Fall 2003 News

New Leaders Elected

Greg and Mike get a lot less email now. After over five years of service alternating as Chairman and Cochairman, a quorum in July enabled Gregory Robbins and Mike Pakstis to pass the baton. The Board accepted the Nominating Committee’s slate of Merle Brown of Cohasset for Chairman, Steve Herrmann of Hanover for Vice Chairman, Joanne Dirk of Norwell for Treasurer, and John McNabb of Cohasset for Secretary. Dirk and McNabb have served in those capacities since the SSRC’s origin in 1998.

As a token of the Board’s gratitude, the Planner presented plaques to Robbins and Pakstis in appreciation of their five years of leadership. Mike had been involved in the SSRC and its predecessor SSRRDPB since 1994, Greg since 1996. Both have been a tremendous resource for the Planner.

The new leaders have a good grip on the reins, and their in-boxes are never empty.

SSRC Welcomes Holbrook

The Town of Holbrook was accepted as the SSRC’s newest member at the Sept. 17 Board meeting. Chairman Brown introduced Holbrook Selectman Jeff Lowe, whose interest in his town’s solid waste issues drove the Town’s decision to join, and PWD Supervisor Kenneth Brown. Holbrook has a curbside collection contract with BFI, and faces the challenges of a tight budget and lack of a facility for compost and difficult to manage waste. The Planner and other members are working with Holbrook to find outlets for those materials. For the long term, they are exploring the possibility of building a transfer station, and will be seeking advice from SSRC Transfer Station operators.

With Pembroke’s withdrawal from the SSRC for FY04, membership remains at fifteen towns, four of which start with the letter “H”.

SSRC Recycling Info is In the Mail

It’s been a long time coming, but the SSRC “consumer education” mailers will be in the mail to residents (and some businesses) in all FY03 member towns shortly after this newsletter goes out. The Planner designed a separate 8½” x 11” piece for each town.

SEMASS is underwriting the printing cost for the eleven towns that receive Material Separation Plan benefits, and the Mass. Dept. of Environmental Protection is assisting with the mailing and paying for postage on an early Municipal Recycling Grant. Bond Printing of Hanover won the printing bid.

Mercury, Hazardous Product Collection, resource and recycling information are included in the piece. The Planner underestimated the magnitude of this project, but hopes the effort translates into less trash and more recovered material for our towns.

Call for Cell Phones

At the September Board meeting, the Planner demonstrated three money-making/ cost saving collection programs:

Cash for cell phones: RMS Communications pays well for many working used cell phones. The Planner’s 2 year old Motorola flip phone is worth $8. 1-800-627-2022, x265. To learn the value of phones worth >$4, go to www.cellforcash.com/main/phones.asp.

Free rechargeable battery collection (which should be removed from the cell phones): Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) Marla Prince, 770-751-0046; www.rbrc.com.

Cash or credit toward equipment for printer cartridges: Funding Factory. Most cartridges are worth $1. Shannon Stutzman, 1-888-883-8237, www.fundingfactory.com

The Planner distributed a contact information sheet and UPS - prepaid collection boxes for all three collections and recommended that they be included with the electronics collection. She will write a press release about it for towns that request one. Whitman plans to collect all three items at the BOH.

Recycling Grants Offered, Against All Odds

The future looked grim for the state’s Municipal Recycling Grant Program last summer. The budget crisis threatened all the State’s established recycling grant and support programs, as well as the DEP staff that administered them (see related article, p.4). The DEP had also planned to shift focus to commercial recycling, which would have further eroded still-developing municipal programs. But in the end, the voice of municipal recycling advocates was heard; one of the Grant programs and technical support has survived. More important, the recycling staff and infrastructure at DEP remain. (Editorial comment: I may not always agree with their methods, but the prospect of losing recycling staff at DEP’s Bureau of Waste Prevention made this Planner realize how much I depend on them for information, training and general support).

So with $800,000 in funds, the DEP is able to offer a scaled back version of Municipal Recycling Equipment Grants for Consu-mer Ed mailings, some types of recycling containers, Pay-as-You-Throw assistance, and school chemical management assistance. In addition, MRIP coordinators (who no longer have a program to coordinate) are available to offer technical assistance.

CY2002 Recycling Data Sheets are required. Applications are due at DEP by October 16, so take a look, and take advantage.

BIDS - Back to Beds

Mattress disposal issues just won’t go to sleep. With the anticipated shift to MSW only at the Bourne ISWMF in January, our towns need a new outlet for both construction/ demolition (C&D) and bulky waste. The Planner issued an RFQ last summer for the container, transport and processing of mattresses, and received three responses.

Conigliaro came in at $18.10/mattress, boasting 95% recycling of the materials. Institution Recycling Network, which made a presentation at a Board meeting last spring, quoted $1,050/ 30 yard trailer, but was slow to respond and short on details such as end markets.

Mitch Slapik of Miller Recycling made a presentation about his company’s mattress management program at the Sept. Board meeting. The company was recently licensed by DEP to sanitize and process mattresses. 25-30% of municipally generated mattresses are remanufactured (stripped, re-foamed and re-covered;, the foam is recycled into carpet padding. The rest are shredded and will be recycled to the maximum extent possible. To provide a covered container and pick up at each SSRC town, the cost would be about $15 each. If the four smaller generators consolidated, the cost will go down. The group discussed potential consolidation partners for Cohasset, Norwell, Rockland and Scituate . The Planner will help towns arrange consolidations and solicit a revised written quote.

C&D RFP

The Board also discussed details of a draft request for proposals for C&D waste management, with a target date of January 1 (see previous article). DEP’s Jim McQuade announced the SSRC RFP at the August C&D Subcommittee meeting, and several potential bidders approached the Planner about it. The final draft will be sent for legal review and voted at the Oct. 15 Board meeting.

As of press time, the Mass. DEP was still reviewing the proposed C&D regulations, and had not yet set hearing dates on them.

Grind/Screen Contracts Up

Our grinding and screening contract with Cook is also due for re-bid. J. M. Cook Co. holds the current two-year contracts for both services, which expire on December 31. The Board voted to keep the format the same. The IFB will likely be released at the same time as the C&D RFP.

MARKETS

Down With Appliance Costs!

á scrap metal prices + â requirements on microwave capacitor removal = â costs for Freon-containing appliances and microwaves sent to Spiegel Scrap Metal (aka South Shore Iron and Steel). Peter Kopcych, who does the Freon and capacitor removal on those items for many SSRC towns, announced that refrigerators, air conditioners and dehumidifiers will go back â to $7 each.

After going back and forth on the scrapyard’s requirement to remove capacitors from microwaves, it is now official that while all microwave capacitors still need to be inspected, only those with a possibility of containing a PCB capacitor (pre-1988 – about 1 in 750) must be removed. Thus, they still need to be segregated from the scrap pile, but now only cost $1 rather than $3.

Air conditioners and other appliances may also contain PCB capacitors. It is wise for solid waste managers to request certification from their vendor that their appliances have been inspected and any such parts have been removed before scrapping, to avoid the possibility of any future liability.

Plastic Pricing

Bob Boucher at WMI in Avon quoted the Planner the following per-pound pricing (delivered) on Sept. 12. Being a commodity, pricing is a moving target that can change monthly. “Loose” includes compacted plastic and plastic in bales weighing less than 1000 lb. Loose pricing will also apply to bales with cardboard “headers”.

	1000 lb. bales	loose
natural HDPE :	15¢/lb	7¢/lb
colored HDPE:	10¢/lb	6¢/lb
PET:	9.5¢/lb	4¢/lb
mixed plastic:	2.5¢/lb	1¢/lb

Towns that wish to deliver this pre-sorted (as opposed to commingled) material must give 24 hours notice so WMI can clear the tip floor. Call Bob Boucher at 508-586-5385x25 for more information.

Market Synopsis

According to the August 2003 “Recycling Today”:

§ While domestic paper markets have declined by about 3% from 2002 to 2003, overseas markets, especially China’s, grew at a rate of about 28%, and now account for nearly 30% of the US recovered paper market, keeping prices steady.

§ Similarly, strong Chinese markets are keeping the price of ferrous scrap healthy, as scrap dealers scramble for supply.

§ Low recovery rates of aluminum cans are causing concern in the industry, with an estimated $700 million worth ending up in the trash. The valuable recovered metal (currently worth 30¢/lb) is preferred over the energy intensive virgin material by can manufacturers, including industry giant Alcan Aluminum Corp.

§ Copper prices are edging back up, topping 75¢/lb in August, nearly 20¢/lb more than the 2002 price. The aggressive Chinese market again is driving the price increase.

SSBRP Takes Wing

The DEP grant to SSRC is finished, but the South Shore Business Recycling Partnership it hatched lives on. The Marshfield and Norwell Chambers of Commerce mailed brochures to their members; the Cohasset Rotary Club and Plymouth Chamber also made them available to their members. Between the brochures and site visits by grant subcontractor WasteCap of Mass. in the spring, ten businesses have signed up either for Town recycling services or contracted with selected hauler EOMS, which has been an active partner in promoting the program and providing technical assistance to interested businesses. While the SSRC and DEP had higher expectations, EOMS principal Louie Tarentino is pleased with the results.

Cohasset Middle High School students Jim DeGiacomo and Kirby Bukowski will augment the Partnership’s efforts in a community service project. The two are helping three local businesses to set up recycling programs utilizing Partnership bins and participation decals.

Have You Seen the Globe Today?

Look for an article this October in the Boston Globe South Weekly by Sandy Coleman, who interviewed the Planner about the challenges facing municipal solid waste programs. Given Coleman’s helpful coverage in the past, this piece may enlighten our residents about how our solid waste infrastructure and their own disposal habits have changed over the past generation, why trash costs are climbing so high, and how reducing and recycling can provide some relief.

Mercury Plan Goes Donuts

Cable Viewers Targeted Too

SEMASS has sweetened the pot to get mercury devices out of the trash. MSP Coordinator Sidi Mateo is distributing coupons for Dunkin Donuts to qualifying towns as a reward to residents who turn in mercury thermostats, etc. Towns that are swapping thermometers already should add them to their “arsenal”; a device is worth $2 in coffee coupons. The Planner has requested promotional materials for Building Depts. to educate homeowners that apply for building permits on how to properly dispose of such devices at the location where the thermometer swaps are already being conducted (usually Board of Health offices, Highway Depts. and Transfer Stations). The information is also contained in the mailers that are going out soon.

Watch your local cable station for a SEMASS video production about proper mercury disposal, costarring Your Planner! (I may take that back after I see the finished product).

Data Almost Done

What did the Planner do on her summer “vacation”? She spent a good deal of designing a new Access database and plugging in the CY02 MSW data provided by most SSRC towns. In addition to the tonnage information contained in the DEP CY2002 Municipal Recycling Data sheets, she is trying to include collection contract, hauling and commodity pricing data, vendor, household and fee info. While some data is still incomplete, the new format has already proven useful in generating a few requested reports. When all the data is in, she will be able to provide comparative hauler and vendor pricing, per-household generation by material, fees and recycling rates for each town, and more. This information can be used by each town to see where it can improve its pricing and material recovery, and will be valuable to determine if a new vendor such as the NRRA (next article) can give us a better rate for our materials.

Please contact the Planner if you are interested in receiving a report on a particular parameter. She will bring a current fee schedule to the Oct. 15 meeting in Norwell.

NRRA to Meet SSRC

Elizabeth Bedard, the North-east Resource Recovery Ass’n’s Executive Director, will present a summary of the NRRA’s services to the SSRC Board on Oct.15. The nonprofit NRRA provides cooperative marketing of a wide variety of post-consumer materials to its members. The Planner has attended its annual conference for the past several years, which always provides new insights and inspiration. With our new MSW database (see previous), the Planner hopes to evaluate whether the NRRA’s program would make sense for our members. For more information, go to www.recyclewithus.org .

Plymouth Loses Farrell to EOMS

Plymouth ’s energetic Recycling Coordinator and SSRC Board representative Mary Farrell jumped over to the private sector in early September to do sales for Environmental Operations Management Services (EOMS). Board meetings won’t be the same, and she is missed in Plymouth too. The Planner will still get to work with her, though, as EOMS is the hauler that is servicing the SSBRP (see top of page) for the SSRC.

Plymouth ’s new Town Manager, Pamela Nolan, is reorganizing several Town departments, including the DPW.

Why Care About the RPS?

Greg Smith, Cape Cod Commission, coauthor

At the end of July, American Ref-Fuel (aka SEMASS) sent out notices to its municipal contract administrators asking them to sign off on an offer to “share the wealth” if a beneficial piece of legislation is passed. The bill, H523, would amend the Electric Utility Restructuring Act to include existing waste to energy facilities in the Renewable Portfolio Standard, or RPS. This would enable SEMASS to sell the electricity it generates from trash to the local utilities at a higher rate. The bill requires that the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) re-establish the baseline of electricity retail suppliers must purchase from “renewable” sources for sale to end-use customers from July 2003. This baseline increases each year.

This change would guarantee that Waste-To-Energy (WTE) facilities would remain competitive with other less expensive power generators (coal, natural gas). This would benefit the SEMASS facility as it renegotiates existing facilities contracts with energy suppliers, due to expire in 2005.

The bill is being held in the Energy Committee. Chairman O’Leary favors inserting language that would turn 100% of the benefits to the contracted municipalities. SEMASS and the COSC steering committee negotiated a 50% share of the net revenue from the sale of Renewable Energy Credits for those cities and towns. It estimates that it would incur costs equivalent to about 30% of that revenue in broker’s fees, administration and legal costs, in anticipation of a lawsuit with the utilities over ownership of the Credits. This amount would be deducted before the 50% share would be calculated. That 50% would then be distributed to the towns according to their proportion of the collective Annual Minimum Tonnages.

About half the towns that were sent the offer have accepted it, and some COSC Steering Committee members testified in favor of the arrangement to the Energy Committee. Not all members of the Steering Committee were consulted. SEMASS has indicated that if it is required to turn all proceeds back to the towns, it will have no incentive to pursue the sale of the credits, or will sell credits out of state. I

f this bill is passed, communities under contract with WTE facilities may benefit, as electricity sales offset increases in tip fees. If the bill dies in committee, there will be no Credits to sell, and the whole issue will be moot. Town officials that wish to take advantage of this opportunity for additional revenue in its present form, especially Managers, Selectmen and Mayors, should contact the Energy Committee (617-722-2090) to request action.

FY04 Budget Inspires Override Party

For a few tense weeks last summer, Gov. Romney’s veto of effectively the entire State recycling budget cast a pall over DEP’s Bureau of Waste Prevention and numerous municipal, nonprofit and private waste reduction programs. The SSRC, MassRecycle, nonprofit and municipal recycling advocates, who had been aghast at his initial FY04 budget proposal of $4.5 last winter, found themselves petitioning the legislature to overturn the veto and restore the $3.5 million in the final Conference Committee proposal. The Clean Environment Fund that paid for the programs, along with most other dedicated funds, had already been swallowed into the abyss of the General Fund, out of reach at least for now.

Thanks to a groundswell of protest from many quarters, including SSRC Secretary John McNabb and NESWC Director Shawn Worster, who posted themselves at the State House in the final hours, MassRecycle President Jan Ameen, MassPIRG, and municipal recycling advocates across the State, the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to overturn the Governor’s veto. We on the South Shore owe special thanks to Senators Hedlund and Creedon, who sponsored/ cosponsored helpful budget amendments (although rejected), and Senate W&M Chair Murray, who led the committee to recommend retention of the CEF and a more generous recycling appropriation. Sen. Resor, the Chair of Natural Resources, was also very helpful throughout the process. All our Senators, including Sen. Morrissey, voted for the override.

Most of our South Shore representatives, including Reps. Bradley, Hynes, Mariano, Nyman, O’Brien and Teahan, voted for the override; Rep. O’Brien has been especially supportive of funding for environmental programs. Reps. DeMacedo and Webster were the only South Shore legislators who voted AGAINST it. DeMacedo is also a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which successfully recommended the elimination of the Clean Environment Fund.

This “victory” seemed like a good excuse to celebrate. With co-hostess / Board member Helga Jorgensen, the Planner threw an Override Party at her house in August. She recycled an old John Lennon song for the occasion, which the partygoers sang - twice! Whitman Health Inspector Al Scoglio provided the piano accompaniment to the tune of “Imagine”. Part of it goes like this:

Imagine there’s no garbage
Waste is now uncool
Nothing to burn or bury
And no pollution too

Imagine all the people
recycling all their trash…

. . . (Don’t worry, she doesn’t plan to quit her day job).

Cohasset, EOMS Win MR Awards

MassRecycle will present the Municipal Recycler of the Year award (small muni) to the Town of Cohasset for its outstanding recycling program and results on October 8 (see “EVENTS”). Under the leadership of Selectman Merle Brown and Recycling Committee Chairman Arthur Lehr, Cohas-set reduced its residential trash generation by 33% and increased the recycling rate proportionately. This increase can largely be attributed to Selectman Brown’s tenacity in getting the Town to adopt the Pay as You Throw program in July 2002.

The Town also runs a model Recycling Trans-fer Facility, which is open to both residents and businesses. Recycling at the RTF is mandatory; private haulers are also required to provide recycling service. The facility includes a swap shop “Boutique”, and deposit trailer, which is managed by the Boy Scouts. The DPW has sold over 50 compost bins, and uses the difficult-to-market green glass in drainage applications. Brown recently renegotiated the paper recycling contract, $15/ton.

In addition to diverting more traditional materials from the waste stream, Cohasset collects many hazardous materials on a regular basis, including auto and rechargeable batteries, tires, electronics, fluorescent tubes and other mercury bearing waste, motor oil, antifreeze and paint.

Cohasset schools have done chemical cleanouts, and last fall delivered 75 lbs. of elemental mercury to Clean Harbors. Cohasset schools and municipal buildings all recycle.

EOMS will receive the “Commercial Recycler of the Year” award. EOMS won the collection bid for the South Shore Business Recycling Partnership (see p. 3), partly due to the glowing references from some of his client towns and businesses. The 6,000 ton per year recycling hauler worked closely with WasteCap during the Business Partnership grant period, promptly follows up on leads generated by WasteCap’s brochure, delivers bins and recognition decals obtained on the grant to new business part-ners and provides the technical assistance needed to help new customers set up sustainable programs. Principal LouisTarentino reports back regularly on all activities, including new accounts and volumes, and responds quickly to requests for information.

Congratulations to Cohasset, EOMS and the four other award recipients!

MassRecycle Annual Event

Immediately following the EPP Vendor Fair (see p. 5), MassRecycle, a statewide non-profit organization, will hold its Annual Event & Recycling Awards. All are invited to come and relax with colleagues, enjoy hors d’oevres and a cash bar, and cheer for the award recipients (see prev-ious article). Six awards will be presented to individuals and groups who have made outstanding contributions to recycling in the Commonwealth.

To RSVP, contact MassRecycle at (617) 338-0244 or info1@massrecycle.org.

Waste Reduction Success Stories

The towns of Abington and Rockland both began enforcing their Mandatory Recycling ordinances this past summer (by coincidence), and as a result, both towns are saving “tons” of money on disposal.

The ordinances in both towns stipulate that to receive curbside pickup of trash, residents must set out their recycling bins. Although on the books for a couple of years, enforcement had been lax. After notifying their haulers that they expected the rule to be followed, both towns gave the residents fair warning of the impending enforcement, but still experienced phone calls from irate residents for a few weeks (which didn’t surprise anyone).

Now that the dust has settled and residents seem to have said the Serenity prayer, the enforcement is producing the desired results.

In Rockland, Del Prete delivered 55 tons less trash to SEMASS in August of 2003 than it did in August 2002, an 11% drop. At $75/ton, that translates into a savings of $4,125 for the month. (Recycling tonnage figures were not available).

Abington residents recycled 16 tons more this past July than they did in the previous July, for an 18% increase.

Cohasset and Scituate , which have transfer stations but not curbside collection, have seen similar, even more dramatic, changes in their disposal and recovery rates since implementation of their Pay-as-You-Throw programs over the past two years. Cohasset’s has been so suc-cessful that it reduced the annual sticker fee from $50 to $30. In those programs, residents must purchase special bags for their trash, at a cost of $1 and $1.50 respectively. Since its inception, Cohasset’s per-house-hold trash generation has gone from 1.36 tons to 1.03 tons per year, the lowest rate of all SSRC towns. Cohasset residents recycle 31% more for paper, bottles and cans after PAYT than they did before, increasing from 0.45 to 0.59 tons/household/year. MSW disposal in Scituate has declined by 0.12 tons per household since FY99, or 14%; recycling tonnage has increased by 25%, to 0.45 tons/household/year. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in these affluent communities, the cost is less of a factor in the change in disposal habits than the awareness that disposing with abandon can lead to fiscal and environmental problems.

Instituting these programs takes political guts, but with today’s tight budgets, many communities in the Commonwealth are taking another look at the way they deliver disposal services to their residents. To date, 107 of the State’s 351 cities and towns are approaching trash as a utility and charging by the bag for disposal.

FALL, 2003 NEWSLETTER

SSRC Recycling Info is In the Mail

Why Care About the RPS?