VBT Environmental Commission seeks to increase recycling

By Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent Editor
Jennifer Price of the Van Buren Township Community Services Department gave a presentation on the township’s recycling program to the VBT Environmental Commission at its regular meeting Dec. 17.
That was after a pre-meeting Christmas party that featured pizza and conversation.
After the meeting started, Price told of the township’s efforts to encourage recycling and her work to help residents with any garbage pickup or recycling problems they may have. She handles the landfill passes and explains he process to residents.
Price said she works with Waste Management to put together instruction sheets on recycling and a recent sheet was included in the VBT water bills. That sheet is already out of date, she said. They will put up new information on a new flyer, she said.
Commission Chairman David Brownlee said a recent trip to Woodland Meadows landfill showed that in spite of all their recycling efforts they saw a lot of paper and plastic being buried in the landfill.
“We need to set some groundwork for 2015,” said Commission Chairman David Brownlee. “We need to get organized. What are all the little things we can take advantage of and continue because it doesn’t go away.”
He referred to recycling of products so they don’t go to fill up the landfill.
Township Trustee Jeff Jahr, who sits on the Environmental Commission, suggested a large-screen television could be put up in the township hall lobby to run tapes on recycling and other announcements.
Jack Knowles, the new director of the township’s planning and economic development department, said people are lazy and there is no incentive for them to recycle.
The commission’s secretary, Brenda Kurtz, said, “We are very fortunate to have a free pickup for being a host community. Is it feasible to put in an ordinance [to require recycling]? Yes, it’s free, but we need to recycle.”
Trustee Jahr said part of the problem is if there is an ordinance, “We’ve got to enforce it. If it’s not enforced, it breeds disrespect for the law.”
He said people will envision garbage inspectors going around and writing tickets for your garbage.
“The more we increase recycling, the less tipping fees we get,” Jahr said.
“But, the landfill lasts longer,” Brownlee added.
The Waste Management landfill that currently gives the township free trash, recycling, and yard waste pickups has an estimated life of 12 more years.
Price said she liked Brownlee’s idea of a series of “Did You Know?” thoughts to be posted, such as, “Did You Know? We’ll have a free service longer if you recycle.”
After a long discussion on how people don’t know where to take various items, such as batteries and light bulbs, for recycling, it was decided to make a list of places to post for the public.
White plastic bags, for example, are not welcome in the recycling bin because they gum up the shredding machines at the recyclers, but there are bins for them at Walmart and Meijer.
Also, Price has put together a senior trip to the recycling plant for April and will be putting together another trip before then.
In other business at the two-hour-and-45-minute Dec. 17 meeting, the commission:
• Held its annual election and reelected Brownlee as chairman and Norman Debuck as vice chairman;
• Heard Commissioner Tony Gibson say that the trucks are tracking asphalt out from the Cadillac Asphalt facility on the North I-94 Service Drive. He said the road is slick from the mud there. Gibson said Cadillac used to have a street sweeper it used to clear the tracks on the road. He said he called Wayne County Commissioner Kevin McNamara and an aide returned his call. He said a street sweeper was seen out there after that. Brownlee said there is asphalt built up on the bridge over I-94 in that area;
• Heard Gibson ask about the activity seen on the property north of Willow Run Airport that has been a vacant field forever. At one time it was owned by General Motors. This is the area north of Ecorse Road, he said, and it has wetlands. No one was aware of what was going on;
• Heard Brownlee say that VBT doesn’t have good communications. It has Nixle and a website, but the problem is they are seldom used to communicate. He said in Ypsilanti or Washtenaw County, they put out Amber Alerts and notices about police activities in neighborhoods. “We don’t get information out to our people. We have the tools, but it’s manpower or whatever.” He said he signed up with the township for environmental information and never got any. Commissioner David Wilson said there was no notification to the public of the Water’s Edge apartment fire;
• Heard Trustee Jeff Jahr said the township buys hardware without any plan on how to use it. He said with the new sirens, who’s going to push the button? Who gets the call? He said Brenda Kurtz got stuck in the middle in the recent toxic spill by YCUA by answering the phone at the end of the day. “If it was serious, it should have been routed immediately to public safety.” He said the township hall was closed because of a snowstorm, but it wasn’t on VBT-12 cable channel because nobody could get to the township hall to put it on; and
• Was presented with eight letters and reports on environmental matters from various sources.