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Michigan Recycling CoalitionBoard of Directors MeetingMonday, April 8, 2019 MRC Office 602 W Ionia St., Lansing, MI 48933 – Big blue house on corner of Pine & Ionia Sts. Mission The Michigan Recycling Coalition fosters sustainability by leading, educating, and mobilizing business, government, non-profit, and individuals to advance their own and collective resource use and recovery initiatives in Michigan. Attendance: Bill Whitley, Rick Lombardo, Patrick Cullen, Becky Andrews, Don Pyle, Bill Haagsma, Tracy Purrenhage, Julie Cribley, Lori Welch, Roger Cargill, Mike Schafran, Kerrin O’Brien, Kelly Schalter, Terri Raterink, Dave SmithOn Phone: Sarah Kelly, Stephen KlemannAbsent: Jake Borton 10:30 amCall Board Meeting to Order – L Welch10:32Additions/Deletions to Agenda of Key Board IssuesNoneAcceptance of Minutes – March 11, 2019 Board MeetingD Smith motion to approveSeconded by R CargillUnanimously approvedFinancial Report – K O’Brien & S KellyThings are going well, this is the time when we start to get sponsorship money, etc. Steve Chalker Memorial Fund has been closedLast bit of money went to DNR as contribution to provide containers at Burt Lake State Park and a couple other northern state parks. B Haagsma - MRC still has Big Belly Solar Compactor in storage with Speed-Tech. Donated by Speed-Tech and need to figure out what to do about it. Suggestion to put it at the capitol or a state park as a marketing opportunity. It can be moved with a pickup truck. Received 54% of membership dues, which exceeds where we are in the year. Conference is a trigger for people to renew their memberships. J Cribley - we brought in more for Conference than budgeted? K O’Brien - no expenses calculated yet. Staff ReportFocused on registrations and marketing for ConferenceAdvocacy UpdateMeetings with several legislators, Andy Draheim, Amy Epkey (Deputy Director of administrative division). Became clear in that meeting that they haven’t identified policy priorities for the year. Questions were about how the money for recycling could be spent. Miscommunication because Part 115 changes are all about planning and we don’t want DEQ to call for plans based on old planning system. WHMD is trying to push Part 115 changes to the top, and Amy’s asking if we really need Part 115 changes to spend this money. We helped her see that it was two groups of diverse stakeholders working over 3 and 4 years to develop recommendations and that funding passed because of this consensus and we need to finish the Part 115 changes. It’s our #1 priority and hope it’s the DEQ’s #1 priority as an objective player to move it forward. If they don’t make it a priority, we will move forward. Tried to help her see that without Part 115 changes, $10 million intended to pay for planning would have to be spent in different ways. There’s a chance the DEQ could not make Part 115 changes a priority for them this year. Write letters to let DEQ leadership or Governor know that this is a priority. MEC put together a meeting at the Romney building where the Governor spoke to environmental organizations, Chris Kolb provided budget overview and they called for help in building support of the budget. Not sure what that would do for us but if MRC could get behind what Gov. is proposing we may increase our influence in making our issues a priority as well. If there is interest in getting some kind of presentation from the Gov. or one of her key people, it may be able to be done for a board meeting or maybe the Conference. P Cullen - to back up about priorities, if there’s no Part 115 push, we focus on planning, but without changes, planning becomes meaningless. If we are planning under current law, it gets us nowhere unless there’s a way you can do it to foster policy change from the DEQ. K O’Brien - completely agree, and if anything falls away, people leave the table quickly. We are invested in getting the DEQ to lead this. The DEQ (or at least waste management group) has put it at the top of their list. But where it fits with other DEQ priorities is being decided. MRC and MEC might pull together some organizations who may feel like they can carry the bulk of this but that remains to be seen. R Andrews - what happens to $10 million without Part 115?Templates for planning, data collection…Said in a letter to DEQ director to modernize MRFs and help municipalities step up to marketing challenges. More meetings next week with Jack Schinderle and Amy Epkey. Any money not constitutionally allocated can be moved around. We need to protect that funding. We are waiting to see what their plans are. DEQ hasn’t started to talk to community to see where the money is most needed. RRS and others are out there talking about ideas and projects that may get direct funding. They do have to spend the money because if it doesn’t get spent, it’s assumed it’s not needed. Membership UpdateNew MembersMichigan SoilWorksPink Elephant Products and Events L3CJOOB Activewear, LLCClearStream RecyclingCenter for Community & Economic Development - UoE MSUFriday sent letter to Camp Grayling - they’ve been working for several years for MRC to visit facility. When we did recycling certification and waste assessments, they dropped off list. 3 page letter about waste assessment went out to them. It’s a low-impact operation except that they go from 400 to 4,000 people in the summer and they have a whole bunch of land. They shoot a lot of guns, so lots of munitions stuff that has a lot of value. It was interesting to see if MRC could provide these services. It took a lot of time, but hope they got something out of it. OtherProject & Committee UpdatesExecutive Committee – L WelchAwardsChose 2 awards winners from 20ish applications. Pretty confident with the winners of this year’s awards. Awards have been ordered. Digging to get as much info and photos for the awards ceremony, but it’s well on its way. Board ForwardMet with Jerry Jennings and looking forward to having him facilitate Board Forward. Talked more in-depth about what it will look like. Recommitting to mission, getting to know each other, where values lie, why we are doing what we’re doing. For the past several years have been doing annual check-in and this deeper dive will help us develop a way forward that spans more than just one year. So much of what we did in the past was policy driven. Are we going to continue in that direction or change course? Looking forward to August. He’ll provide an agenda to us in June. Policy Committee – P CullenThis morning, had a fun-filled policy committee meeting. Since last month’s board meeting, convened a smaller subcommittee group to crack open HB 6483. Spent 3 hours talking about it and didn’t put much on paper other than broad concepts about direction. Strategy on working with DEQ and Gov’s office. Encouraged everyone on Policy Committee to submit comments. Hadn’t looked very closely at the bill. Some broader issues and themes came out. More work to do - will have a separate group talking to DEQ about planning part. Waiting on comments from organics. Trying to craft further suggestions to make that policy piece work the best for our members. Talked a lot about contamination issue and need for statewide strategy to address contamination. Product stewardship, waste utilization rate, etc. Encourage everyone who has issues with 6483 to look at it, plus definitions. The way it was written, it was going to start organics collection statewide. Now is the time to make comments on it. Regional issues - there is a Marquette proposed millage to help fund recycling services. Interesting, encouraging as a reflection of public support and acknowledgement of costs. Also talked about Detroit incinerator. Nominating Committee – J CribleyWe finally are all set to get the ballot ready to go out. One new business person running - Dawn New-Echlin. Decided as nominating committee to each take one new member and mentor them. During June meeting, everyone will give update about committees, so if you are a committee chair, please be ready to give a short synopsis. June Board OrientationTo usher new board members in more formally, decided that after the June board meeting, there’d be a chance to hear formally about committees. There’s already a framework agenda developed. This way they’re not left on their own. K O’Brien - taking vacation May 29-June 11, was planning to come back before board meeting, but invited to speak at Colorado event and learn about roundtables. Will get to see how she runs the roundtable, they’ll cover expenses. Won’t be at June board meeting. K Schalter will provide updates and resources. Should be about an hourConference Committee – K O’BrienContributionsMore sponsorship $ than last year! You have access to the google document - take a look at the list and see who should be there. Busch Systems - U of M, MSU, and Washtenaw Community College all use themModeratorsNeed moderators! Look through Conference program - if you have one or two you’d really like to do, please send KO an email. We have other people to pick from, but there are 16 sessions to fill. Will get back to you about moderator responsibilities. AuctionTypically BOD contributes to something for the auction. What would this board like to do? Silent auction items tend to do well because it inches up to value - raffle is less predictable depending on how desirable the item is. Baskets work well. Last year was a bike. The year before that was a kayak, have done a paddleboard in the past. Money is easy then we can just purchase one or two raffle or auction items. Or if you’d like to give something, let’s make a theme and try to put baskets together.B Haagsma - summer items are always good. L Welch - cash donations? We will send somethingLet staff know if you don’t have a polo shirt and we will provide you with one. Ticket salesFund Affair for the past few years has followed exhibit space. But because the Ann Arbor Sheraton is outside of the city, we’ll be staying at the hotel on Wednesday night. Fund Affair will be primarily 7-8 followed by trivia. Need to figure out how and when raffle tickets will be sold - may be in Wednesday exhibit time. Tend to make between $4-5,000. Recommend one price point for tickets in raffle. Tuesday is going out - keeping tour buses and taking people downtown to Connor O’Neill’s and Arbor Brewing. 6-8 and then 8-10. It’ll be a big bus so probably 2 trips in and 2 trips out. Parking is a little challenging. Everything’s a little different because DEQ isn’t getting their own day. Pay attention to schedule and app. Issues with Sheraton getting information wrong about room block. If you or anyone you know is having a problem, please have them call us. Canoe trip on Huron River? That’s run by City of Ann Arbor. Promote zero waste information in marketing/outreach. And include in app. Regional Outreach – T PurrenhagePhone call today to talk to regional directors about the regional outreach meeting happening at the conference on Wednesday afternoon at 3:10. It’s a 50 minute session. Had a call to get some ideas of how that regional outreach meeting would play out at Conference. Put together an outline to present to regional directors today. Find out who is in the room, challenges & opportunities, info about groups and directors. Still challenging with 2 groups in each room. Not a lot of time so just an FYI/get to know you thing. Hoping regional directors will have next meeting planned for after the Conference so that info can be given. Having 2 regions in a room is a feature because it allows you to see what other groups are doing. No regional director in Bay/Thumb. K O’Brien - been to at least 3 different regional meetings. All regions are in a little different space. Some do tours, some speakers, all seem well-attended. Time taken up with tours and presentations, less networking and mingling. Conference will be less focused on presenting. Organics Council – R LombardoLast meeting finalized strategic planning for the year forward. Mapped out priorities for the MOC. Also now in process of setting up the next meeting where leadership team meets to roll out strategic action items to MOC membership. MOC leadership will meet monthly and membership every other month or quarterly. More to report in June. Now that the strategic action plan is together, that’s a step in the right direction. MOC is meeting at the Conference so trying to set a leadership meeting before that. Another thing that came up on policy committee - MOC needs to dial in to Part 115 discussion. Hope to get another chance to review it and get discussion going. Overall, last meeting was excellent because finally got an action plan for moving forward. Recycle, MI Project – D SmithPublished second 6 months of social media plan. Got some media coverage out of it (“wish-cycling”). Proof that social media outreach campaign is working and getting some interest.Sent out partner survey in March. If you’re a partner and haven’t filled it out, please do so. Developed special Earth Week social media outreach for partners for the week of April 8 to focus on issues around Earth DayPlanning booth at Conference to promote swag and get people to sign up as partners or supporters. Looking at maybe some new swag. If there’s swag you’d like, let the committee know. Partners will be getting lapel pins to promote partnership. DEQ is working on statewide education campaign. Gud Marketing took Recycle, MI into consideration in the development of their statewide campaign. Will learn more about it before the Conference but they’ll be unveiling the campaign at Conference. Recycle, MI is a trademarked logo of ours. Need to update our trademark - $925 every 5 years. Can talk about it in Recycle, MI committee and bring back. Old Business, New Business, Member UpdatesS Kelly - big recycling event, over 700 vehicles went through. Starting scrap tire season with scrap tire grant. Working through technical issues with that, but hoping to get it cleaned up this week. New composter getting set up. S Klemann - working on recycling website, getting back to basics and cracking down on wish-cycling. Getting ready for panel tomorrow. Markets still seeing disruption. Mixed paper doing better. Hoping things will change with opening of new paper mills this year and 2020. Cardboard is down again. Continue to process material, still have a backlog. Things are going well. R Cargill - having some problem marketing byproducts. LDPE is completely shut-down as well as amber PET. Struggling to find markets. Expanded depackaging opportunities. Thursday is “John” Biolette’s podcast with Mike Csapo talking about curbside recycling with or without bottle bill. M Schafran - Doing math now that incinerator is shut down. 17 or so landfill-free sites in Michigan that depended on the incinerator to take trash. Now looking at other options and it’s not adding up from money or environmental perspective - trucking material that far away. Looking for different long-term strategies. Lost a lot of leadership from voluntary early retirees. Now have people trying to figure out what used to happen and what to do in the future. It’s very different and still settling. D Smith - event season. R2C2 Recycle Rama is this weekend. Also MSU bike sale. Stadium turf is being torn out and sold. Planning to expand compost operations. Have to do land-swap with another department. Still in the works, but looking at expanding compost operations and being able to expand compost collection on campus. Goal is to have landfill, plastic/metal, paper, and compost container in all hallway stations. Discussions with athletics for compostable tableware. B Whitley - Weight restrictions off the road in most of the state, so it’s compost selling season. Busy for the next couple months selling compost. Lots of garden centers are stocking up. R Lombardo - Compostable packaging facing some headwinds. BPI has taken a proactive role with PFAS. Marine degradability - products can’t be that. There is no ASTM standard. There is a method. But there’s no water that gets hot enough. Manufacturers are making claims they can do that, but industry is following EMF. There isn’t an ASTM standard that’s robust enough. Reach out to Rick if you have anyone talking about it. Report making rounds but there’s a lot wrong with it, and it’s influencing policy. Report is saying bio-based and compostable products are worse for the environment and products made out of recycled materials aren’t as good for the environment. Talk to Rick to learn more!PFAS Session at Conference! R Andrews - still upgrading all collection systems and zero waste events, compost collection, moving to compostable tableware. P Cullen - abrupt closure of Detroit incinerator is causing problems. A lot of businesses used that facility as part of their waste diversion goals. It’s a big change for a lot of people who use that facility and there’s a lot of scrambling about where garbage is going. Other thing is the cost impact has reached the municipal level now. 18 communities in Western Wayne - GFL has been going around telling all those communities how much it will cost them to continue curbside service and they’re in a panic. See it as an opportunity - they’ve created a recycling subcommittee, so now mayors and other leaders are paying attention. It’s the level of engagement needed from political leaders and residents. City of Westland (80,000+ people) got caught in a bad contract and ended up sending everything to the landfill. They were a leader in recycling and they’re trying to figure out how to make it work. The cost issue has come home to roost and it is an opportunity. Residents want the service and are willing to pay more. Getting political leaders to pay more is a different story but early signs good. D Pyle - business-wise, working hard at having a product to sell, making sure it’s got as little contamination as possible. Getting better training for people on the line. Frost laws not off yet. Installing new active gas collection system at landfill this summer. B Haagsma - busy, got a Detroit office in Plymouth. Just hired a full time person to lead that. Looking for technicians on the east and west side of Michigan. T Purrenhage - doing organic waste assessment for large retirement community in southwest MI. Doing tours Easter weekend in conjunction with hazardous waste event. First time having open tours in a long time. Municipal client starting to weight options of continuing recycling services with increased costs. J Cribley - received first check toward new building! Hoping to go after balers now and upgrade the site. K O’Brien - calls from media probably once a day. Interview with Lester Graham, people call almost every day for interviews. Good thing that people are tuning in, but it would be good for things to settle down. DEQ has made available through the MRC 10 scholarships. Really want to pinpoint to counties who don’t typically send someone but may benefit from being there. USCC provides continuing education credits through our Conference. They’ve identified topics you can get credit for so let compost-interested people know. L Welch - focused on Recycle Rama and the little details that spring up with that. Want to take a moment to acknowledge it’s the last official board meeting for Bill, Mike, Don, Sarah. Close MeetingB Haagsma motion to adjourn. Seconded by everyone. Unanimous ................
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