Minutes - Environmental Policy Board - 07/16/2018

Home

6. BOARD/STAFF INPUT • Pollinator Garden Tour—July 21,2018 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. City Planner Anderson provided details on the upcoming pollinator garden tour, which will take place this Saturday and feature properties in Andover, Ramsey, and Anoka. • Summer Recycling Day Event—July 28,2018 City Planner Anderson provided details on the upcoming summer recycling event on July 28th, reviewing the materials that will be accepted. Chairperson Valentine noted that he recently viewed a program which stated that China is not as interested in accepting recycled materials and asked the impact that may have on the industry. City Planner Anderson confirmed that China has enacted much more stringent contamination standards on the materials that they will accept. He stated that the State is actively engaging with haulers to discuss this issue and possible impacts. He stated that on the east and west coasts some of those materials have been landfilled because there is not a market in those areas. He stated that local markets have not been impacted in Minnesota, but the issue is on the horizon and it could become problematic. He explained that the single sort system which made recycling so much easier and increased participation, has resulted in less clean materials and cross contamination of materials, particularly crushed glass getting into other materials. He noted that another problem in recycling is "wish-cycling" where a resident may not be sure that something is recyclable and still places it in the recycling with the hopes that it can be recycled. • Monarch Trail Update—Final seeding done on June 25th City Planner Anderson stated that there is a seven acre stretch of trail that was renamed as the Monarch Trail, noting that there was a groundbreaking event the previous summer. He described the restoration and seeding activities that have occurred in the past year to help establish a native prairie seed mix with featured plants to attract Monarchs. He noted that the Board was somewhat involved in the City pursuing the Mayors for Monarchs program and advised that the project has now been completed. • Tree Survey Training City Planner Anderson noted that the tree survey training session the previous weekend was canceled as there were no residents registered for the event. He noted that there will be one final training opportunity on August 10th and 11th. He hoped to obtain a few more volunteers for the project. 7. ADJOURNMENT Motion by Board Member Covart and seconded by Board Member Fetterley to adjourn the meeting. Environmental Policy Board/July 16, 2018 Page 4 of 5