SU Recycling Program Surpasses 50% Milestone

SALISBURY — When Salisbury University’s (SU) recycling program began in 1990, few could have predicted how much it would grow.

Some 23 years ago, tin and aluminum cans from the campus’ dining hall were set aside from the rest of the University’s waste and transported to recycling centers instead of landfills. Today, SU recycles everything from computers to cooking grease.

Recently, the University marked a milestone in its recycling program. Last year was the first that more than 50 percent of the campus’ waste was sent to recycling outlets, up from just 27 percent in 2011. In all, nearly 740 tons of glass, wood, metal, paper, food waste, electronics, appliances, batteries, tires, grease, carpet, fluorescent light tubes and even yard waste were diverted from landfills.

Kevin Mann, SU physical plant director, credits much of the increase to a partnership with Delaware-based Blue Hen Organics that began last February. Through that program, food waste is collected at nine University Dining Service outlets in the Commons and Guerrieri University Center, including food preparation, dining and dish cleaning areas.

It is then sent to Blue Hen’s facilities, where it is composted and compressed into a soil enhancement product and sold to area farmers for large-scale use. SU’s Horticulture Department also purchases the product at a reduced rate, allowing it to lessen its dependence on synthetic chemical fertilizers, Mann said.

In 2011, before the partnership began, none of SU’s food waste was recycled. Now, 100 percent of it is, accounting for some 304 tons in 2012. This ranges from half-eaten food and chicken bones to fruit peels and even paper goods like napkins and plates.

Mann is quick to point out that while the University could not have reached its current recycling rate without the Blue Hen partnership, recycling in other areas also increased from 2011 to 2012.

Significant increases include glass and aluminum items, which Mann credited to the SU Student Government Association’s aggressive Recycle Madness campaign. During Recycle Madness, students and campus organizations are challenged to see who can collect the most recyclables. Winners receive prizes.

Cardboard recycling also grew thanks to two new collection points at the Sea Gull Square residence-retail complex and SU’s central recycling area, where the program is based. Collection of recyclable yard waste for recycling also was up in 2012, due in large part to debris remaining in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in October, Mann said.

To handle the overall increase in recyclables, SU worked with Dove Pointe, a local service and educational center for individuals with disabilities, to hire additional employees to help sort materials. Workers from Dove Pointe also operate the Commons’ tray return and dishwashing area, and transport all bins to the building’s main compost receptacle. Mann said this, too, helped SU reach its current recycling numbers.

He wants more, however.

“We are pushing our market, trying to go single stream,” he said, noting that “single stream” would lead not to garbage dumps, but instead to recycling centers. “We are hoping that soon, SU will have nothing going to the landfill.”

Right now, according to Mann, the only thing standing in the way of that dream is finding an area waste vendor with zero-landfill capability, which would be able to recycle 100 percent of SU’s output. He is optimistic, however, that the university eventually will reach that goal.

Ashley, Former Councilman Want Union Contract Talks In Public

OCEAN CITY — With contract negotiations underway between the town of Ocean City and its police officers, firefighters and paramedics, a former councilman and his colleague still at the dais made a pitch this week for the salary talks to take place under the public’s eye, but it appears to be too late in the game to make the change at this point.

Ocean City is currently negotiating a new contract with the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge 10, and the chapter of the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), the union which represents firefighters and paramedics, on a new collective bargaining agreement as both groups’ current contracts are set to expire at the end of the fiscal year.

The talks have been going on for months, largely behind closed doors because of sensitive salary, benefits and pension elements, and it appears both could be resolved within the next two weeks. The FOP contract is reportedly further along and could be ratified sooner.

The Ocean City FOP Lodge 10 earned the right to bargain collectively with binding interest arbitration in 2002 after an endorsement by the town’s voters through the referendum process. The firefighters and paramedics, through the IAFF, were granted collective bargaining power, without binding interest arbitration, in 2007 by a simple vote of the council.

On Tuesday, former Councilman Joe Hall addressed the Mayor and Council and pitched an idea to allow for more transparency in the current contract negotiations.

“I know you’re in negotiations with employees and I want to express an idea,” he said. “I’d like you to consider holding negotiations, as much as possible, in the public eye.”

While personnel issues and salary discussions have traditionally been held in closed session, Joe Hall, who lost his seat in last November’s election, said there was no good reason why the weighty contract talks with the town’s public safety employees should not take place out in the open.

“You’re not legally obligated to do this behind closed doors,” he said. “I believe engaging the voters and the taxpayers in the process will allow the people who are going to pay the bill to be involved. I encourage you to do the best for the taxpayer as you possible can.”

At the end of the meeting, Councilman Brent Ashley broached the subject again, asking City Solicitor Guy Ayres if there was anything on the books requiring the collective bargaining negotiations to take place in closed session. Ayres said there was not anything specific, although Council President Lloyd Martin said all parties would have to agree to conduct the contract talks in public.

“You’d have to have both parties agree to negotiate in public,” he said. “I’m not sure where they stand on that.”

With the FOP and IAFF negotiations well underway and with a resolution for both contracts in sight, it appears unlikely the council or the attorneys for the unions would agree to open the talks up to the public at this late juncture. Martin said it was likely too late this time around, but the council would consider opening future labor contract negotiations to the public.

“Those negotiations are going well, and we don’t want to derail that process now,” he said. “It is something to consider in the future.”

Ashley agreed it was probably too late in the current contract negotiation process to consider holding the talks in public session, but urged his colleagues to consider a format change in the future.

“I understand that,” he said. “I just agree the people who are going to pay for that should have some input.”

It’s important to note a pay freeze has been in place for the town’s public safety employees since the economy turned south in 2009, but both groups are expected to gain salary increases this year, according to sources speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Both union contracts are set to expire at the end of the current fiscal year, which is expediting the need to get the new contracts ratified before the upcoming budget talks for fiscal year 2014.

With salary increases expected for both unions as well as the town’s employees after the long spell of going without, a major sticking point in the deliberations dates back to a change made by the previous council to the pension system for new hires.

Although it’s unknown to the degree of animosity that has taken place during the talks, which are primarily handled by the town’s labor attorney and respective union lawyers, it’s clear there is a desire among union leaders to return to the former pension system.

Back in 2011, the council voted in a divided vote to alter the city’s pension plan for new hires to a defined contribution plan because the majority of the council felt it would eliminate long-term debt for the taxpayers. The idea behind the change was the employee adds his or her respective share toward the pension and the town matches it in a pay-as-you-go format.

Wicomico Hears Pitch For Chesapeake Coalition

SALISBURY — With counties across the lower shore including Worcester and Wicomico wrestling with state-mandated watershed improvement plans (WIP) and septic system regulations, Wicomico County officials this week heard from a coalition calling for a broader approach to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.

On Tuesday, the Wicomico County Council heard a presentation from the Clean Chesapeake Coalition (CCC), a growing collection of Maryland counties whose goal is to switch the emphasis of saving the Chesapeake Bay from high-cost wasterwater treatment plant improvements and restrictive state mandates on septic systems to what it perceives is the largest contributor to pollution in the bay. According to the CCC, billions of gallons of water flow from one of the most populated corridors in the country through the Susquehanna River and into a virtual stormwater holding pond behind the Conowingo Dam, which leaches millions of pounds of sediment into the upper portion of the bay.

CCC officials told the Wicomico Council on Tuesday the state-mandated WIPs the counties are working on or have already submitted, and the associated septic regulations represent a drop in the bucket compared to the nutrient contributions of the Susquehanna basin on the Chesapeake.

CCC attorney Chip MacLeod showed Wicomico officials pictures of the pollution plume stemming from the Conowingo Dam after a hurricane last year and perhaps more importantly during a non-storm event just two weeks ago. The pictures show a vast plume of sediment stretching from the dam into the north end of the Chesapeake and as far south as the Bay Bridge.

“The days of the Conowingo Dam and reservoir protecting the Chesapeake Bay are over,” he said. “It’s an enormous stormwater pond that has been collecting pollution for 80 years, but it’s full. If we don’t address this problem, everything we do below the bridge is in vain. Everything we do on the Eastern Shore is a waste of time and money.”

The CCC currently includes seven counties across Maryland including several on the Eastern Shore where WIPs and state-mandated septic regulations are deemed to be hurting rural areas the most. Also on hand on Tuesday was Dorchester County Councilman Tom Bradshaw, who told Wicomico officials his county was behind the CCC and its efforts to deflect the blame, and the exorbitant cost, away from the shore counties trying to make a difference and focusing it back on the main culprit to Chesapeake pollution.

“Forty years of money has been spent on cleaning up the bay and we’re not in any better shape than we were and some places are worse,” he said. “We can’t afford another unfunded mandate, especially when the science appears unfounded. When is enough enough? We need to call into question practices that cost us money we don’t have when I’m not even sure we’re getting what we paid for.”

MacLeod was seeking the Wicomico’s support for the CCC and its efforts at the tune of a $25,000 investment. He said the CCC is operating on three basic fronts including helping the member counties get approved WIPs, which Wicomico and Worcester have not submitted. He also said the CCC is intervening on behalf of the member counties on the Conowingo Dam issue. He said the power company that controls the dam, Exelon Energy, is currently in negotiation for a new lease and a window of opportunity to address the sediment issue could close for decades.
“It was last licensed in 1980 and it’s up for a license renewal,” he said. “They’re looking for a 40-50 year lease and if we don’t do something now about those sediments, we might not have another chance in a lifetime.”

MacLeod said the CCC’s third pillar is increasing awareness about a more holistic approach for the bay including a change in the agenda the member counties have been forced to follow. He said the coalition is calling for less restrictive regulations on agriculture and farmers, who have borne the brunt of the effort to save the Chesapeake.

“Farmers have been taking their lumps when it comes to cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay,” he said. “We think there is a lot to be learned from the farmers because they know what’s working best. Let them tell us how to do it and give them the money to do it.”

Another pillar for the CCC is advancing the restoration of oysters in the Chesapeake. The federal Army Corps of Engineers recently released an oyster restoration plan for the bay, but MacLeod said much of the plan is fundamentally flawed.

“We need to bring back the oyster because it’s the best and cheapest filter for the bay,” he said. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of the Chesapeake Bay is not suitable for bringing back oysters because of all of the sediment coming out of the Susquehanna. The same goes for restoring submerged aquatic vegetation.”