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Long Range Waste Disposal and Recycling Committee

Recycling & Transfer Station

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Committees: Long Range Waste Disposal and Recycling Committee

Mission:

To promote and encourage efficient long-range waste planning with a focus on recycling through the use of communication/education, facilitation, and best practices. 

Communication/Education Goals

• Set benchmarks and goals
• Update body of knowledge
• Update website
• Update flyers
• Create distribution lists
• Involve each of the schools and develop education program
• Involve recreational programs by creating recycling education program for kids involved
• Involve cable television and local media 

Facilitation Goals

• Full recycling throughout the town, including all schools and municipal buildings
• Enforcing recycling and transfer station rules, including resident permits and mandatory recycling
• Develop compost program

Best Practices Goals

• Determine what works for other towns around SWAP areas and implement best practices
• Incorporate recycling and green practices into developments around town - set an example for other towns
• Partner with Hingham League of Women's Voters, ICLE, and DEP
• Analyze commodity contracts
  

2011 Annual Report

2011 was a year of improvements at the Transfer Station. The final portion of the former landfill was capped, the new permitting process to tighten access was completed (new sticker system), and we saw the first full year of operation for the scale, which allows the Town better monitoring of loads in and out of the Transfer Station and a mechanism for appropriately assessing fees for residents and non-residents permitted to bring in commercial waste.  The LRWDR Committee provided information for residents about these developments, researched and gathered information from residents about possible improvements to the Swap area, worked to increase recycling opportunities around town, and offered ongoing education about recycling, the costs of waste disposal, and the savings generated for the town by consistent recycling.

The town’s household waste tonnage held steady (down 0.3%, or 25 tons, from 2010). Recycling of common household materials increased slightly (up 1.3%, or 200 tons, from 2010.)  Recycled household materials (such as paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal) now make up 23.5% of total materials disposed at the Transfer Station. Of note, the Bulky/Construction and Demolition waste (C&D) was down by 616 tons (a 40% reduction) compared to 2010, a year which saw severe spring flooding that damaged homes and furniture and produced a large volume of C&D waste.  Residents should note that the drop in C&D waste during 2011 occurred even as the Transfer Station began accepting C&D waste from resident and non-resident commercial permit holders for fees. 

We are pleased to report a marked increase in cardboard recycling, (up by 142.2 tons compared to the previous year (a 43% increase) which generated $17,000 in revenue and also saved the town $11,376 in reduced disposal costs.  In total, the Transfer Station generated $189,800 from the sale of recyclable materials to appropriate vendors in 2011.

The completion of the new permitting process for access to the Transfer Station resulted in 6566 resident stickers issued at no cost and 835 “convenience” stickers issued at a cost of $25 each to allow an additional vehicle from a household to access the Transfer Station.  In addition, two hundred fifty one (251) permits were issued to residents with commercial vehicles and ten permits were issued to non-residents with commercial plates. 

In 2011, the Transfer Station generated $28,149 from permit fees and $80,621 from fees for materials brought over the scale and paid for by resident and non-resident commercial permit holders.  The success of the scale operation will allow for payback of the capital investment to install the scale and remote monitoring equipment in 2 ½ years, instead of the 3 years originally predicted.  No loads of household waste or C&D/Bulky waste were rejected by our contracted waste processors, indicating that the permitting and inspection processes by DPW and Transfer Station staff have been successful.

With the goal of increasing recycling opportunities throughout town, the Committee worked with Town Hall to provide paper, bottle and can recycling bins for all hearing rooms and other areas used by the public at Town Hall. Note: town employees have been recycling in their offices but now visitors to Town Hall are expected to recycle as much of their waste as possible.  Home compost bins were sold via a DEP program to town residents in May and information was provided about composting as a means of reducing waste and waste disposal costs.

The Committee worked to keep residents informed about changes in the Transfer Station’s configuration during the landfill capping construction and the temporary closing of the Swap area, until the process was completed.  In response to resident concerns, a temporary Swap location with part-time hours was developed, allowing for a partial reopening of the Swap even during the construction period.  With the help of resident Meg Robbins, the Committee researched models for Swap/Re-Use-It areas among local towns.  In September, a public meeting was held to gather suggestions on how to improve the Swap area overall.  The Committee is pleased to report that, at this writing, planning is underway to develop an improved, volunteer-run program for Swap operations. Once in place, the new plan would allow the Swap to move to a larger, somewhat removed space at the Transfer Station and, eventually, to have a shelter to hold materials for several days. 

The Committee continues to work with all the Hingham Schools to increase recycling and reduce materials use in Hingham school buildings.  The Committee is pleased to report that five out of six of the public schools, along with Derby Academy and St. Paul’s School, have composting in place for waste vegetable and fruit matter from school lunches.  The compost generated is then used in the schools’ gardens.

The Committee prepared educational displays for our bulletin board at Town Hall and for display at the Hingham Library on such subjects as stopping junk mail, household hazardous waste and latex paint recycling, and appropriate use of the Swap area.  Articles were submitted to the Hingham Journal about the stages of the capping process for the former landfill and the changes in operations at the Transfer Station during the construction process.  Another article described the new DPW bottle/can redemption program which requires youth groups to perform community service in exchange for receiving the proceeds from bottle/can redemption at the Transfer Station.  (In 2011, $18,000 in redemption proceeds were given to Hingham youth groups in exchange for such services as picking up trash from parks, putting out flags to honor veterans’ graves, painting railings on town buildings, and collecting lost golf balls at South Shore Country Club.)

The Committee also researched how other Massachusetts towns are working to encourage businesses to increase their recycling and make their recycling operations visible, especially in businesses that generate customer waste.  Businesses in Hingham contract for waste and recycling services from private haulers, who take their waste and recycling to processing facilities out of town.  The Committee would like for town residents and other customers to have a consistent opportunity to recycle appropriate materials around town and see a consistent commitment to recycling, in accordance with Hingham’s regulations and the Commonwealth’s laws.  In that effort, the Committee provided information to the Board of Health to support their work on permitting waste and recycling dumpsters around town.  We also met with the staff from land-use town departments to address placing recycling containers next to waste containers in public spaces.

For 2012, the Committee has set a goal of increasing resident and municipal recycling to 35%, thereby reducing waste disposal to 65%, which would translate to an approximately $42,000 in savings on waste disposal costs.  Our contract rate with SEMASS is now $81 per ton to incinerate the town’s waste in their Waste to Energy facility in West Wareham, MA.  Please look for the quarterly reports of our progress towards this goal in the Hingham Journal and on the DPW website.  (Our focus will be on increasing awareness about the importance of donating clothing and other textiles for re-use and conversion to fibers for upholstery as a means of reducing waste, as well as on increasing paper and cardboard recycling, materials that continue to be present in great quantities in our waste stream.)  We will also be working with DPW to develop the guidelines for the volunteer staffed Swap program and will work to secure funds for a shelter for the Swap to allow holding gently used materials for re-use.  And we will be helping to inform residents that vehicles coming to the Transfer Station will need a new 2012 permit (green sticker) as of the month correlated to the last digit of the vehicle license plate (i.e. plates ending in a 4 will need a new green sticker by the end of April 2012 and so on.)

Additionally, for 2012, we expect to increase education about home composting as a means of reducing waste and waste disposal costs, as 20% of resident waste is organic materials.  A new opportunity at the Transfer Station this year will be a collection container for waste cooking oil.  In addition to removing the oil from the waste stream tonnage, the oil will be used as an additive to make bio-fuels and the collection company will pay the town $.75 per gallon.

Thank you for supporting Hingham’s efforts to dispose of its waste in an environmentally responsible manner as well as reuse and recycle those materials that have a second life. 

Cheryl Alexander Bierwirth                      Leon Merian
Brenda P. Black                                     Peter Stathopoulos
Elizabeth A. Dewire                                Karen F. Thompson
Kimberly Juric                                        David P. White
Janice McPhillips