Upcoming Events
Brown Bag Lunch Working Group - (Food Waste Ban Subcommittee of the Health Agents Coalition)This meeting is to identify goals and objectives of the subcommittee. We will explore the question - how do we encourage towns, farms, or other locations to consider composting food waste at their facilities, and accept material from private trash haulers?
When: Friday, November 20, 2015, 12:15 PM - 1:30 PM
Where: Barnstable County Complex - Old Jail Building
Harborview Conference Room
3195 Main Street, Barnstable, MA
Click here for an agenda.
Please email me if you are interested in participating in this discussion.
Product Stewardship Institute (PSI) 15th Anniversary and National Forum
When: Dec 8 & 9
Where: Boston MA
Click here for details
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In the News
Cape Officials Seek Ways to Deal with Food Waste. Barnstable Patriot. Nov. 6th. Read ArticleDennis PAYT Vote Postponed, Cape Cod Times, Oct 27th. Read ArticleVoters Approve Plastic Bag Ban, Cape Cod Times, Nov. 6. Read Article
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Contact Me:
Dave Quinn Municipal Assistance Coordinator, Barnstable County/MassDEP dquinn@barnstablecounty.org (508) 375-6974
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Funded in part through a grant from Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protections
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MassDEP SMRP Grants Awarded
On Friday, the Baker-Polito Administration announced $3.57 million in grants to 80 cities, towns, regional groups and non-profit organizations to increase the diversion, reuse, composting and recycling of materials in the solid waste stream. See full press release. Communities on Cape Cod were awarded a total of $556,300 in this round of grants (see the following table for details). These awards are in addition to $65,550 of DEP recycling grants received by Cape Cod towns in September, which brings the total value of grant awards for the Cape to $621,850 this year. Barnstable
| Compactor for Single Stream, Food Waste Containers, Mattress Recycling
| $30,100
| Bourne
| Organics Capacity Project, Mattress Recycling
| $372,400
| Dennis
| Mattress Recycling, Food Waste Containers, Bulky Rigid Plastic
| $28,300
| Eastham
| Mattress Recycling
| $7,600
| Falmouth
| Mattress Recycling
| $37,000
| Mashpee
| Mattress Recycling
| $18,500
| Provincetown
| Mattress Recycling
| $6,300
| Sandwich
| School Recycling Equipment, Mattress Recycling
| $56,100
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All towns that were awarded grants should receive instructions with more details in the mail from DEP. Please contact me at dquinn@barnstablecounty.org with any questions.
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Recycling Markets Workshop - Thanks for Attending!
 Thank you for attending the October 27th workshop on " Recycling Markets and the Changing Waste Stream." I hope you found the meeting worthwhile. Here are copies of the presentations from Mike Durfor (It's Not Easy Being Green) and Jim Nocella (The Changing Waste Stream) for your reference. You can learn more about the services and resources offered by Mike Durfor's organization, the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA), on their website. I highly recommend that you subscribe to their monthly newsletter, "Full of Scrap," if you don't already.
Also, check out the educational resources available on Waste Management's website, Recycle Right, Recycle Often. The site has free resources, including signs, posters, brochures, and videos, to help inform residents about the right way to recycle to prevent contamination. After the workshop, we had a great discussion about ways that we can work together as a region to reduce waste. While the news about the markets is certainly discouraging, I know many of you came away from the meeting with some ideas for regional collaboration (glass processing, regional composting, etc.) Let's keep the momentum going -and let me know what topics you would like to have covered at the next workshop.
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75,320 Gallons of HHW Collected in 2015
The final Household Hazardous Waste (HWW) collection of the year took place in late October and the numbers from the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension are in. 75,320 gallons of HHW were collected at 23 events around the Cape. That's enough hazardous waste to fill almost six above ground swimming pools! Over 6000 households participated in the collections. Paint and Pesticides made up the largest volume of material collected.
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| | Breakdown of hazardous materials collected in Barnstable County in 2015, by volume |
If you have questions about hazardous materials over the winter, please contact the Cooperative Extension office at (508) 375-6699
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Massachusetts Paint Legislation Update
Update from the Product Stewardship Institute: Last week, the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to pass the paint stewardship bill to the Senate floor. Barring any last minute calendar changes, the bill is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Wednesday, 11/18. Please note that the bill was passed with amendments (according to Senator Gobi's staff, changes were solely structural in nature), and so there is a new bill number: S2052. If passed, this law would hold the paint industry responsible for collecting and managing leftover paint across the state, significantly reduce local government household hazardous waste management costs, create convenient leftover paint collection infrastructure for residents, and increase paint recycling and recycling-sector jobs.
Paint stewardship legislation is actively supported by the American Coatings Association (representing 95% of paint manufacturers); therefore, producer responsibility for paint is not an uphill battle against manufacturers, but rather an opportunity to work with the industry to benefit MA municipalities financially and environmentally.
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