Minutes
Township of Bloomfield Recycling Committee
September 8, 2010
Submitted by Jane Califf
Attendance: Gerald (Jerry) MacIntyre, Trish Comstock, Claire Anderson, Jane Califf,
Nicholas (Nick) Joanow (liaison from Town Council), Mary Shaughnessey liaison from
Board of Education. (We still need one more volunteer to be appointed by the Town
Council to take the place of a Recycling Committee member who left last year.)
Guest: Joe McNellis, representative from Green Sky, the company that takes our
recyclables.
A. Green Sky Industries’ report: Joe McNellis said that his company collects 200
tons a month in recyclables from Bloomfield, which is a respectable rate of recycling. He
compared it to another town they collect from with a population 4 times that of
Bloomfield which only recycles 100 tons a month. Altogether, Green Sky collects
20,000 tons a month of recyclables from NJ towns it has a contract with.
Mr. McNellis said that Green Sky will now collect more recyclable items from
Bloomfield:
- milk cartons; aseptic cartons (i.e., juice, soy milk boxes - meaning
the contents are sterilized and can stay on the shelf for a year
without refrigeration). He said these can be made into toilet paper
and towels.
- All plastic containers #1 – 7. These numbers can usually be found
at the bottom of the container inside a triangle with an arrow on
each side.
Mr. McNellis added two other main points:
- people recycling cardboard do not have to remove any tape that is
on it.
- Green Sky has hired two New Jersey teachers part time to go to
schools in towns where Green Sky collects recyclables to educate
teachers and students on the value of recycling and what items Green
Sky will collect. They have a power point presentation that focuses on
educating 3rd through 5th graders. The Green Sky teachers are also
available to train teachers to make presentations to classes in their
schools with a series of 12 – 14 lesson plans.
Jerry said he would contact schools in Bloomfield to offer this Green Sky
presentation.
Mr. McNellis brought to the meeting 100 cloth bags for the Recycling Committee to
distribute during the Harvest Fest to encourage people to bring their own bags when they
shop. This will help to cut down on the use of plastic bags which are polluting land and
water across the world. We are very grateful for these cloth bags from Green Sky.
B. Channel 35: Mary suggested that the new items that the town is recycling could be
advertised on Channel 35. There could be a number of TV spots of about 10 minutes
each, i.e., a general presentation on what Bloomfield recycles including the new items;
information on the Green Sky classroom presentations; Shoprite encouraging its
customers to use cloth bags by giving a 5 cent credit for each cloth bag a customer brings
and 2 cents for every plastic bag that is reused. This program would discuss why cloth
bags are better than plastic.
C. Special Electronic Recycling Collection in the North End of Town: On Sept. 25th,
Shoprite and the Brookdale Baptist Church will make available in their shared parking lot
a spot for a Bloomfield DPW truck to collect electronic items between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.
that people no longer want or that are broken. This is part of a new program where the
DPW will collect electronics once each season in this part of town. The next collection
will be on Sat., Jan. 8th.
Of course, residents can take all of their recyclables including electronics to the
DPW Recycling Drop Off Center at 230 Grove St. every Sat. from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
D. Harvest Fest, Sept. 25th and 26th: We will have a table along the sidewalk in front
of the main library. Jerry will have a large sign made to put in the street pointing
passers-by to our table; he will also supply small bags with recycling information to
distribute to residents as well as coloring books and hand-outs for children on recycling.
Jane will update the recycling display to include the new items that Bloomfield will
begin recycling. These members will be tabling: Nick, Claire, Trish and Jane.
E. Recycling Committee Brochure Update: Claire and her son, Nick Gorfinkle, have
been working to revise the brochure based on suggestions made by Jane and Trish many
months ago. Nick was able to put the original brochure in a format that could be revised
which we had previously been unable to do. A pdf version will be sent out to Recycling
Committee members for their input.
The next meeting of the Bloomfield Recycling Committee will be on Wed., Oct. 13th,
at 7 p.m. in the Mayor’s Conference Room on the second floor of the Law
Enforcement Building on Montgomery St.