Charleston Green Team

GREEN TEAM - AUGUST 20, 2025 Meeting called to order at: 12:02 pm Quorum established In-Person Attendance: Quenton King, Sam Nygaard, Linda Frame, Brent Webster, Patti Hamilton Via Microsoft Teams: Nancy Bruns, Dennis Strawn, Stephanie Heiseman, Andrew Earley, Emmett Pepper 1. Welcome 2. Adopt the minutes from meeting on July 16, 2025 Motion to adopt minutes from last meeting by Linda, Seconded by Patti. Vote is unanimous and motion to adopt minutes is accepted. NEW BUSINESS 1. None UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. Advisory Board Members: There was discussion on potential new advisory board members, including a mayor recommendation from someone at Taylor Books and people who have attended Green Drinks. Also noted that this will be moved to discussion during Committee report outs in the agenda. 2. Composting at the City - Report Out: a. Andrew and Quenton scheduled a meeting with Director Webster and went over the past composting efforts in the City of Charleston. They learned that the City never had city-led food composting. The City wants to get back to composting brown waste. The City is pursuing a grant related to tree composting. Discussed opportunities for the future including engagement with citizen composting clubs and researching organic food laws and code. b. Director Webster added that the composting facility had to be shut down for infrastructure issues and vandalism, even despite having trail cameras, equipment was being stolen. With the limitations of security it is not practical to do anything else.Final stages of grant, hopefully to go back to composting brown materials. c. Discussion continued and covered wood chipper opportunities and usage for homeowners and community gardens. Even grass and yard clippings go to the landfill right now. There was general consensus on the excitement to continue learning about composting. COMMITTEE REPORTS 1. What to Do with Stuff Committee (Patti Hamilton) a. Planning on drafting an Op-Ed from the Green Team 2. Communications (Linda Frame, Patti Hamilton) a. Meeting immediately following this meeting; list of things to talk about - will share recap afterwards. Discussed sharing a progress report back to the Mayor’s Office with a year end update as well as  creating an EV Facebook/Instagram Reel around November. What To Do With Stuff Wednesdays is still ongoing. 3. PODA (Linda Frame, Andrew Earley, Quenton King) a. Recap on plastic cups and PODA at Live on the Levee: Talked to the manager at the Four Points Sheraton hotel. The manager expressed how pouring canned beverages into plastic cups is time consuming and expensive; didn’t know what was happening with the cans. Rowan worked with staff to make a bin and the crew knows about it. Wait and see what happens on Friday, the last (rescheduled) Live on the Levee. The City Manager is going to meet with the Four Points to discuss PODA Permitting; there are questions remaining regarding special events and PODA Permitting. It’s complicated and there has to be a way to make this easier to understand, but this may be unique to this business. Updates: 1. City Council Environment & Recycling Committee - Chair Brent Burton (Absent) 2. Charleston Dept. of Public Works - Director Brent Webster a. Update: Transfer Station is live. The average citizen may not notice, but it was a little rough of a transition for the first few weeks with Waste Management. Having issues with the truck driving companies. The wait time has improved, and the kinks are getting worked out. WM is listening to concerns. However, no issues any more. WM would like to start educating and coordinating with schools. b. A member of the GT expressed concern about trash at GW track and discussion how it difficult to keep up, but may be a good opportunity for community and school engagement. WM has a recycling person that could join in on a future call (they are remote and not local to the area). c. Discussion on recycling and how it goes to Pittsburgh, as well as the appetite for glass but there are more conversations needed. Continued discussion on capacity challenges in Charleston and Emmett Pepper brought up how Boone County Solid Waste Authority is discontinuing recycling, so Kanawha County may be trying to purchase these items. 3. ICLEI Municipal Investment Fund a. Charleston is in the works of getting this opportunity; Ironing out details. October 1 is the start date, rather than September 1. There will be a kick-off meeting in early October with local stakeholders, including the Green Team and City Council members and staff. The premise is to explore how to make solar more feasible in Charleston. Quenton will let us know what the dates are for the meeting. 4. East-West Connector a. No news, Ryan will follow-up with the City Manager Announcements Next meeting: 3rd Wednesday is September 17, 2025 1. Apartment recycling for commercial buildings - WM is the best contact. Discussion about the limitations of recycling contracts and trash contracts and the inability to split between WM and the City. There’s a potential for a recycling co-op for commercial buildings. Adjournment Motion to adjourn by Patti Meeting adjourned by 12:53pm Respectfully Submitted - Samantha Nygaard / Secretary, Green Team