MEETING NOTES. Meeting participants: Aero Design / Powell River Chamber of Commerce. Absent: Community Representative, Area B

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1 Solid Waste Management Plan Advisory Committee DRAFT MEETING NOTES Wednesday, October 26, :00 pm to 4:00 pm Royal Canadian Legion Hall 6811 Alexander St Meeting facilitators: Meeting participants: Dan Glover Inger Lise Burns Abby McLennan Jason Rekve Patrick Brabazon Shawn Cator Francine Ulmer Carole Ann Leishman Mike Wall Dale McCormack Absent: Ted Belyea Donna Stobbart Phil Lum Ronnie Uhlmann Clint Williams Eugine Louie Maura Walker and Carey McIver, MWA Environmental Consultants Ltd. Vancouver Coastal Health PRRD Let s Talk Trash Team PRRD Let s Talk Trash Team Aero Design / Powell River Chamber of Commerce Chairman, PRRD Board and Director, Electoral Area A City of Powell River Wildsafe BC Councillor City of Powell River, (AVICC rep PRRD) PRRD Sunshine Disposal Community Representative, Area B City Transfer and Augusta Recycling Catalyst Paper Citizen Tla'amin Chief Tla'amin Staff Note: Diana Wood (Botanical Garden Director) and Harold Diggon Community Representative, Texada Island, have resigned from the committee. Minutes of previous meeting Notes finalized as presented. No errors or omissions noted. Planning Process Recap No questions or comments Guiding Principles MoE Guidelines adopted as presented. Key Drivers MEETING NOTES Maura reviewed the key drivers for this SWMP process, as presented in the Existing System report and reviewed how the system issues identified by the Advisory Committee at the end of the last meeting would be addressed as part of the planning process.

2 Discussion: Bears have a huge financial impact when they destroy infrastructure We need to improve quality of data that we have on waste flows in order to properly plan o Some Vancouver Island regional districts (notable Cowichan and Nanaimo) license solid waste facilities so that they have good data on the waste managed by both the private and public sector. PRRD does not have the same system so the data isn t there. There is an economic impact associated with the ideas that are generated during this planning process. We need to consider how to pay for zero waste. The Path to Zero Waste Long range vision 2013 vision for SWMP was zero waste. Maura presented the definition for zero waste (ZW) from the 2013 SWMP. The Committee members agreed that the vision is still appropriate. The following additional comments were made: The ZW definition does not allow for burning. Isn t biochar burning of waste wood to create soil amendment/carbon capture? Does biochar conflict with this definition? Biochar is a process that doesn t burn the resource, it alters it into gas and biochar. The resource is not lost. Because we send waste to landfill, are we in conflict with the definition? The path to zero waste is incremental. It is a long term vision that we don t expect to get through during the timeline of this SWMP, and perhaps not the next one. The intention is to continually reduce the amount of waste sent to disposal. Zero waste is a goal and a process. We should also consider what our current vision is. What s Happening Now/What s on the books? The Let s Talk Trash Team presented the projects that they are working on now and would like to see in the future. The following questions and comments were asked by the advisory committee members: Is there data from CRC (compost demo garden)? We estimate 20 t of organic waste is brought to the compost garden per year. Event planning Everything is on line Organic waste pilot program Collected organic waste goes to Salish Soils in Sechelt How does the ziploc bags to Walmart program work? Sunshine Disposal brings the bags collected at each depot to the City Centre Depot. Every 5 days or so we bring it to Walmart from the City Centre depot. Recycling depots has the volume increased or decreased since the MMBC program began? LTT is not sure, but contamination is way down. Lots of green bin material was thrown away before due to contamination. Sunshine reports that the amount has been going up regularly since the program began. The Path to Zero Waste Maura presented data on garbage generation and composition and identified the low hanging fruit for the pursuit of zero waste. ICI paper diversion Maura presented the rationale for targeting ICI recyclable paper and possible approaches to diverting this material. The following question was asked: Where do businesses take paper? Do they haul it themselves? Dale (Sunshine Disposal) responded that their business collects recyclables from businesses. A few other small businesses collect paper in Powell River. Sunshine

3 is also offering organics collection to their business customers. Organics Diversion Carey presented the rationale for targeting organic waste and possible approaches to diverting this material. Discussion: Gleaning is a good example of reuse. There is a growing program here but more pickers are required. The program has room to grow. Let s Talk Trash is looking into the potential of a social service organization getting involved in the de packaging of food waste at grocery stores because grocery stores don t want to spend time on de packaging prior to composting There was some general discussion about the pros and cons of collecting food scraps with or without yard waste Discussed the idea of disposal bans versus disposal restrictions which is better from a social marketing and impact standpoint? How are they enforced? Options Review and Discussion Maura asked the committee to break out into 4 groups to discuss the ideas presented at the meeting: ICI paper recycling, ICI organic waste diversion and residential organic waste diversion. The following reflects what the groups collectively reported back: The interest in collecting yard waste is driven by the City wanting to resolve background burning Yard and garden waste in a collection container can work as a biofilter for the kitchen scraps There is a cost differential between the cost of composting straight yard waste vs. yard waste blended with food waste Discussion on reduction Quest in Metro (like a self help/no cost grocery store for food bank users that has packaged food that is near or just past the best before date) how are they doing it? o o Wouldn t this be an issue with regular grocery stores? They would lose customers. There is the potential for the Quest model work at Resource Recovery Centre. We need to figure out how to get buy in from mainstream grocery stores. Perhaps corporate recognition would work? We need to improve the gleaning program. It could be linked with the Resource Recovery Centre We need to do an updated waste composition study More education of the ICI sector needed There are limited options for the ICI sector We should pair disposal restrictions with variable tipping fees to drive ICI diversion The ICI sector and multi family buildings should be required to source separate General Discussion If yard waste and food waste are collected in a large cart, people may have difficulty storing the bin indoors between collections, which could be an attractant to animals ICI sector access to recycling they pay property taxes but don t get access to recycling like curbside o Small businesses can use the City Centre depot and Sunshine s depot Many local businesses are opting out of the pilot food waste collection service o Cost to businesses to recycle organics outweighs their benefit. It will need to be regulated if you want all businesses to do it

4 Cost versus value is big issue in Powell River need to bring value in line with what is easy Use Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan as term for the Solid Waste Management Plan to advance the recognition that we are really talking about resources, not waste Community Engagement Maura asked the committee what they felt about doing an on line community questionnaire to get early input from the public as well as inform them of the planning process. There was general support for the idea. o o Need to remind people that they can go to library and use computer if they don t have one/internet at home We could provide paper copies at rec centres. To minimize logistics of distributing and collecting forms, it was suggested that people be provided a hard copy of the questionnaire upon request. Maura described the SWMP webpage that will be established on the PRRD s website. Next Steps / Wrap Up Next meeting proposed for November 23. Moved to December 9 th, pm There is interest in a Facilities tour. Possible dates will be sent out via a Doodle Poll. Tour Dec 9 th in the morning. Presentation materials from the meeting are attached

5 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN REVIEW ADVISORY COMMITTEE September 15, 2016 Meeting Welcome! Roundtable of Introductions Name, affiliation How are you involved with waste management? Agenda 1

6 Agenda The Planning Process DRAFT Terms of Reference for the Advisory Committee Existing Solid Waste Management System Short Break Issues, opportunities and key drivers for this planning process Guiding Principles Next Steps / Wrap Up The Planning Process Phase1 Establish SWMP Review Advisory Committee Assess existing system April Phase 2 Look at current SWMP Consider options for the future Select preferred options Establish tools for community access and input 2015 Phase 3 Obtain community feedback on preferred options Finalize plan update December 2

7 Meetings TAC #3 Residuals TAC #4 Financial TAC #5 Putting it all Together TAC #6 Consultation Results Final Plan TAC #2 Diversion GUIDING PRINCIPLES 3

8 MOE Guiding Principles for SWMPs 1. Promote zero waste approaches and support a circular economy 2. Promote the first 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) 3. Maximize beneficial use of waste materials and manage residuals appropriately 4. Support polluter pay and user-pay approaches and manage incentives to maximize behavior outcomes MOE Guiding Principles (2) 5. Prevent organics and recyclables from going into the garbage wherever practical 6. Collaborate with other regional districts wherever practical 7. Develop collaborative partnerships with interested parties to achieve regional targets set in plans 8. Level the playing field within regions for private and public solid waste management facilities 4

9 NEXT STEPS AND WRAP UP 5

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