Meeting Minutes from May 21, 2008
Welcome:
President-Elect Norm Narancsik opened the meeting. Jantine led the invocation.
In Attendance: Norm Narancsik, Jantine Stam, Pieter Stam, Wim Duizer, Erik Tremblay, Peter Van Wees, Rick Keers, Paul Bradford, Tim Koetsier, John Garton, Jack Bingham and Gibson Bernath.
Guests: Klaas Dekker, and our guest speakers Pam Antonio and Michelle Shannon.
News from Norm: Ingamo Family Homes has an upcoming event. Speak to Norm if you're interested in attending.
May 31st - Terry Fox Organizers Meeting. So far no one from our club will be attending this meeting. If you are interested in going then please speak to Norm. The Terry Fox run in Woodstock this year will be September 14th. So far everything is set for that.
Rotary Directory - If you haven't updated your info in our directory, please speak to John Garton. June 15th is the deadline to update your information.
Sat. Aug. 9th - Rotary Celebration at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. There will be a reception for 1000 max people. This is a huge event. Peter will put info on our club website about the cost and how to purchase tickets.
Bill & Belinda Gates - 100 million has been donated to Rotary to complete the Polio Campaign. As a club we will donate $1000/year for 3 years to match the 100 million.
Rotary International Convention - the theme this year is "Literacy". If you would like to donate a children's book, please give them to Jantine or Pieter.
Woodstock Sidewalk Days - this will be in the beginning of August. We will decide at the next board meeting if we would like to participate.
Shelterboxes in Myanmar - 2 weeks after the cyclone in Myanmar, 1050 containers arrived from the U.K. 2 volunteers from the U.S. were in the first volunteer group allowed into the country.
Rotary Medals Night - June 4th is the date of the Rotary Medals. So far 17 people from our club will be attending. This night will not disappoint!
Fines and Happy/Sad Bucks:
Jack - fined for not wanting to fine people tonight
Pieter & Wim - fined for being late
Wim - many happy bucks for celebrating his 9th anniversary today! Congratulations!
Norm & Paul - happy bucks for their golf weekend in Frankenmuth
Presentation:
Tonight we had Pamela Antonio, Waste Management Coordinator for the County of Oxford. Pam joined the County in October 2007 and is responsible for all waste management and waste diversion activities prior to going to the landfill.
Prior to joining the County, Pam worked as an Environmental Office for Electro-Motive Canada (formerly known as GM Diesel) in London where her responsibilities revolved around solid and hazardous waste management, waste diversion initiatives and ISO 14001.
We also had Michelle Shannon as a speaker. She is the Waste Management Assistant for the County of Oxford. Michelle joined the County in 2004 after completing her environmental technology program through Fanshawe College.
Pam explained that her goal is to extend the life of the landfill, and reduce landfill waste. Oxford County landfill sites gets 260 tonnes of residential and commercial garbage a day. That's the equivalent weight of 243,747 of boeing 747 jets - per year.
About 16% of the material going into the landfill can be recycled.
In 2007, Oxford County recycled an composted 13,072,740 kg of materials Oxford County is doing well compared to the other municipalities. Our target diversion rate is 60%. The Minister of Environment increased the rate to 70%. In 2007 Oxford County's diversion rate was 47%. We're a strong municipality.
Our Plan
To focus on the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle) with promotional material and educational programs.
To enhance the bluebox program.
Reduce
Precycle - buy only what you need
- look for items that come with less packaging
- bring your reusable shopping bag to the store
- rent or share rarely used items with friends and neighbours (pressure washer, snow blowers)
Reuse
- donate items that you are no longer using
Recycle
It takes far less energy to make something from a recycled product. If you recycle it will extend the life of the landfill sight. Reducing landfill waste translates into the reduction of G.H.G.'s.
July 1st
The expanded Blue Box program begins. You will be able to add more items to your blue box. A few new items are: giftwrap, milkboxes, juice boxes and dried paint cans. If the landfill is able to increase recycling, it means they can sell more items which means more money - that money they can put back into their programs and will keep updating them.
Existing Programs
- leaf and yard material depots
- white goods events, used appliances
- scrap metals events
- large article colletions
- hazardous waste depots
New Programs
The Green Bin Program which is running in other cities, is an expensive upcoming program. The pilot project is scheduled for 2009. It's called the Source Separated Organic Program.
An Electronice Recycling Depot and multi-residential recycling are two new programs. They are planning on having a permanent Household Hazardous Waste Depot.
Upcoming Business Programs
- creation of waste management and waste reduction materials
- banning construction and demolition materials and creating programs for these products
School Programs
Promoting the 3 R's Program to the elementary schools.
Thank You: Jack thanked Pam and Michelle for coming out tonight. It was a very informative evening. Our club will donate the funds to vaccinate 25 children through the Polio Plus program in Pam and Michelle's names.
50/50:
Last but not least, Jack won the 50/50 draw tonight.
Closing: The meeting was closed by President-Elect Norm at 8:20 p.m.
Our next meeting will be this Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!