Meeting Notes
Make sure to look at the Nathan meeting notes AND the Bill & Troy meeting notes (below)Nathan Meeting - Syd’s messy, unedited notes in google doc form
Nathan Meeting Notes highlights & summary
- Pope Douglas has an intense and highly functioning waste management facility. They have broken ground on construction for the Glacial Ridge Compost Facility that is set to open up in November/December.
- This is the type of information people at the waste meeting craved, they wanted to know how the system works and where things go.
- There are lots of drop sites already in place around Pope/Douglas. Most of them are cemented areas with a fence around them and bins inside. People bring their organics recycling here in the green bags. They do not have locks on them.
- As long as the drop sites aren’t filling up and its becoming obnoxious, households, small businesses, events, etc are invited and welcomed to drop their organics at these sites.
- Nathan talked about the Green Warriors and how we might be able to replicate that type of group in Stevens County with Stevens County money.
- Green Warriors are people who are a little bit trained in what goes into each of the bins and then they volunteer at big events (fair, prairie pioneer days, etc) and stand by the cans to make sure people waste correctly.
- Pope Douglas funds their supplies (trailer, bins, signage, shirts, etc) through their solid waste fee.
- Discussion on how people want to know what IS recyclable
- Highlighting that wish-cycling harms the system
- Using brochures the online system to show people what is and is not organics/plastics recyclable.
- Discussion on ideas for the Compost Kickoff in the fall
- Week of October 4th, the Germans will be here
- Big part of it should be upfront education, making sure people know what is going on and where to look if they are unsure what is organics recyclable.
- Get folks info so we can inform them on when things open up and begin, and where to go if they have any questions.
- Ideas for drop sites
- Makes sense to put them where people will respect them (churches vs. city shop)
- WCMNCN could do some outreach to churches, local community areas to see if they would be willing to be a volunteer drop site.
Bill & Troy Meeting - Syd’s messy, unedited notes in google doc form
Bill & Troy Meeting Notes highlights & summary
- Talked a lot about what they have already accomplished and what the next steps are.
- Already accomplished: purchased bins, talked to large producers, list of contact info for businesses, written grant application to MPCA for funding
- What next steps are: upfront education, getting big producers to sign on, getting bags and knowing where to get them, getting local businesses to stock bags, continuing conversation with everyone!
- Plan currently is to begin with large producers on a weekly/2x-week pickup schedule this winter and then build drop sites and begin with residential next summer.
- WCMNCN could do the work of getting someone to volunteer as a drop site so residential could start sooner.
- Current planned drop sites are county garage, city garage, and university.
- Lots of excitement & willingness to put the work in for this project from all parties, exciting!
Stevens Final ApplicationWorkplanBudget030221 Final.pdf - Grant Application (1.0 MB)
Meeting Planning
We are planning a meeting with Nathan Reinbold of Pope Douglas Recycling. This post will be for planning, note taking, and question brainstorming for the meeting.
Here is the zoom information for Thursday July 29th meeting:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89386210855?pwd=N1c2UFFjS2xHeU5kWCswRlFVZjhEUT09
Meeting ID: 893 8621 0855
Passcode: 783769
Purpose of meeting sent to Nathan via email:
We were hoping to set up a meeting with you to ask some general questions and have some general discussion on: any tips and tricks you have found when bringing together community surrounding organics, resources you might know about that we could utilize, questions you know folks will ask (so that we can ask them & know the answers!), and anything else that might be helpful as we embark on coordinating and kicking off some of the organics efforts in Stevens County.
Please fill out the when2meet if you are interested in joining in on this conversation: WCMNCN Meeting w/ Nathan - When2meet