The new residential pick-up schedule is out. There is an on-line survey that is going out. 50 new tubs were recently distributed. A Community Relations coordinator job is available with Granger.

Meridian Township: Jerry reports that the Township is updating the website – it will be simple to add stuff to the web. See LeRoy’s Jan 12 report attached.

Next Meeting: February 9th, 7pm

1 Meridian Citizen Recycling Advisory Committee

Summary December 1, 2008

Present: Tonia VanOrder, Sharon Grabski, LeRoy Harvey, Beth Hubbel, Mindy Kraus, & Jerry Richards.

Minutes: Corrected minutes attached.

Committee Reports/Dialogue

Note: December was a small and short meeting due to the weather and the holiday.

Education: The Committee has decided to meet right before our full committee meetings (at 6pm). The committee is working on a brochure and packet to schools possibly to include “how to start a recycling program” and community event calendar. We’re also collecting info on what is being done currently. We may profile teachers or initiatives that are doing projects.

Special Events: Barbara could not make the meeting but provided an electronic update (see next page for her update and recent news!) One suggestion is that we might have a holiday “event alert” for saving material. Mindy filled in for the committee which consists of her, Barbara and Kit. We reflected on the event – the happy volunteers. The next event will be on the 25th of April. This is the 5th big recycling event --- It all started with one person saying that they wanted more recycling. There was some discussion about the T-shirts.

Meridian Commercial Recycling Group: Jerry and LeRoy gave a brief update of MCRG and a copy of the minutes we’re distributed (see attached).

Recycling Center Discussion: A summary of the special meeting that Joyce convened is attached. LeRoy share some pictures of other facilities. Consistent grouping of containers or color coded containers is appealing to some. We talked about the virtues of decentralized vs. centralized recycling options

Organization Reports

Meridian Township: See attached update from LeRoy.

Next Meeting(s) Tentatively Jan 12

2 Education Committee: 12-1-08

Attending: Sharon Grabski, Tonia VanOrder, and LeRoy Harvey

 R2C2 (Regional Recycling Coordinating Committee) is doing a logo contest. If you know teachers or students who’d like to be involved, please contact LeRoy. Kathy Donahue with Clinton Co. is coordinating it.

 We’re looking for ideas, links, and educational resources for an Education Page at www.re- news.net/meridian

 We’ve been granted permission to customize Lansing’s “Guide for Starting a Recycling Program” (in schools).

 Outreach: Tonia’s presenting to Parent Council and the PTO at Cornell Elementary. Tonia is going to collect information about what’s being collected. Sharon checked with St. Martha’s – a parent takes to recycling center when.

 Once this info is collected, the committee will decide about promoting the Green School initiative.

 Sharon wants to put together a packet of information and standardized presentation. What would be in it?  Business Cards  Recycling How-To Brochure  Green Schools Info  Other

 Green Schools o Maybe there would be students who’d want to help? o Should we have a press event? Or Tie in to Community Pick-up? o Brochures or info packets that could go out to the community – schools, neighborhoods, Meijer? o Combine materials in to one packet. For example: HHW, Events, factsheets, o Sharon and LeRoy could be contact names on the copies. o Sister Anita from St. Martha’s might be a good person to profile. Give examples of recycling projects, green projects, etc. Radmor newsletter is another example o People who’d be willing to talk to classes, give tours (Dart), someone from the committee, help with collections, o Superintendent mentioned some of the energy improvements they’ve done at a recent meeting – there’s interest in waste reduction o Mid January would be a good deadline for a draft of material for the info packet. Granger packet for curbside

3 BARBARA’s UPDATES:

12 / 1

Would you please announce that the 4/25/09 date for the next recycling event has been confirmed; we'll be at the Farmers' Market. So far, we will be collecting books, phone books, polystyrene, and pharmaceuticals (please announce that we are doing the latter under the Ingham County EPA grant and it won't cost us anything for that collection). I'm trying to confirm a hauler for plastics and glass, but I can't state that we will be collecting those two commodities yet. Since EPI is closing some time this spring, we won't be hauling glass there anymore, and Waste Management probably won't be doing any more hauling for us (it hasn't been profitable for them).

As soon as we have more information about other commodities we'll be collecting, we'll announce them.

Thanks very much. Let me know if you have questions.

12 / 21

As you know, we've been concerned about not having haulers for either plastic or glass for April. Welllllll, that concern is over!

I have a firm commitment from Northwest Refuse in Jackson to provide two 40-yard roll-offs for plastic and one 20-yard roll-off for glass (all we need these days) for April (and beyond) at (hope you're all sitting down when you read this) $150 each!! (As opposed to the $550 EACH I was quoted by a company in Dearborn for plastics.)

YA and HOO!!!

Jerry/Sue--I'm going to get you the details next week. Hopefully, we can have a purchase order through the system in early January to cement the deal. In the meantime, I'll do a confirming letter for your signature, Jerry.

Northwest is the company that provides roll-offs for Charlotte's collection. In the past, the only service they provided was to leave a roll-off at a designated site, replacing it in a month or so when it was full. Recently, they have added such service for Ingham County on a one-week basis. The man I talked to said that as long as I only wanted the roll-offs twice a year, he was willing to provide them for a weekend (left on Friday; picked up on Monday).

The glass they collect (everything we usually take) is sold to a paving company that grinds it down to use for road beds in Michigan.

The plastic they collect (#1-7) is sold locally, nationally, or internationally, depending on the market at the time it's collected. Yes--some of this may go overseas, but at least it won't be going into landfills.

Our Committee will get started in January on collecting sponsorships and getting a preliminary notice out to people.

Remember, we'll also be collecting polystyrene (with Dart), books and phone books that will go to Friedland (hopefully with Granger hauling them), and pharmaceuticals (under Ingham County's EPA grant).

We're looking forward to another great collection!

Barbara

4 Summary of Recycling Center Dialogue 11/3/08

Joyce Benvenuto, LeRoy Harvey, Tina Kahn, Mark Kieselbach, Jerry Richards, and Ray Severy were in attendance. LeRoy gave some brief background and a handout with notes from the last Citizens’ Committee meeting (see website. Joyce described the reasons for calling the meeting (she’ll be out of town for a while and wanted to keep the fire burning). She also described some of the multi-family recycling promo she’s been doing. Here are some ideas that came up:

 There is a shared interest in additional recycling options in the township  Location o These could be one central location – or multiple locations o Place at the places where most of recyclables are generated – big stores – where there is often an abundance of parking o The current location is unknown to many and inconvenient to others o The Service Center has some possibilities/pave space o  Types of containers/materials o There is interest in having containers that are easy to use (some are too high) o The township is spending $1600-1900/month for the recycling at the transfer station. o  Partnerships o Perhaps there could be o LeRoy will explore recycling plans with some of the “big box” stores – what are they doing now? What plans might they have for recycling? Etc. o We ask for proposal and offer incentives to kick-start the idea, generate some creative thinking, and help determine site locations o If we discontinue or reduce recycling at the Recycling Center/Transfer station, some of these $ could be applied elsewhere  The future of the transfer station is up in the air – likely we will reduce the hours of operation. The compactor need repair  Planning o There is some money in the budget and reserve fund that might be used to design, engineer, plan, etc. a new site. o Should we have a larger community planning session – or do the visioning on a smaller scale with the committee and staff? o Should we start small and build the vision and capacity and alternatives over time (rather than design the ultra-modern center with all the bells and whistles)? o There may be some opportunities for grants

5 Meridian Township Citizens’ Recycling Advisory Committee October 6, 2008 Meeting Summary (draft)

Present: Joyce Benvenuto, Art Cameron, Sharon Grabski, LeRoy Harvey, Beth Hubbel, Mindy Kraus, Tonia Olson, Ray Severy, and Gene Smith.

Agenda Review/Additions: None that didn’t fit under “other” 

Project/Committee Updates

Education Committee: (Barb C., Tonia V., Sharon G., LeRoy H.) Sharon gave a brief update:

- The group is still defining it’s role but sees itself as a resource for local schools - One project is to help promote the Green School Initiative - Joyce mentions one outreach option: every teacher’s lounge has a bulletin board -- - Tonia Van Order will do parent council presentation in November - Art asked about what is being done? Granger does some office paper recycling but hasn’t pushed the recycling much according to Tonia O. - We discussed paper efficiency and movement toward paperless classrooms (like MSU is doing). - The next meeting is tentatively Nov 4, 7pm at Schulers.

Special Events (Mindy K., Barbara R., Kit R.)

- Volunteers are still needed during the 8-12 and 10-2 shifts - Please help recruit volunteers and have them call Barbara R. at 337-1705. - A few donations came in -- for example, granola bars were donated by Foods for Living, but not the huge sums of cash that we’d hoped for. - Granger will help haul and bale the plastics - T-shirts will be done by RetroDuck - We won’t do pharmaceuticals until the spring due to costs - The roll-offs are tall so we need 4 more 5-6’ step ladders – Joyce and Art offered.

Plastic Recycling

- Art is in the Horticulture Dept at MSU, coordinated a Recycling Event at MSU this spring (plant pots, etc.), and worked with Rhea at the regional event at VanAtta’s this summer. - East Jordan Plastic is doing a pilot project with Meijer. - He’d like see more options and will continue to share info and ideas with us. - How do we make it more economical? Toronto is fairly progressive. They’re seeking to be “waste free” by 2015 and could be a model. - MSU will be opening their new big recycling center in a year or so.

Meridian Commercial Recycling Group (Green Star) (Jerry R., LeRoy H., Malinda Barr, Dennis Louney, Will White, Larry Parsons, Tina Kahn, Phil Mikus

- A recognition dinner is tentatively planned for Nov. 10. 6 - We now have 44 Green Stars! - Mindy recently recruited a communication company to join. Sign up on-line at www.re-news.net/meridian - The program is evolving and there is interest in partnering with MI Recycling Coalition and other communities

Multi-Family Recycling (Joyce B.,)

- Grange Acres now has a big bin. It is believed that residents also are eligible for curbside because they have 5 units or less. - Tina recently moved to G.A. and has been lobbying them for more recycling - Joyce is researching and recruiting and may do a story on Arrowtree for the Towne Courier. - Edgewood is now featured on our website.

Recycling Center Discussion

Ray Severy, Director of Public Works & Engineering, gave an overview of the current situation with Transfer Station/Recycling Center. The trash and yard waste collection is currently a break-even operation – we charge fees and that pays for most of the utilities and labor cost. It’s a popular service for small companies and landscaping in the area – saving them distant trips to the landfill. The compactor is old and it may be time rebuild, replace and/or reconsider whether we want to continue the service.

Location, location, location, location, location, location…

- A centrally located facility – like Meijer, the Municipal Complex, and/or the Mall seem like very desirable locations. - In other states, the large grocery stores have recycling drop off – it’s where recyclables often come from! - A site should be paved, be sweepable, easily accessed by car and bike, well-lit, clean, safe and easy to use (not too high), easy to shovel in winter, etc.

Other comments, ideas, questions…

- It seems like few people know about the Recycling Center/Transfer Station (RC) - People are more inclined to recycle if they’re going to the RC anyway - Beth will check out Spartan Village which seems to be a good example. - What items do we want to collect? Will single-stream recycling affect things? - What’s our current volume? - Could we get a grant? - The markets run the recycling – and prices are rising for some items - Businesses that offer recycling for their customers might receive “Green Star” recognition.

7 Meridian Township Recycling Update: Jan 12, 2009

 A free Electronic Recycling Event was held on Jan 10 and it was jammed!

 Hands on Calendar Training: Warren Armstrong provided an introduction to the Community Calendar Tool on Wednesday, Dec 3 at noon at the Township Board Room at the Meridian Volunteer Council meeting. More at www.publicdrum.org A hands-on training will be held at the Feb. MVC meeting (1st Wednesday at noon at Twp Hall)

 Discussions are underway about Regional Recycling Promotions, possibly in collaboration with Greater Lansing Go Green.

 R2C2 recently held a logo competition (at least one submission came from Meridian Twp).

 R2C2 is also exploring rain barrel distribution regionally. See pics of a recent bin that’s being considered at www.re-news.net/meridian/r2c2/rain.htm

 Draft of Green Maps can be found at www.re-news.net/map Progress continues a Greater Lansing Green Map. LeRoy Harvey is working with the County, the Regional Recycling Coordinators Committee and Wade Prestonise on this.

 Stories/news clips/links/etc. are welcome for inclusion in Monthly Meridian Recycling Updates. Please contact LeRoy at 853-4466 or [email protected] . Past updates at www.re- news.net/meridian

-prepared by LeRoy Harvey

8 Meridian Commercial Recycling Group: 12/22/08 (draft summary)

MCRG enjoyed lunch at Traveler’s Club. Our group intends to meet “on the road” every other month, exploring a new business. Attending were Phil Mikus, Brian Hossink, Craig Phillipich, LeRoy Harvey, Jerry Richards, C.J. Davis (Dusty’s Cellar), Will White, and Dennis Louney. We did not have an official agenda but talked about several items of ongoing interest…

Promotion and Marketing One idea is to talk to local schools about helping with a recycling video. MSU students just won a prize for a glass recycling video (mentioned at www.re-news.net/meridian/news/DecB.htm). This might complement our School Recycling Committee’s efforts to promote recycling as well. There could be a recycling competition between schools as well. These ideas relate to the regional “Green Schools” initiative (www.lansingmi.gov/gogreen/schools_going_green.jsp).

Dennis may talk to his contact in Journalism at MSU about getting an intern to help with developing stories for the media. LeRoy also has a contact in Environmental Journalism. Stories might include a “tip of the week,” coupons, or other advertisements as well. HOM-TV is also an ally in helping to develop stories. Jerry mentioned that Joanne Paul and Andy Such might be good contacts. Some stories might also fit with the “Regional Recycling Coordinating Committee’s” agenda of regional recycling promotion and education about “green” opportunities. It also might stimulate collaboration among businesses (sharing recycling services).

Collaborative Recycling In some communities, school host recycling drop-offs for the community. Some businesses also offer shared recycling or shared cardboard dumpsters (like in a strip mall). Travelers Club and White Bros. share waste and recycling, for example. It is felt that a lot of businesses don’t know about opportunities like the “Bag it and Recycle with Cardboard” that is offered by Granger and apparently by Waste Mgmt. as well. See www.re-news.net/meridian/bus Phil thinks there might be opportunity for bill inserts to help get the word out.

In hindsight, I remembered that the “Green map” might also be helpful in identifying nearby recycling options: www.re-news.net/map

Will White gave us a brief tour of his restaurant (and a banana buckwheat muffin) as we concluded our conversation.

Next meeting Township Hall on Jan 26th at 2pm. (4th Monday) While you have your calendar out: Feb 23 at Noon (location to be determined) and March 23 at 2pm.

9 Meridian Commercial Recycling Group 11/24/08

Attending: Malinda Barr, Brian Hossink (Fitness Together), Dennis Louney (Delta Dental), Craig Phillipich (Meridian Plumbing), Gerald Richards (Meridian Twp.), Will White (Travelers Club and White Bros. Music), and LeRoy Harvey (Meridian Twp.)

Green Star Gala: Attendance was around 25 and folks felt it went well. It was a great venue and Matt Rhodes gave us a great deal and great service. Bonnie Potchen is the manager of Galleria and she was very enthusiastic about her first party (sort of a Grand Opening). Sharing amongst guests of recycling stories was interesting. We could have done more phone calling to ensure press coverage. Aside from HOM-TV did cover the event. Phil Mikus share the link: http://meridian.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 (scroll down to the Meridian Magazine Nov 18 program). We also could have given more lead time for invitations and invited folks through the media as well. Thanks to Delta Dental for picking up the tab. We now have a nice list of which Green Star businesses recycle what items. Next year we want to tie in to America Recycles Day as well.

PR Marketing Plan: We will talk more about this at our next meeting. See draft plan at www.re- news.net/meridian/mcrg under August meeting. LeRoy mentioned the calendar and related press contacting system developed by Okemos entrepreneur, Warren Armstrong. He will present at the next Meridian Volunteer Council Meeting on Dec. 3rd at noon in the Board Room, 5151 Marsh, Munic. Bldg. We also talked about media articles as a way to get the word out. Do you have ideas for articles?

Recruitment: Several new businesses have expressed interest in getting involved with MCRG. It is also felt that success with our events, continuous networking, individual invitation will help with our committee participation – and a rise in Green Star membership. Members are encourage to invite a Green Star to the next meeting.

Next Meeting: We decide to have our next meeting (December 22) at Travelers Club at Noon. We may have every other meeting at noon at a local restaurant.

Spring Event – Awards: We talked about the possibility that our Spring event might be the WRAP awards and that we would try and nominate several Green Star businesses – knowing that several are setting a good example for other businesses in the region. See the current chart here: www.re-news.net/meridian/mcrg/what.xls More on WRAP Awards at www.lansingmi.gov/pubserv/wastereduction/wrap.jsp

Business Recycling Centers

Malinda likes the idea of talking to property owners like Robert Phipps and other “strip mall” landlords to encourage cooperative recycling. Phil Mikus might be a good person to help with this.

Elections – We decided June.

MABA Booth -- This will be another opportunity to get the word out. We’ll hopefully use one of the Entrance Display Tables and have cards on other tables as available (like Granger’s). The date is March 14th

Other: Malinda shared a cool recycling back that we could give to Green Star members, distribute at events, use for give-aways, etc. We can get them for $2/bag and may want to partner with our Citizen Recycling Group. We’ll need a few co-sponsors. If we order $5000 we can get them for $1/bag.