Acceptance of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection RDP Grant plus Additional Award for Organics Collection Carts
Agenda original PDF
Minutes original PDF
I. (ID # 2025-784): Acceptance of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection RDP Grant plus Additional Award for Organics Collection Carts Motion to Recommend to full council made by Councilor Finocchiaro Seconded by Councilor Williams All were in favor and motion passed Councilor Finocchiaro asked if this grant will cover the food composting bins. The city will buy the carts, 400 of them with the grant nearly covering that amount, and the residents will pay a monthly usage fee. Councilor Stewart shared that residents have concerns about rats with these bins. The lids lock tightly as a deterrant. They suggested keeping the food indoors in a smaller bin, freezing it, then adding it to the compost bin shortly before pick up. RESULTS: PASSED [UNANIMOUS] TO: Full Council AYES: Cal Finocchiaro, Ward Hamilton, John Obremski, Devin Romanul, Robb Stewart, Kim Vandiver, Ryan Williams, Mark Garipay NAYS: None ABSENT: Maya Jamaleddine, Manjula Karamcheti, Leila Migliorelli
Transcript
▶ 37:28 Mark Garipay: Yes. (laughs) Uh, so we have a motion, uh, for passage. All in favor? I. Opposed? That will be recommended. Thank you, Chief. Thank you for the sh- coming on the short notice. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Making yourself available. Uh, going back up, we're on ID 2025-784, the acceptance of a Ma- Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection RDP grant plus additional award for organics collection carts. And we have, is it Zach Laflam? Yes. Hello. How you doing, Zach? Good. This is your first time in front of us? Yes. Nice to meet you. All right. Nice to meet you.
▶ 38:04 Speaker 1: Louisiana. Welcome.
▶ 38:07 Mark Garipay: Been to Cal before. I- (laughs) And we have Jay Coy. Sorry, Jay.
▶ 38:10 Speaker 5: Yes. How you doing?
▶ 38:11 Speaker 1: Go ahead, I'm sorry.
▶ 38:12 Speaker 6: Hello. Uh, my name is Zach Laflam. I'm the Environmental Outreach Coordinator at DPW. I'm here to request acceptance of our Annual Recycling Dividends Program, uh, funding, um, from the Mass DEP in the amount of $15,600. I'm proud to say that we received an additional $1,300 over last year's amount for our multilingual signage, uh, both in the city yard and, and, and on the city's website. Um, we were also awarded, we were also awarded an additional $10,000 in grant funding from the Mass DEP, uh, to subsidize food waste collection carts for our preferred curbside composting vendor. Um, that is it for me, so if I- if you have any questions, I'd, uh, I'd love to answer them. Thank you.
▶ 38:53 Mark Garipay: Thank you. Uh, any questions, uh, Councilor Finocchiaro?
▶ 38:57 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes. Thank you, Chair Garofalo. So the, um, food composting bins, are those... So the grant will cover the cost of those? So if I'm a resident and I want to sign up for this program, do I pay for it or how does that work?
▶ 39:08 Speaker 6: Yes. So in terms of, uh, the, the preferred curbside composting program with Garbage Garden, um, with this grant, we would then purchase, um, the, the, uh, the composting bins for the resident, but the resident still pays like, like the, like the monthly rate. But in, in terms of like they sign up, once we get the carts, you will get a free cart on the city.
▶ 39:27 Cal Finocchiaro: Okay, great. And when... Is this implemented yet? I know I've been kind of following that this is sort of a new program.
▶ 39:31 Speaker 6: Um, so in terms of the, the preferred vendor program, that started back in May 2025. Okay. Yes. And as of right now, we're at 159 subscribers.
▶ 39:39 Speaker 5: Great. Thank you. Yeah.
▶ 39:41 Speaker 1: Councilor Williams is next.
▶ 39:45 Ryan Williams: Uh, well, I was going to ask you how many subscribers we have, but you just told me. There we go. Um, the subsidy for the... I'm sorry if I missed it, the subsidy for the carts that's funded by the grant, how much is the subsidy and how many of the carts does it cover?
▶ 39:59 Speaker 6: Um, so for the carts we ge- um, we're looking to purchase 400 carts. And then in terms of the specific vendor we're working with, it's Orbis. Um, as of right now, we're looking into that. Um, so their, their price for the cart is, um, it's, um, it's $29.76 per cart and the grant covers $25 per cart.
▶ 40:17 Ryan Williams: Wow, so they're basically free to residents. Yes. 400? Yep. Wow.
▶ 40:22 Speaker 6: Yeah, so in terms of like once, once the carts get going circulation, uh, Melrose residents, when they sign up for Garbage Garden, as I said, they'll get a free cart and then they'll sign, they'll sign up for, for the monthly, um, rate as well like you normally would.
▶ 40:35 Ryan Williams: Yeah. Is there still the, um, the discount program? Yes. Yeah, that's on- that's ongoing- Yes. ... through the, at least the end of this year? Do you know if it's planned to be, uh, continued on into next year?
▶ 40:46 Speaker 6: All, all I know in terms of like planning on next year, yes, it should still be continuing.
▶ 40:50 Speaker 4: Okay, very good. Great. Thank you.
▶ 40:52 Speaker 1: Cool. Awesome. Council Stewart? No questions. What's that? No questions. Uh, Council Finocchiaro?
▶ 40:57 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes, I'd like to make a motion to recommend. Second.
▶ 41:00 Mark Garipay: We have a motion to recommend ID 2025-784 made by Council Finocchiaro, seconded by Council Williams on-
▶ 41:08 Ryan Williams: Discussion. Yeah, I want, I wanted to ask you, uh, you don't have to have it right now, but it would be great to see stats that that Garb- Garden can provide us on tonnage of food waste and all of the associated carbon mitigation benefits that come with that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Great. Thank you.
▶ 41:23 Speaker 1: Okay, we have Council Vandiver.
▶ 41:24 Kimberly Vandiver: Thank you. Um, when we originally discussed, um, going with a city vendor, um, there was some discussion about whether, uh, customers, existing customers of other competitors would be able to also get some sort of discount off of trash and recycling fee or something like that. Has, has there been any further discussion about that?
▶ 41:43 Speaker 6: Um, so in terms of, uh, um, as of right now, it'll stay if a resident has Garbage Garden due to the fact that if Blacker's, another popular company in Melrose, um, had a discount as well, it'd be way too much, like, manpower in terms of, like, tracking everyone- Okay. ... who got the discount for Blacker's. So it's primarily... It's, it's, it's just for the preferred vendor program with Garbage2Garden.
▶ 42:03 Kimberly Vandiver: Okay. Good to know. Thank you. Yeah.
▶ 42:05 Speaker 1: Council Stewart?
▶ 42:06 Robb Stewart: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, so the one concern that I've heard from residents, uh, around these kind of programs is rats. Mm-hmm. Um, and what would be... Do you have any plan or contingencies in place if that becomes a problem?
▶ 42:22 Speaker 6: Absolutely. Um, so the- the- the good thing about the bins, both for black earth composting and garbage to garden, um, the- there's like a- there's a lid that locks the bin on the top, so I- I feel like it's- it's ver- it's very well secured in terms of pests and rats. Um, but I would definitely say, um, garbage to garden has a few recommendations for residents, um, in terms of like, um, working against like a- a potential rat issue, is that you can either leave the bin... um, so like th- they have an option of like a smaller bin you can purchase, um, for, um, for putting food scraps in the kitchen, and then you can always either put it in your freezer just so like it's kind of freezes, and then you would then put it out into a larger bin... What- what- uh, like the day befo- like the day before your collection day, just to make sure the bin's not outside as much, in terms of like, um, diverting like a rat issue, I would say.
▶ 43:12 Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. Um, I just- I just wanna
▶ 43:17 Robb Stewart: be sure that you're- you're thinking about that. Rats, I mean, raccoons as w- it- and it's pretty impressive what they can chew through. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so- so especially if it's plastic bin, uh, they can right- right- they'll get right through that, so-
▶ 43:29 Speaker 6: We see it all the time with our trash recycling bins.
▶ 43:31 Robb Stewart: Right. Right. So just wanna raise that awareness. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
▶ 43:36 Speaker 1: Welcome. Councilor Finocchiaro.
▶ 43:39 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes, uh, through the chair, I just wanted to make a- a comment. I have done black earth. Um, I paused it for a little while, but I was doing it for over a year and those bins lock very tightly. Um, and I never saw any kind of animal getting into it. It was on my back deck for over a year, so I don't know. I'm sure it can happen, but I- I feel like they make them in o- in a certain way, in the way that they lock and they're very th- thick little bins (laughs) Yeah. Yeah. It's- You know, an average trashcan. So I think, uh, hopefully we wouldn't have any issues like that, so...
▶ 44:12 Mark Garipay: So anyone else on discussion? All in favor? I. Opposed? That order 2025-784 will be recommended. Thank you.