 16 of the meeting packet, I have a feeling that the page numbers might be a little bit off and I'll try to confirm that. Should be page, I think I noted it as page 18, hopefully it's actually page 18. Page 18 for those following long and writing. No, if you would mind keeping off the memo I'm having computer issues at the moment. Yeah, I'm actually struggling as well. So I'm going to attempt to pull it from online. Apologies for the technical difficulty. We'll begin with the, just the conversation. So fiscal 21, as the board will recall, was a an interesting year, as we were heading into very much unknowns with the pandemic. And we have prepared a budget in our normal timeframe back in March and April, well, February, March of 2020. And that's when things started really spiraling heading towards as far as the world, not necessarily CSWD, but just the world in general with lots of unknowns. So the finance committee asked us, asked me and my staff to come back with a revised version of the fiscal 21 budget to revise expectations down for everything, revenue expenses, everything. So we did that. We came back with a extraordinarily conservative budget because there were so many unknowns. And the first chart on your PDF on the memo reflects that. So when you're looking at that first chart where it says overall, you know, revenue was bigger than expenses. We were only budgeting to have, actually, I can share, I can screen share here. So, you know, we were only budgeting, we were basically budgeting to come in, even we just wanted to have a zero, you know, expectation of any excessive extraordinary or reason to approximate normal revenue. So you can see it in this budget, middle budget column that our budgeted net income, our expectation was only about $300,000. So that was, again, in response to being very conservative, not knowing how things would react, what would happen with commercial ways, what would happen with residential ways, institutional. We certainly did see a decrease in commercial ways activity and institutional was much reduced, obviously, with the colleges in particular, not going back full time in person with the hospitals seeing reduced activity, but residential ways just never stopped. So that that part of the revenue was remain steady and grew, where we really saw the huge increase was in the value of the Murph commodities. So that was, that's where we see and I questioned the percentage when I reviewed the memo and it is indeed correct. Our net income was at 1,218% of budget, and that is, it's all revenue and you can see that in the actuals. So where we had budgeted 12 million we realized 15. Our expenses were also lower than what we had budgeted slightly, which was fantastic. That's, that's the big difference. And, you know, I'm not sure if you want to just kind of jump in and kind of keep going down through the memo, but in general, that's, that was the real big piece that even had we budgeted a standard budget, if we had remained with the first iteration, we still would have realized significant net income over budget, because the Murph commodities were the values sprang so, so much higher than anticipated, we were anticipating an increase, not what we saw. And this was again, you know, system wide, worldwide. And really, it was responsible, responsible is again, you know, a, a multi-fold Amazon effect we've been seeing the Amazon effect grow over the past decade as more and more people just were ordering from home, and obviously with the pandemic that became the norm. So when that became the norm, then there was just the need for cardboard and paper and mixed paper needed to be turned into toilet paper and paper towels and wipes. So, you know, created a balloon for us. No, you probably have more to our nuanced explanations. Yeah, that was the, that was the primary factor was really the shared revenue allocation. Beyond that, you know, we did get a little bit more in grant revenue because we received the COVID relief fund but truly that was a one-for-one match. So whatever we spent on COVID supplies through December 2020, we received grant funding for that. We did also receive the achievement award expense back through December 2020. And then, you know, we saw a little bit of revenue from the sale of and scrap of equipment. It wasn't too significant, but you know, we don't ever really account for that. So we did see some of that. As far as the cost of goods, this is another area where we saw a bit of a change. So in the Murph inventory, there was a large percentage increase, but dollar value wasn't quite as much. It's still pretty significant at 217. And that was because we had more product available for sale and also the unit value of that inventory had increased from last fiscal year. So it wasn't just the increase in volume, but also the increase in value of those products. There were a few expenses that exceeded things like our achievement work, which was the appreciation pay for the frontline workers, but overall our payroll expenses were within the projected budget. So it didn't really add a whole lot of significant change as far as payroll. Our liability did increase a bit because people just weren't taking time off. So that increase from about $211,000 to $382,000. And the hope is that, you know, as things open up, people will be able to start taking that time and certainly want people to be able to take a break and have some time away from work so that they don't get burnt out. So travel and training was significantly under budget. There just wasn't a whole lot of travel training happening. And our administrative costs are a bit higher and that was primarily due to the NOAB and the consulting and legal services that were involved in that project. So you'll see that those were a bit higher, the specifically professional fees. So we carried over about $11,000 in expenses from the fiscal year 19 financials. So the audit and accounting increased because it just wasn't something we expected to have to pay in the next fiscal year. Some other things that are of note is the materials management expenses were well below the estimated budgeted projections, primarily hauling because PGA was originally predicted to take up quite a bit in our expenses, but staff was able to reduce those services to only 8% of the budgeted estimate. Property management was under budget, but we saw that some of the utilities had increased things like electricity and that was mostly because of the change in equipment at the ODF. So we saw a little bit less in fuel costs, but a little bit more in electricity. The other utility that increased was water because of the dry season. So it was still within expected projections, but it was a bit more than what we had anticipated. And again, promotion and education due to the lack of being able to get out there and get our team involved with schools and whatever when they were closed. But marketing communications really made sure to keep their expenses within those essential services, you know, based on what we had discussed because of the COVID changes. I also just wanted to provide some of the changes in reserves that occurred. So you'll see there was an increase in the solid waste management fee rate stabilization reserve. The capital was reduced because we spent some of that money funding some new assets replacing some of the old equipment. And we had a significant increase in undesignated funds and that was really because the way that we have our reserve system currently set up. Everything just that that isn't allocated within the budget to sort of falls into this undesignated bucket. And if you did have a chance to read the reserve memo, you'll see that there are some changes coming about that will change that that bucket effect and create more of a waterfall. But overall, we were certainly within the restraints that we had determined in the original budget as far as expenses and it truly was just a remarkable year for the MRF. I don't know that that's something that's going to continue year over year, but it certainly will help us, you know, potentially purchase some equipment and other assets that we've been holding back on. And, you know, hopefully help us with some of the other reserve accounts that we're looking at creating in the next fiscal year. Before I ask for any questions, I just want to try to characterize it perhaps for the benefit of those board members who are not big numbers people. The way I look at it, as Sarah pointed out at the beginning, the net income for the year was approximately $3.6 million. Question might be where did that money go. And as Nola just pointed out that money by and large flowed into the undesignated reserve. And then further discussion will be that's not a great place to have that money. It'd be better to allocate that to other needed reserves and programs with it for expenses that we know will be coming up in the future. I also wanted to clarify the term waterfall, which some of us may not be familiar with. I believe that's just an order of priority. How available monies might be assigned to a particular reserve fund, some having a higher priority and some having a lower priority. So that's the concept. And I believe, again, just then to move this on to item 3.6 the reserves memo. This is all up for further discussion in the finance committee. Hopefully I've not stolen anybody's thunder here, Sarah or Nola, or, or perhaps Leslie, but that's my characterization of what I'm hearing tonight. Yeah, so that's spot on. And as you mentioned, the finance committee simply wanted Nola and me to clarify a few things to add a little bit more detail to maybe adjust some of the minimums and maximums. Just take another fresh look and bring that back to the next finance committee for some review. And then that next finance committee will be in December. So you'll, you'll see this memo back to you as revised at the December meeting. But it really was as Paul said to the thought was to, to be much more deliberate about where any excess revenue is directed to make sure that our reserves across the board are adequately funded. But there's a rationale behind that. Why are we funding these reserves? Why are these specific reserves? What are they for? And as Paul said, in what order? So, we, another thing that, again, if you had a chance to read that memo, what we're doing is we're recommending restricting certain reserves and when you restrict reserves, that means that the money that is in that fund that reserve can only be used for a very specific purpose, such as the biosolids reserve. The biosolids reserve money that is paid for only by the members of the, the district that are actually in the biosolids management program. So it is very specific to those communities used for specific purposes. We are essentially a fiscal agent and the pass-through program. So the money that is paid in must go only to that program. So CSWD in general does not, should not, will not access that money for any general uses. It is only there. But the best way to make sure that happens is to formally restrict that reserve. Similarly, with the landfill closure reserve, that should also be restricted, only used for post closure care for landfill. That is a federal recommendation. That's, that's not just coming from me and from NOLA. So there, the other reserves are, you know, again, for, it's not that they're just kind of hanging out there with buckets of money. They are also associated with assigned projects, tasks, needs, like capital. Capital dollars have, are assigned to certain replacement of equipment to projects, etc. So we're also going to come back with a, a, a more explicit explanation of not just what funds are, are restricted use, what are unrestricted, but also how the, our funds are assigned. Kind of where we've already dedicated, okay, this, this bit of money is working for this particular area. So hopefully that will make it very, very clear, as far as kind of where, where the money is and then what is, what truly is kind of leftover and unassigned, unrestricted, what's left kind of in that, that last bottom reserve. And that's where we're leading that unrestricted. So if you looked at what the waterfall, the order priority, you'll see the unassigned unrestricted is very, very bottom. So we want to make sure that, that anything that's in excess of expected revenue is, is properly filling in all of the other needs ahead of that. There should be really not much in that unrestricted, unreserved fund. So that's the goal is to move that $3 million out, but move it out according to a plan. So that will be coming back to you in December. Thanks for that explanation, Sarah. Any board members wish to ask a question or make a comment? Just thank you, Sarah and Nola. That's the, that's the overview I wanted to hear and thought it was important to have an open session. Thank you. Well, then we're ready to move on to item number four on the agenda that 2020 waste diversion and disposal report. And as I think we'll hear in a moment, this is something that's happened over over time. It's been many, many years and it's a great longitudinal sort of study. I think where we can all measure it's kind of a report card how well the public is doing and how well CSWD is doing. So let me see, I have different numbering on my board packet as to where we are at. So I can quickly try to identify where I think we are in the board packet. I am going to share my screen. You just fine. Let's go with that Nancy. Thank you. You bet. Everybody see that. Yep. Okay. Good evening, everyone. Tonight I will first review the purpose of the report. Provide an overview of the metrics we use to aid in evaluation of our programs. We're going to talk about how we're going to evaluate the 2020 diversion and disposal data and comparisons to 2019 data in the waste aversion and disposal report are used to help track and evaluate how well our members are utilizing CSWD and private sector facilities programs and overall opportunities to reduce and divert their waste to the general public. And then we will use the data set to fulfill state reporting requirements and to provide information about the district's solid waste management system for communications to the general public, the media and other communities and organizations. It includes materials generated within Chittenden County only and is produced for each calendar year. In 1993, the district began calculating its diversion rate, which is the percent of waste generated that is diverted from disposal. Later we added the disposal rate or pounds per capita per day disposed. This is Alan's favorite statistic. This is the metric used by the agency of natural resources to measure statewide progress and waste reduction. We also have been calculating the recovery rate for certain materials, which is the percent of targeted materials generated that are diverted from disposal. And we look at GHG emission reductions for specific materials or groups of materials. As we all know, 2020 was an unusual year and COVID-19's impact extended to solid waste disposal and diversion. The overall goal remained, however, to decrease the generation of waste materials and increase the percent of these materials that are diverted from the landfill. Highlights from this year's report include total generation of solid waste was down 14%. Regarding municipal solid waste or MSW, which consists of materials generated by residential and commercial activities, both tons diverted and disposed decreased significantly. Construction and demolition tons diverted decreased significantly and C&D tons disposed increased. The MSW diversion rate increased over 50% for the first time. And the estimated recovery rate for MSW mandatory recyclables increased slightly. So on to the details and some potential explanations for the changes. The amount of MSW landfill decreased by 12%. And the pounds per capita per day disposed decreased from 3.16 to 2.71. This is not surprising given the overall reduction of business activity in 2020 due to COVID-19. While a lot of work activity shifted to residences and purchasing and consumption of certain types of products in the home increase, as Sarah mentioned, these actions were not enough to compensate for the commercial reduction. What happened to the county's waste in 2020 is a great example of how economic factors that are out of our control impact waste generation and disposal. It is a real-time confirmation of Schumann's Economic Research Associates analysis of our data that we discussed earlier this year. The total tons of MSW materials diverted were down 8% over 2019. Pounds per capita per day per day diverted decreased from 3.07 to 2.75. There were significant increases in the tonnages of clean wood and food residuals diverted. There was a significant increase in the amount of glass diverted. Quantities of clean wood have varied tremendously over the years, often due to the timing of when wood is chipped and then transferred to the McNeil Generating Station inventory from the wood depot in Burlington, which is when it is recorded. In 2020, approximately 2,500 tons of wood received and processed were not transferred to McNeil until 2021. These tons will appear in the 2021 report. The decrease in food residuals, food residual quantities diverted is likely because of the reduction in generation as a result of the closure of restaurants, schools, and other food service providers in 2020 due to COVID-19. In addition, with most people isolated in their homes, food preparation and consumption of takeout meals at home increased significantly. There was also a surge in home gardening. These activities may have resulted in more food waste being placed in the trash than would have other ones. It has been documented that a greater percentage of food purchased is wasted in homes versus what occurs in the commercial sector. A significant increase in glass diverted is the result of a large amount of inventory of processed glass aggregate at CSWD's materials recovery facility being used in a drainage system for the new compost curing area at the district's organic diversion facility. Please note that materials sorted at the MRF are not considered recycled or diverted from the landfill until they are shipped from the facility. The estimated MSW diversion rate increased slightly to 50.4%. As I mentioned earlier, this is the first time the rate has exceeded 50%. For comparison, the EPA reported that in 2018, the most recent year for which data are available, the US diversion rate was 32%. And ANR reported that in 2019, also the most recent year data are available, the Vermont diversion rate was 34%. While what we include in our calculations varies some. Rates for communities that are considered to be high performing include Seattle at 54%, San Francisco at 51%, and Portland Metro in Oregon at 46%. So we compare quite well. Based on our estimate of what is recyclable or compostable or otherwise divertible in what is disposed, we can estimate that the maximum MSW diversion rate we could currently achieve is 79%. So we're not quite two thirds of the way there. So while our residents and businesses are diverting large quantities of material, they still are not taking full advantage of the all the facilities programs and opportunities CSWD and the private sector provide for diversion. Through our members current diversion of MSW recyclables and organics and estimated 164,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent will reduced. This is equivalent to taking about 35,000 cars off the road on to construction waste. As a result of some of the changes in C&D recycling last year that I will detail in a moment. The tonnage of C&D landfill increased by about 5%. The amount of C&D reported recycled was down a whopping 29%. One of the main reasons is that there was a decrease of over 26,000 tons in the amount of asphalt and concrete recycled. The man for these materials was down in 2020. Many towns postponed road and other infrastructure infrastructure projects due to the tax revenue uncertainties caused by COVID-19. In addition, a very large paving project did not allow the use of recycled paving. Consequently, a lot of material remained in inventory. Recycling as some of the other C&D materials was also reduced. One recycling noted seeing the use of more prefab building components on construction projects, which results in less weight, less waste that might be recycled, which of course isn't a bad thing. Labor shortage also played a part. Substantial C&D recycling continues, though, through the Myers, Ranger, Pike, and Whitcomb recycling facilities. The estimated C&D diversion rate decreased from 77 to 69%. The maximum C&D diversion rate is estimated at 78% in for 2020. So in spite of the changes, we're still doing quite well. For those of you that don't know, landfill cover is normally earthen material that is placed on the surface of the active face of the landfill at the end of each operating day to control vectors, fires, odors, blowing litter, and scavenging by animals. Vermont Alternative Daily Landfill Cover, or ADC, consists primarily of contaminated but not hazardous soil that has been approved for this use by the state. ADC was up 13% over 2019. The number and size of projects requiring the removal of contaminated soils can vary tremendously from year to year. To provide a longer historical perspective, this slide shows the trends over time from 2010 to 2020 in MSW tons diverted versus disposed and C&D tons diverted versus disposed. MSW tons disposed, the red line in 2020 is over 7,000 tons less than it was 10 years ago when the nation was still recovering from the recession. COVID-19 for the various reasons discussed earlier had a bigger impact on solid waste than the recession did. Despite a population increase of almost 12,000 and increases of over 1400 businesses and 1200 employees compared to 2010. The sharper increase in the last few years before 2020 for MSW diverted, the blue line is likely due mostly to the business reporting requirement that kicked in in 2016. And the increased diversion of organics as Act 148 was implemented. The funky green line shows C&D diverted with a big jump in 2014 and 15 when the C&D recycling facilities came online. And then declining since the Cassella facility on Redmond Road closed. And then the big decrease in 2020 for the reasons we discussed. With the exception of 2020, the tons of C&D disposed the purple line pretty much mirror these changes. This slide shows our MSW disposal rate, the blue line decreasing during the recession and then increasing in the last few years until COVID hit. We're currently at 14% less than 2010. The C&D disposal rate, the green line, of course went down quite a bit when recycling facilities open but is trending upward in more recent years. This slide displays diversion rates with MSW, the blue line, again, showing an increase over the last decade of 4.8 points or 11%. And C&D, the green line, an increase of over 3 points or 5%. Prior to 2020, the C&D diversion rate increased significantly with the opening of the recycling facilities as we discussed, but then was on the decline after the facility on Redmond Road closed. The last thing I want to talk about are recovery rates. Using the diversion report data and our estimates of the components of what MSW is currently disposed in the landfill. We can estimate that our recovery rate for blue bin recyclables is at 82%, up from 79% in 2019. And our recovery rate for all MSW materials that are currently divertible, includes organics, is essentially unchanged at about 64%. Not a lot of communities conduct waste composition studies, so it's difficult to compare our performance to others when it comes to recovery rates, but from the data that are available, we are well above average. However, our recovery rates also tell us that a lot of recyclables and organics, perhaps as much as 58,000 tons, when you also include recoverable C&D, are still being landfill. So overall, I think our diversion and disposal data continue to provide good news, especially related to how much material our residents and businesses are diverting from disposal. Over 154,000 MSW and C&D tons in 2020. At the same time, we can see that a lot of recovered material is still going to the landfill. And without any changes to the current solid waste management system, we can expect that as the economy recovers from the recovers from the impact of COVID-19 solid waste generation and disposal will increase. Are there any questions. Yeah. Yeah, sorry this I should know this probably but are the years you talking about calendar or fiscal year calendar years. Nancy. Yes. Yeah. In the pounds per person per day. I think it just continues to support my theory with people coming from outside the county to work in that so many people were teleworking. I think that is the reason that we see that reduction in my little mind. But it is due to so many businesses that were closed and schools and then and then all the people that are not coming to the county to work because they're working at home and Washington County and Franklin County and everything else. Yeah, I think they're in the equation. But I think the bigger part is that schools, businesses, restaurants, movie theaters were all closed completely. Disagree with you just a little bit. Our ongoing disagree. Other questions or comments. I think we're ready to wrap Nancy I just wanted to thank you for this presentation and past presentations they're actually very, very interesting and kind of inspiring and I just want to your tremendous source of knowledge, expertise and insight into what's going on with our waste management and it's very much appreciated. Thank you very much. We are now ready then to move on to agenda item number five the ODF scale purchase, which I believe appears starts on page 50 of your board packet, not 57 as is printed there. I assume that we will turn this over to Josh, or to Sarah for a presentation. That would be Josh. Thank you. Can everybody hear me. Hopefully, hopefully that's a yes. Okay. I'm just so I'm bringing the, the Organis diversions facility scale purchase recommendation to the board. The ODF has a scale it was purchased around 1993 for the biosolids facility. And we love our reuse. So when the interval moved on to Redmond Road and became the Green Mountain compost facility and now the Organis diversions facility. The that scale from 1993 has existed in perpetuity. We knew that we needed to replace it within the next year was actually in the budget to replace. And since taking a turn for the worse, which expedited our need to purchase a new one. It does go hand in hand with our new approach or our phase two portion, but because the existing scale has not doing well and is requiring a lot of a lot of work, there is an FTE to maintain it and manage it to keep inbound track inbound materials coming in. So with that, we went out to bid. We went to four known regional scale providers. We got our bids back and Farnham scales out of Williamstown, Vermont are the scale that we're going to recommend it's a BTEC It's a low bidder, as you see in your packet. We have worked with Fairbanks. They are the ones who sold us the unattended scale portion at our facility right now. And there's a Fairbanks at the Murph. Fairbanks model is to come in as low as possible, and then to provide a very high service cost and we've had significant issues, significant, significant issues with their service and the actual quality of the equipment they provide. So I'm strongly recommending against Fairbanks, which is too bad because they started out as a Vermont company. But Farnham has actually taken up the reins from Fairbanks and kept our existing scale alive for about five years longer than we would have made it. So with that, the recommendation is to go with the second lowest bid, which is the Farnham BTEC scale. Thank you, Josh. Any other board questions, comments? Ron. I'm just wondering what the time frame will be for the replacement. Great question. So we are expecting to see the scale in our vicinity probably late February, early March, it'll be at, it'll be available for us to install right around when construction the very earliest part of the construction season. So the goal is in the earliest part of the spring when it's safe to dig into the ground to put this thing in. We do have a bridge or we have a fix, I guess we'll call it a patch on our existing scale that allows it to work, but it will be relatively labor intensive for the time being until we can get the new scale in. Will there be an overlap on the replacement? What I'm trying to say is will there be a time when there will be no scale available? No, the idea is we're going to put in, we're going to construct a new approach to the site. And one of the first things to go in will be the approach that we're going to, I guess, rough in the approach and then we're going to put the scale in. If at any point our scale does go down, we do have roughly about a week of leeway because there's a scale at the end of the road that we use at the all metals facility. They've been very, very nice to us in the event that we have our scale go down. They provide backup services to us, but we don't want to push using them as well because they've been kind and we just need to have our own scale that works and gets the data that we want. Okay, thank you. Lee, you had your hand raised. Yeah, I think Josh may have answered it kind of, I was just wondering location of scale and, you know, installation of that foundation is, you know, pretty permanent. I was wondering how the layout was going to go and truck traffic coming into the place and leaving and that whole setup design, what that's going to look like. Yeah, that's a great question. And the plan is we're going to put it next to the 860 residents. That's part of our new approach, which was part of our approved capital budget. But we're going to bring you a more comprehensive idea of what that means. We are meeting with somebody on Friday who specializes in throughput in operational yards. We've got our ideas, but we're not married to any one idea. So we've fallen in a professional to really guide us on what we thought. Or what we're thinking we also have visited a couple of high volume facilities we went up to the Coventry landfill who actually has a beat the exact same scale. And they see about 240 trucks a day we see roughly 20 on a heavy day. So we feel pretty good about our approach, but we want to get it verified. And once we have all that kind of information together, we'll be coming back to the board to show them kind of what our thoughts are and how this this new approach will look. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Everyone. I answered part of my question was if we know of any other facilities in Vermont that have to be tech. And I asked if there's any cold weather considerations for maintenance or daily operations that need to be considered. That's actually one of the reasons we're going with the BTEC is it's got remote diagnostics through the Farnham scale company. And it's also elevated a little higher off the ground. I'm sure the other ones could have been elevated higher off the ground but the idea is the BTEC does give you about a 12 inch clearance for getting anything out from underneath it. So that's that's the way we're going to install it and talking with the Coventry people they've been happy with their maintenance options and their cold weather options for cleaning it. Other questions. There is language in this memo at the end of the memo on page 50 a resolution, which we need to take action on. Do you have a question, Lee? Oh, I'm sorry, Lee. No worries, Paul. Yeah, I just have one more question. And how is the the ticketing for this scale work? Is it does a customer, is there a ticket process at the site? Or does he have to get out of the truck walking in the scale house? And what's that look like? Is it the current automated or it can be. So the current process we're going to go through right now is actually have a scale operator to take care of a lot of the just the office and administrative work at the ODF. In general, but the scale operator will be in direct communication with the drivers as they come in. Our current approach is looking at us having one way traffic. Everybody comes in, we separate commercial traffic from residential traffic. All residential traffic goes and leaves the site, commercial traffic comes back around and weighs back out is the goal. But right now we will have a scale house, you know, a zone where there will be a human being working to take in information. We did speak with the Farnham group and the BTEC technicians and we can go to automated if we wanted to, which still wouldn't require a driver to get out of their truck. It would just be kind of what we have now. We've got an unattended system, which is automated. And so we like the idea of starting out with a person, because that person also will provide us with the ability to look at contamination. So that's that's an important role that I feel that that will play. This will be used for weighing leaves in in the fall as well or We're talking about whether or not we want to run everybody over it or not. I mean for for for roll offs and city leave. Yeah, absolutely. Our trucks, things like that. Yes. For residential leaves. We got to we got to get a handle. I think we see roughly about 600 trips in a day. And it's just that's a lot of people to bring over a scale in a day. We'd have a pretty big line down random road. So we'll we'll assess that moving forward. You know, if we can pull that off, I'd love to get all the all the weights coming in more data is better in my book. But right now we're focusing on the ones we weigh in. FYI, I didn't know if you saw it or not, but November 8 coming at you. We're ready. Good. Thank you. Appreciate it. Again, any other board comments or questions? We do have a resolution language at the bottom of this memo. Get credit for working. Jen, if you can use please. They're approving a scale purchase. Jen, please. Well, let's let us move on if we could have that resolution read. And then moved. Be resolved that the board of commissioners authorizes the executive director to enter into a contractual agreement for the purchase of a BTEC scale from Farnham scales of Williamstown Vermont, but amount not to exceed $150,000. This includes the scale hardware, software, site work and installation. Thank you, Leslie. Do we have a second? Second, Burlington. Thank you, Lee. This motion has been moved and seconded. Is there any more discussion on this issue? Seeing and hearing none, then all those in favor of approving the resolution, please signify by saying aye or by raising your hand. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries and the purchase is authorized. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Next on the agenda is item six, the ODF compostable food where discussion that follows immediately from this memo on page 51 of your packet begins a PowerPoint presentation. With some interesting visuals. Yeah, we're heading over to Dan and Michelle to leave this conversation. Thanks. Is it is the PowerPoint now visible rather than a desktop? Yeah. Very about that. So we are this is a review on stuff that we've talked about a certain amount over the last 10 months. Talking about what's coming in terms of changes for accepted materials at ODF or the compost facility for CSWD. As a reminder, we came to this decision to change our acceptance policy about a year ago, not quite what we started it much started the discussion much prior to that but announced it last January. And this is our new acceptable materials list beginning this January we gave a year of warning. But here is the new list starting January 1. And note that there's one change in here from what went out in your packet it's it's crossed off there the facial tissues are actually not going to be accepted. So January 1, the decision for that being that driven by the fact that almost all facial tissues either contain body fluids or chemicals and in this world of pandemics, we decided to leave those out. That's the entirety of what will be accepted and you'll notice that the big difference on there sorry big difference from what we take now is the absence of compostable food service where of all types this includes cups bowls plates cutlery clam shells and phrase. Here's a picture of some of those on top of one of our compost piles for many years ago. It's an issue we've been thinking about a very long time. But these materials for those who are unfamiliar everybody's probably somewhat familiar with them now we see them at grocery store or sorry at restaurants cafeterias they're very widespread in use. And they're all slightly different they come, they're manufactured with different formulations of plant based plastics or fibers that are designed to break down in a commercial compost facility. So we've been accepting them at ODF and prior to that interval compost for about 20 years in one form or another. It started with the liner bags which you can see in this image. And slowly over the last couple of decades, they have increased in breadth and scope and they come in all shapes and sizes now any food service type item you can imagine. There's probably a compostable equivalent. And they're they're now even being used in all sorts of non food related plastic replacement. You can get car bumpers that are compostable or you can get, you know, shoes and electronic components that are made out of compostable plastics. We don't accept we haven't accepted any of those but they the industry that makes them is doing a big push to push them out into all all plastic markets. So this is what they look like, typically coming into our facility this is a mixed commercial load from schools and businesses, probably some residential and institutional food scraps in there as well. And they've all we've seen increases in use from all those sectors by weight this load is probably about 99% food waste. However, the compostable liner bags and food service items make up a significant amount of the volume they don't tend to weigh a lot but they take up a lot of space. Purchasers distributors and manufacturers have embraced compostable products in a big way, and some of the hope for that is displacing traditional single use plastics which we can all understand is a good thing. And district staff have encouraged the use of compostable foodware over the years as well, primarily because using it has been the surest way to capture food waste without contamination at compost and without getting food contaminated recyclables at the MRF. However, very little benefit comes to the composting process by accepting these materials and accepting the materials has grown to a number of problems, particularly over the last few years. So following many mounts, sorry, many months of in house staff meetings, trying to tackle this issue we came to the decision to disallow these from acceptance at ODF beginning in January. The number one driver for this decision are that compostable products are a gateway for trash or non or sorry or traditional plastics, primarily. You can see an example of that in this picture where when you open one of these truly compostable liner bags it's full of non compostable materials, lots of polystyrene and you know there's milk cartons all with plastic liners in there. And what happens is that if you're on you know you get somebody walking down church street and they see a food waste bin at a restaurant or in a cafeteria, and there is something that looks like what they have on their tray or in their hand. They are going to give more than half a thought to it and they will add theirs to it, and it's really hard to distinguish compostable products from non compostable products when you're looking at them. Even sometimes when you're picking one up and looking at you know you've got one in one hand one the other you can't tell sometimes usually hopefully more and more they are labeled if you flip them over and look on the bottom but there's some that are not labeled and it's it's really difficult to tell. And so you get what you see here. You get a mix and when we're you're getting in multiple tons at a time, trying to distinguish good from bad is is incredibly difficult and as we've seen an increase in the quote unquote good food service items. It has allowed an increase in the non compostable items is what which we've also seen an increase in, particularly over the past few years as act 148 has come into full fruition. So ideally we would just be accepting food waste and nothing else. And what we've done instead is we're trying to thread the needle to accept what we think will be the least problematic. Or be the most critical for effective food scrap management so while we're not going to be accepting the compostable food service items we will still be accepting the certified compostable liner bags such as the majority of the ones you see in this picture. And determined through many studies and many jurisdictions across the country that compostable liner bags a liner bag of some sort will encourage diversion, rather than just having carts with no liner bag if you can imagine in your. Those of you who collect compostables in your home, you're familiar probably with what happens to the inside of that container if you don't have a liner there and if you're really good about washing it out works well but expecting people to do that. Countywide or in any big scale is doesn't work well and so the ability to put a liner in there be it compostable or otherwise enables folks to be able to participate without the factor being too overwhelming. So other considerations that led to this decision included things like PFAS which we've heard a lot about but we've learned in the last couple of years they are prevalent in many of the fiber foodware. That's commercially available. Due to its ability to prevent moisture from degrading the container. And also there's been some lifecycle analysis that show impacts for some compostable foodware that are greater than non compostable single use products you know there's a lot of marketing that would lead you to believe that all compostable alternatives are the panacea and you know going to solve global warming and everything else but if you dig in deeper as some folks have done you'll find that the amount of energy required to create them and some other factors does not point to that clear picture it's similar to what we've probably heard about the tote bags the canvas tote bags that require 20,000 times 20,000 uses in order to be a lesser impact than using a single use plastic bag so it's not always black and white when we approach these things and it can be very confusing. But that was one of the factors that helped us lead helped us come to this conclusion. So, of course, always district preference is to support the use of durable items reuse reduction and reliance on disposable single use items you know single use is never the preference and so by accepting these for so long we have sort of enabled this very much larger cultural phenomenon of a shift towards more and more single use disposable items and it doesn't seem like that fits with much of our mission so that factored heavily as well. So this is an example of what we pull out of the compost on the first screening this is from a year or so ago. And you'll see it is speckled with things that are not food that are not leaves are not wood, but are other things and it's created quite a problem for us. Unfortunately, it's been exacerbated by what otherwise has been an incredible addition to our operation this is the straddle Turner windrow Turner that we acquired this past year with the help of an A&R grant as part of our expansion and it has done amazing things for achieving efficiencies in our program. I've said it lots of times but case anybody didn't hear all the previous ones what used to take us a week. Sorry about two weeks to turn all of our in process compost now can be done in three hours with this machine. It's fantastic. And it's replaced four other pieces of equipment anyway. The drawback is that it as it turns the pile any plastic that is in there has a tendency to be broken up so there's fragmented further fragmentation that can occur and make for a much trickier time when you go to sell the finished product. Most of it, hopefully will be screened out as we were able to do with some extra effort this year but that's not always the case. So we put a lot of resources into cleaning up our products, including physically removing it picking it we've tried a lot of different things but a sheer volume of incoming material has made this untenable. And this is a picture of what we aim for this is nice looking compost this is several years old, but this is what our customers have come to expect our finished product to look like. And by late last year when we came to this decision, we were increasingly unable to meet this standard, despite all the interventions that we've tried. So, at this point I'm going to hand it over to Michelle who's going to talk about our ongoing plan for communicating this change. Good evening, thanks Dan. Yeah, so I'm just going to review some of the background about our conversations about this and then quickly review what we have done what we are doing now and what we're going to do going forward in terms of notifying the public. So, first of all, as Dan briefly touched on, you know while the compost team was all too aware of this problem and how it had increased over the years. We needed to bring in our outreach team to understand both the impacts that it would have on various stakeholders and the folks they work with, and also get their perspective and enable them to ask the questions and have a broader perspective on what this kind of announcement the impacts this would have and how we could continue to support the folks who have been using these products. So we did have that extensive internal discussion and debate really from September through December 2020 until we finally landed on this decision in late 2020. From there, we quickly developed a plan for strategic rollout of communications to the public and different sectors who sell and consume these products. Go ahead Dan. So we wanted to do this strategically because what we know as marketers and from past experience is that if you just send the information out to the universe all at once, nobody's going to pay attention. There's too many things competing for people's attention these days. So you need to do it in a way that makes it salient for people and that's what I mean by stickiness that they will not just have it be part of the wallpaper that bombards us every day with information, but it will grab them and make them pay attention. So the reason that's informed how we decided to roll this out. So in January, what we did was we immediately notified key stakeholder groups who would be most impacted. And those were the businesses and institutions who would need to budget like schools, hauling companies, businesses who use these in their restaurants that sort of thing so that they could have a full year in order to plan budget and implement any changes that they decided to make. And then we would do the strategic messaging on a month by month basis. And that would also enable us time to think about how to thoughtfully redo our materials and our websites. Right so in January 2021 we created a letter to the key stakeholders, roughly 50 businesses and institutions were contacted, plus all the staff who are responsible for K to 12 school purchasing. They notified of the change they were given a Q&A sheet, as well as a digging deeper sheet that discussed some of those other reasons for this in addition to the contamination issue that Dan mentioned. About 30 of the folks we contacted attended a zoom meeting that we held to give them more information also to answer their questions and hear their concerns and understand how we could best support them. So from the spring after that and still ongoing our outreach team has been working with those stakeholders to provide new information for them and other information that they can use to communicate to their customers their students, their event attendees. Okay Dan. Thank you. So, in May, we had presentations that we provided to the VORS the Vermont Organic Recycling Summit so these are the people who are most invested in this they're really paying attention because they really care about this these are residents mostly, but also representatives of businesses and schools and that sort of thing. They heard the message there in June, our staff sent out notification with the annual hauler licensing and our heart our hauler newsletter that's now going out. And I also wrote an introduction that mentioned this and let folks know why we were doing this in our digest email newsletter and if you aren't all getting it. Please let me know so that I can be sure to add you to that list. In October. We send a postcard mailer to schools to remind them of this. And then we created point of sale and rack cards which is just basically a one third page handout that businesses could put in a takeout bag, or at their point of sale for their customers. In October. You may have seen that I wrote a commentary that was in Vermont Digger that was published on October 13. We're doing this presentation tonight that's recorded and is often viewed by the media. And then we will be updating our websites. We've already had a banner on those websites notifying folks about this and a blog post since March, but we are now deleting pages that mentioned composable products and updating all that information. So then in November and December as the deadline approaches, we will be doing more targeted media outreach changing all of our signage and the bucket stickers and our drop off centers. And then we'll be posting on our social media channels and on front porch forums. Then, after January, it's not a light switch. Thanks don't miraculously change just because you say there's a deadline. So of course we'll continue to then see what what areas need more attention where some of the concerns are where some of the sticking points are, and we'll do load checks at the odf follow up with repeat offenders who are not getting the message. And then of course continue to do education and outreach. Well, which will include educating generators businesses institutions anybody who's having their food scraps picked up by a hauling company to encourage them to ask and find out where their food scraps going because if they're getting told by their hauling company that they can continue to put this material in with their food scraps, then they should ask where that's going because if it's coming to us that's not correct and there that load is going to get rejected or there's going to be penalties potentially. If it's not coming to us, then we want that generator to know, are there food scraps going to build local soils and continue that food cycle, or are they going to a digester, or some other place and are there compostable products that they assume are being composted, are they actually getting taken out, for instance by a D pack, and then landfill, which would presumably be the only other option. So that's the type of education will be continuing to offer and to all sectors that we work with. And that's our plan. And so Dan and I are of course happy to answer questions at this point. So you had your hand up. Why are these items still called compostable if they, if they are associated as I thought I heard Dan say, perhaps with PFA leachate. Why are that why are we still using that terminology. Dan I'll be happy to answer that if you like. Okay. Right, so to meet compostability standards and industrial facilities, they have to meet the American standards for testing standard, and it just means they need to break down in a certain amount of time and then they can be certified by the certifying organizations if they have been demonstrated to meet those standards. So the U.S. certifying organization biodegradable products Institute, which really just goes by VPI now is rolling in a standard where they have to be free of added PFAS Dan is it by 2023. No, I think it's. That's a good question. I thought it was sometime in 2022, but I don't. Okay. At any rate at a date in the near future, in order to obtain this certification they have to be free of added PFAS so it. It's something that's been recognized by the industry. But it's a that's why they call it a chemical of emerging concern because it's so new and and unknown. Thank you. Ron, you can ask a question and I see Abbie you're raising a follow up it sort of answers answers my question on the technicality. But I could see that if we keep using that terminology, it could add to or maintain confusion. You know, right. Anyway, it's just an observation but you're the experts I don't want to tell you how to go about it but it. I just see it as a as an issue to be considered. Thank you. And then Abbie you'll be next. Okay, not so much a question, but perhaps an offer that maybe I can be of some assistance. Some of you know that I have a PhD in journalism. I'm a retired associate professor in broadcasting and mass media spent a number of years as a broadcast journalist. I would be willing to offer some time from time to time. If you need some services of my background and ability for the ongoing communications. Appreciate that. Thank you, Ron. Thank you. Abbie. I believe there are our lists of products as they transition away from the acceptable level of PFAS but they're already certain compostable items that really are free of PFAS like some of the fiber plates it's mostly the coated cups and things like that that contain PFAS. So that that just does give an indication of how tricky this is to communicate to the public, along with the issue of, again, I harp on schools because I know them well and I know the food service people and they find it very confusing to tease out what is acceptable and not and also where their compost is going. And so that that issue of the fact that Cassella will haul and take to the D pack and take all of that compostable food where is really it's really hard one to communicate to the food service people and the facilities people and the people in the district levels who are negotiating contracts with haulers, but that's a message that's I think very important to get through. And then the last thing that I wanted to ask about is what can CSWD do to look at its role in helping all of these institutions, hospitals, colleges and schools convert to not single use but, you know, re reusable because I think they get easily overwhelmed by looking at personnel and dishwashing systems, and they just they crumple in the face of it and what you're going to see I fear is a huge increase in plastics. Thanks, Abby Bryn. Yeah, thank you. I, we have a number of micro businesses in our community. I would request that outreach is given to our downtown Manuski leadership Meredith is the primary point of contact, but that's a help facilitate distribution to our, our smaller businesses that might not receive announcements or be aware of this through the other channels that are planned. Thanks, Bryn. Other comments or questions. I'd only walk with the observation I think it's excellent and helpful for the board to hear this but also to get it in the public record. Perhaps not that many members of the public will actually ever view this material, but it really is important for us to establish this in the public record and justification and documentation of why we're taking this important action. Thank you for the presentation. I think we're ready then to move on. I was aware of the clock. It's now 720. Thanks, Michelle. Thanks, Dan. The next item on the agenda is the executive session for the discussion of the mo you with the city of Burlington. Do we have a motion to enter executive session. Sure, I can read that. I move that the board of commissioners of the Chittenden solid waste district go into executive session to discuss contract negotiations with respect to the memorandum of understanding with the city of Burlington. I'm sure general public knowledge would clearly place the district it's member municipalities and other public bodies or persons involved at a substantial disadvantage and to permit approved staff other invited parties and the solid waste district attorney to be present for this session. We have a motion. Katie moved and I think Paul Stabler seconded. I believe there's any need for discussion all those in favor of entering executive session please say I or raise your hand. Any opposed. I just have a question as an employee of the city of Burlington as well as a commissioner. I recuse myself from this discussion. Thank you Lee. We had the motion then to go into executive session. And then there were no opposed so we'll see you over in executive session. Thank you all. Recording stopped waiting on Tim. We had to leave. If you will not be returning, we are waiting on Tim. Well we have we do have a core. Okay, can we begin recording again. Recording in progress. Again, we have a we have a quorum present, I believe. Is there a motion to exit executive session. Some who guess it's. Thank you Essex. Second. You've got that. Sarah who's looking to thank you. Thank you all those in favor of leaving executive session please say I or raise your hand. Hi. Any opposed to leaving executive session. We have left executive session we're now back in open session. And I believe we're ready to have a motion. And then we can have any further discussion we want before taking a taking a vote on that. Do we have language for emotion. Are you drafting that Sarah or. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I know that the board of commissioners. Authorizes the extension of the second MOU with the city of Burlington. For. Not longer than six months. Thank you. Do we have someone to move that. So moved. Thank you. We have a second. Second. It's been moved and seconded a motion to extend the MOU with the city of Burlington. And then we can have any further discussion. And then we can have any further discussion. Next month is there any discussion on the motion. Hearing none. I'm going to ask everybody to raise their hand. So we have, we have a very clear count. All those in favor, please raise your hand. Hi. All those opposed to the motion, please raise. We have one that's opposed. Am I. Vision. That may be a residual hand for Leslie. I think she had voted. Yeah. Sorry. I'm sorry. You're voting no. No, no, I had voted yes. Okay. Thank you. Are any abstentions. Seeing none. The motion carries. Is there any other business we would like to discuss tonight? Item eight on the agenda. Hearing none entertain a motion to adjourn. Oh, guess it. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Good night. See you Saturday. We'll see you on Saturday. Bring it. Don't it. Unate. Thank you. Thank you.