OPENING Mr. Thomas Smith called the meeting of the Solid Waste Citizens Advisory Group to order at 7:30 p.m. ATTENDANCE: SWCAG Present: Ms. Joan Moon, Ms. Jo McCabe, Ms. Cheryl Abram, Mr. Joseph Chisholm, Ms. Mary Lou Malo, Ms. Jane Wyman, Mr. Ned Greene, Mr. William T. Lewellen and Mr. Bryan D. Roberts. Absent: Mr. Harrison A. Glasgow, Mr. James Huisenga, Mr. James Gestrich, Mr. Albert E. Brooks and Mr. Richard Arvin. Guest: Mr. Steve Markman. Solid Waste Staff: Mr. Thomas Smith, Mr. Scott Kleinfeld, Ms. Anne Albuquerque, Ms. Deborah Campbell and Mr. Scott MacDonald. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Upon a properly made and seconded motion, it was approved to adopt the draft minutes of the December 7, 2017 SWCAG meeting. AGENDA TOPICS RECLYCLING - PUBLIC EDUCATION AND OUTREACH DISCUSSION Mr. Tom Smith introduced Ms. Deborah Campbell the Public Information Specialist, working with the County s Solid Waste team. Mr. Smith asked Ms. Campbell to share thoughts and ideas that she and Mr. MacDonald, the Recycling Manager had about communication methods used to improve outreach and public education with a focus on recycling programs, currently important because of the changes being made to the County s Refuse Code. Final January 18, 2018 meeting/sk 1
Ms. Campbell handed out an outline of the outreach plan that the Solid Waste Division had put together so far. She went on to explain that the purpose of the plan was to communicate to the community the changes made to the Refuse Code after approval from the Board of County Supervisors, which is scheduled for February-March this year. Since 2016, the Solid Waste Division has worked with the SW Citizens Advisory Group, Refuse Code Ad Hoc Advisory Committee and the Refuse Code Staff Working Group to revise Chapter 22 of the Prince William County Code. It will be important to communicate these changes made to the code to target audiences like county residents, HOA s, Businesses, Waste Haulers, Apartment/Condo managers, Landscapers and Government Agencies. Ms. Campbell said that the objective of this outreach plan is to get these target groups aware of the pertinent code changes that affect the preparation requirements for yard waste, recyclables and trash as well as the effective dates for such changes. Ms. Campbell said that they have outlined a plan to evaluate and document the effectiveness of the these marketing efforts by logging outreach activities(press releases, advertising, e-mail marketing and presentations), tracking in county brush and yard waste tonnage processed at Balls ford Road, randomly inspecting loads at the landfill, business recycling plans received and apartment complex sample surveys. Ms. Campbell went on to list out the timeline and various strategies proposed to achieve this outreach goal. Following approval of changes made to the County Code by the BOCS, they plan to use existing County controlled methods like: Post announcements and a link to revised Chapter 22 on the County website and County social media pages Develop and distribute media releases from the County (communications) with Buzz video and article Channel 23 slide E-notification to Solid Waste and other groups - send out link to revised Chapter 22 and info sheet with synopsis of code changes In the weeks following, outreach would focus on yard waste collection without using plastic bags, which will be achieved by developing and distributing brochures/guides, special presentations and community events, paid ads, develop direct mailer, social media and media releases. Final January 18, 2018 meeting/sk 2
Ms. Campbell then threw the discussion open to the SWCAG members for their ideas and suggestions to implement this outreach plan in the community. Mr. Greene suggested that distributing flyers with trash hauler billings, HOA newsletters and presentations at HOA board meetings would be some of the effective routes. Ms. Campbell appreciated these ideas and would look into using them. Mr. Roberts also asked about where the public could get information about recycling and guidelines to do so correctly. Ms. Campbell shared that this information is available on the County s website under trash and recycling: http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/publicworks/trash She also mentioned that a new app is being developed for the solid waste page, which will be like an A-Z disposal guide for almost all materials. Mr. Smith said that we also have a downloadable flyer on recycling on our website. He mentioned that the American Disposal also had a very user-friendly flyer on their website. Mr. Roberts wanted to know whether the outreach efforts targeted school students, to which Ms. Campbell responded that there is not as much response from the schools as there should be. Ms. Wyman suggested distributing pamphlets/brochures at the libraries, Master Gardener help-desks that are set up at the Farmer s markets in Dale City and Manassas as well as through the Garden Clubs. Mr. Smith asked how Ms. Campbell proposed to reach out to the various HOA s. She said that her resource was the County s Neighborhood Services Division with about 400 HOA s listed, which unfortunately has only their direct mailing addresses. She has not been able to procure email addresses or a contact person s email/phone number for many of these HOA s, so does not always get a response to direct mailings sent to them. Ms. Campbell was keen to get this information in the HOA newsletters and Mr. Roberts suggested working through the nextdoor.com/neighborhood network. He also suggested a Recycles Day event, which we already have every year in the fall. Another idea was to have display signs. Ms. Abram asked whether there was a specific strategy to target the 18-30 year age group in the County. Ms. Campbell said that the Facebook ads would cover this age group, but this outreach is directed more to the adult population. Mr. MacDonald added that PW County had participated in the COG (Council of Governments) Regional Recycling Campaign last year in the fall, where the media consultant was very creative and had a Prince William specific Facebook ad targeting Prince William County residents. Mr. Chisholm asked whether any direct mailings to residents were planned and Ms. Campbell said that they were looking into using the personal property tax bills for this purpose as well as the haulers billings. Mr. Smith thought that it is important to have these communications in a bilingual form as the population is trending towards increased diversity. Final January 18, 2018 meeting/sk 3
Ms. Wyman wanted the content of the information to include the fact that by recycling this yard waste we would divert a large amount of organics from the landfill resulting in not only extending the life of the landfill but also save tax payer dollars. Mr. MacDonald added that the white recycling containers on the citizen pad would be painted the same blue and have decals just like the new recycling trailers being used at the various collection sites throughout the county. Mr. Kleinfeld said that he has already ordered new signage and plans to re-paint the curbs in the spring to reflect the color code intended for disposal of various material types along with signage on the roads guiding citizens to the disposal points. Mr. Smith suggested a field trip to the American MRF (Material Recovery Facility) processing single stream recyclables as well as Davis Industries where metal and tires are recycled. Mr. Smith said that disseminating information is a challenge as people are overwhelmed by the overload of information received by mail. He said that going through the school students would be an effective method to reach out to the community. He appreciated the input from everybody as the task ahead is challenging and any ideas will help Mr. MacDonald and Ms. Campbell achieve positive results. Mr. Chisholm wanted to know where the hazmat like electronics collected at our facilities was disposed. Mr. MacDonald said that E-Revival based out of Cumberland, MD was our electronics disposal vendor. Veolia Environmental handles the other hazardous materials like paint and chemicals and Noble Oil recycles motor oil and anti-freeze. Members were interested to know how Prince William compared with other counties in the state with regard to recycling numbers. Mr. MacDonald said that we are below the State average for Northern Virginia. For 2016, the statewide recycling rate is 42.6%, PWC rate is 36.8% and the regional average for NOVA is 45.9%. Ms. Malo asked why the PWC rate is not as high as the neighboring areas, to which there are several reasons ranging from population density to separation of yard waste (organics) etc. PROPOSED REFUSE CODE CHANGE UPDATE: Ms. Wyman asked whether the BOCS was aware of the proposed update to the refuse code. Mr. Smith said that he met with the County Executive, Mr. Martino, who suggested that we have one-on-one discussions with the Board members. Mr. Martino s concern was that these changes to the code would translate to the residents having to pay the increased cost of $2 to $4 per month to trash haulers for collecting and hauling this yard waste to the composting facility. Mr. Smith hopes to have a public hearing in late January or February, after which this information Final January 18, 2018 meeting/sk 4
can be made available for distribution. The cost involved would depend on the set up that the haulers currently have for trash pick-up. To keep costs down, in HOA s that have twice a week trash pick-up, they may decide to switch one of the trash runs each week to a yard waste pick-up instead. These situations would have to be worked out for different situations in different neighborhoods. In response to Mr. Chisholm s question about the progress made with the construction of the new composting facility by Freestate Farms, Mr. Smith replied that Freestate got approval with financing to move forward but finance company needs them to have a lease instead of the license that they currently have to be on the property. The attorneys have to work out the legalities to make a modification to the agreement, which should be done by March, and then they could begin construction by April. It is important to synchronize this with the implementation of the Code changes. If the changes are adopted by the Board in March, keeping in mind that at the preliminary meeting the haulers had requested at least nine months time before making it mandatory, that would take it to next spring. Mr. Smith conveyed that Mr. Ross of Freestate Farms had enough contacts to procure food wastes for the proposed anaerobic digester unit and were going to have a de-packaging unit for pre consumer packaged food wastes. COVANTA FACILITY FIRE UPDATE/REFUSE EXCHANGE UPDATE: Mr. Tom Smith informed the committee that the Covanta Waste Energy Facility resumed operations in December 2018 and all the Prince William haulers in the eastern parts of the County have returned to hauling trash to the facility from before Christmas last year. The facility has been running at full capacity and has been closely monitoring trash input and all operations. WASTE CONVERSION PROPOSAL REVIEW UPDATE: Mr. Smith said that he would send out an e-mail with a summary of the pros and cons of the companies and technologies after the field trips and would like to meet with the sub-committee in early February to help arrive at a selection to pick a company and move forward with a preliminary agreement. To choose a site for this facility, an option for a larger site is the southwest corner of the landfill property (south side of creek) adjacent to the Parson s property. Mr. Smith will also get input from Supervisor Nohe and the Economic Development office for site selection. Mr. Smith will continue to update the group as this project moves forward. Final January 18, 2018 meeting/sk 5
CAPPING PROJECT: OTHER PROJECT UPDATES Mr. Smith said that there was a bid going out on January 19, 2018 to cap a portion of the Phase II Cell A landfill and construction would start in May 2018. Additional gas collection wells will be installed as part of the cap construction. They are also working on increasing vacuum in one area where some odors are occurring. LITTER FENCE: Mr. Smith said that they just got bids in for a litter fence and they should be installing the fence during the month of March 2018. A temporary fence is already in place to contain the plastic bags from blowing over into the citizen pad area and several workers are dedicated to gathering this litter every day. COMMITTEE CONCERNS/ ISSUES Ms. Moon asked about the odor issues. Mr. Smith said that the contractor is working on installing piping to increase the vacuum on the lines in areas where there are odor issues. Ms. Moon also brought up the issue of the sewer back up at Colgan High School that went unnoticed. Mr. Smith said that he would ask Mr. Osilka to follow-up with Service Authority. Ms. Moon also asked about the proposed sewer line through the landfill for Mr. Garcia s industrial project. This proposal is under review. No alternatives for providing sewer to this project have been identified. ADJOURNMENT: Mr. Tom Smith then adjourned the meeting at 9:00pm. The next SWCAG meeting will be held at 7:30 pm on February 15, 2018 at the HHW building conference room of the landfill complex. Final January 18, 2018 meeting/sk 6