Meeting Location:
- Burlington County EcoComplex
Call To Order
The meeting was called to order at 10:15am by JoAnn Gemenden. Introductions of all the persons attending followed.
Attendance:
- A copy of the sign-in sheet from the meeting is provided below:
A motion was made to approve minutes from December 5, 2012 meeting held in Long Branch, this motions was seconded and unanimously approved.
Treasurer’s Report
Chris Sikorski provided the treasurer report and a summary is provided. Chris gave summary of the expenses related to the training from the previous month. JoAnn commented that she thought the training class was really well received and the trainer was very competent. JoAnn gave kudos to Diana Vigilante for organizing the class. JoAnn suggested that for the future we should focus on the more difficult material in the morning so we are ready for it when we have all our energy.
Electronics Subcommittee Report:
JoAnn reported on the activities of the electronics subcommittee and she is thinking its work is almost over. The subcommittee developed a promotional campaign and we just never got the money to implement the advertisement element of the campaign. JoAnn was seeking advice to see if people want to spend some of the ANJHWWC’s own money itself on the ads. Guy Watson suggested not to give up on NJDEP yet and that JoAnn should try to break this log jam to get this done. Guy provided a brief description of the issues that were preventing the matter from coming to fruition. Reenee Casapulla reported that Samsung and LG are both seeking to provide funding for their promotional programs. JoAnn mentioned that Diana was working on an OEM donation letter that may make sense with respect to the Samsung and LG program. The listing of OEMS is available to on the DEPs website. Guy suggested reading the Transparent Planet report by Lauren Roman on the issue of problems associated with recycling e-waste. Guy stated based on this report, we need to use caution when selecting firms that offer money for CRT recycling since they will have to cost money to recycle properly. If someone is offering money for E-waste then there is a chance they are just stockpiling and not processing and recycling it.
Reenee mentioned her new vendor is looking into a new technology for handling CRTs but it isn’t up and running yet. Guy mentioned that a recent GAO report states that exports of E-waste and CRTs is way down, but finding markets remains problematic.
Guy gave an update on the REA grant situation that he provided at the recent ANJR meeting. He assured us that the money being taken from the REA for general fund will be reimbursed by July 2013 and we should know what we will get in July 2013.
Paintcare Program with Ed Waters
Ed Waters of the New Jersey Paint Council/Chemistry Council provided some good news with respect to the proposed Paintcare paint recycling program. StateSenatorBeach will be introducing Paintcare bill in May. They will be working with Assemblywoman Grace Spencer to work on the Assembly version of the bill. They have been working with NJDEP and the administration on this legislation and to date, they haven’t gotten support or denial. They see the retailers being a potential obstacle for them. While Home Depot and Walmart have been neutral on supporting the program, Lowes is getting a little more supportive.
Ed has hope to get legislation adopted by the end of the year. They are working on drafting legislation using the models of CT, OR and other states. He is hoping there may be a regional approach to paint recycling between NY, NJ and CT.
2013 Programs and General Issues:
JoAnn is trying to compile a listing of HHW dates for 2013, so JoAnn asked for them so the website with 2013 HHW can be updated.
JoAnn went into smoke detectors. what is the current issue with them. Fred Stanger went over the issue and found Curie Environmental Service from New Mexico takes smoke detectors back for a fee. For everyone’s edification, they are called smoke alarms and not detectors. They will accept smoke alarms via UPS ground up to certain levels with restrictions. Home owner cost to mail to Curie is $8/ alarm. They sell a Curie Pack which holds 25 alarms cost $219 for disposal.
Only ionization types of alarms, approximately 80% of those used, contain radioactive elements, the other types aren’t radioactive. For everyone’s edification, do not eat smoke alarms because that is when the radioactive element is most dangerous.
Medication Disposal: There are now full time drop-off programs in each county. Alain warned that the web site http://disposeofmymeds.org is hit or miss with respect to the participating agencies. Rich Baroch stated CVSs are beginning to take back non-narcotic medicines.
Nominating Committee: Dan went over nominating committee that was made up of he and Fred. The committee received nomination for current slate of officers consisting of Larry Gindoff (Secretary), Diane Vigilante (VP), Chris Sikorski (Treasurer) and JoAnn Gemenden (President). Daniel opened up nominations to anyone else for consideration. He stated that if we take the re-elect the current slate this is the final year since there is a three year limit on the position except for Treasurer. With no additional nomination being presented, a motion was made by Melinda Williams for appointment of the current slate and seconded by Reenee Casapulla, this motional was unanimously approved.
Reenee brought up the matter of getting wind breakers for ANJHHWC for members with our logo on it with potentially with sponsors logo on the jackets. She mentioned this is done in NY. Alain stated there maybe 501(c) issues with it, so this needs to be tabled and this point and researched before we act on it.
Adjournment – The meeting was adjourned at 11:55am.
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Executive meeting: The executive board conducted a meeting prior to the meeting of the entire membership to discuss county membership and whether to ask the full membership if they want to consider using ANJHHWC money to fund advetsements related to the E-waste promotional campaign. The executive meeting was adjourned at 9:30am.