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06/25/2023 08:03 AMIn less than six months, Branford’s new sustainability and compliance manager, Tyler Bowne, has hit the ground running to get up to speed quickly in helping oversee the Town’s efforts in this important and evolving area of management.
For Branford residents, the most notable sustainability effort currently underway is taking shape in the form of new trash and single-stream recycling carts being delivered town-wide as part of Branford’s upcoming change-over to automated, curbside hauling, which begins July 3.
When Tyler joined the town hall administrative staff, just about every component of the new, automated trash and recycling program, right up to the point of notifying residents about the arrival of the new carts, had been developed and managed during two years of effort undertaken by Branford’s Solid Waste Management Commission, led by chair Paul Muniz, notes Tyler.
Muniz and the commission began working on the project in July of 2021, conducting studies, acquiring outside engineering services, gathering information, interpreting results, developing an outline of the program to implement, researching and producing requests for proposals, among many other elements.
“This project came to fruition due to the hard work and dedication that Paul Muniz put in. He was an instrumental part of this project and has been a great coach in my corner, helping me to maneuver through the first few months of this new position with such large projects and contracts to manage,” says Tyler.
The commission was one of several groups which interviewed Tyler when he applied for the job with the town.
“When we met with Tyler, we felt he was an excellent resource to execute the work that the prior two years’ worth of studying and thinking had brought us to,” said Muniz. “It’s been a long road, and in these last four months, we’ve been lucky to have Tyler executing some of the ideas that it took us all that time to develop.”
Tyler’s also grateful to Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove for having the confidence in him to take on the project, as well as to executive assistant to the first selectman, Trista Milici, for helping him through the process of distributing information to residents.
For residents, the important takeaway is that some aspects of their traditional trash and recycling collection are changing, and they need to be aware of their role in this new process.
“We’re going to automated curbside collection, which means the hauler will come by and pick up your trash and recycling without getting out of the truck. So that is a big change for the process itself. Residents will continue to put their trash and recycling out at the curb, but there are some specifics they’ll have to get know, like you should have a gap between the two carts. Ideally, you put three feet in between and three feet on either side,” explains Tyler.
Tyler developed an infographic flyer distributed together with the cart deliveries, providing all of the details involved in Branford residents’ part in the new procedure.
While he began working with this municipal project about three weeks after he started his job at the town hall, Tyler is no stranger to multifaceted projects involving large-scale sustainability efforts. His past experience includes his most recent role working with the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for New York state as the sustainability coordinator for the Division of Marine Resources. At the same time, Tyler was also the DEC New York Fisheries Relief administrative assistant under the DEC director.
Tyler’s academic experience lies not only in sustainability, for which he earned a bachelor’s degree at Stony Brook University but also in psychology, for which he earned a bachelor’s degree from University at Albany.
“My psychology degree has actually been so helpful in my work. It doesn’t seem like that would be needed for this career, but I use it every day,” says Tyler.
How? Think fielding phone from residents with concerns or questions about items such as, well, receiving new trash and recycling carts. Tyler says the first calls began coming into his desk at the town hall shortly after the news about the cart delivery effort went out. The next batch started up when the carts began to arrive as of June 13, and haven’t receded as of yet, says Tyler. Cart deliveries to residents will continue through June 30.
“I’m getting calls every single day,” says Tyler, with the main theme being people who feel they should have taken the town’s offer to have requested smaller, 65-gallon carts by the May 14 deadline.
Tyler’s been addressing the requests with some details which may help to explain the 95-gallon carts the vast majority of residents will receive. At the moment, the 95-gallon size is the industry standard, he notes. And, although the 95-gallon carts are physically wider than the 65-gallon carts, “...there’s not much difference in height, and they don’t take up much difference in area,” Tyler notes.
News notifying residents of the coming carts, and the choice between sizes, was put out in several ways, from press releases to posting on the town website and social media, as well as through mailers. The response was good, with as many as 2,000 residents requesting the smaller carts, says Tyler.
While there had to be a hard date to end the offer to choose 65-gallon carts, Tyler is hoping to further develop a future process to implement that change for residents who may still feel they need it.
Tyler says another question he’s been fielding in phone calls has helped him to develop a satisfying, sustainable resolution.
“I think another question I’ve enjoyed getting is what do we do with our older bins, which is something that I took very personally. I would honestly lay awake at night thinking about how we’re going to deal with these.”
With 17,000 new trash carts going out to residents, “...my thought was, ‘That means there’s at least 17,000 garbage pails and recycling bins that could be going to the landfill,’” Tyler says. “I spent hours, for days, trying to find a plastics recycling company that would take them.”
When he finally found a willing recycling company, which develops old plastics into small pebbles known in the industry as “nerdles” (which can then be turned into everything from leaf rakes to park benches), Tyler says, “...that was a big day.”
“I found a company that will take it for free; we just have to ship it to them, essentially. So we’re now planning to provide residents with a drop-off collection at the transfer station for their old trash and recycling bins, which will be recycled,” he says.
Tyler is coordinating the final aspects of the transfer station drop-off program, anticipated to begin in July. More details will be forthcoming.
“Right now, we’re telling residents to consider finding another use for them, and when we have the drop-off up and running, we will have a section at the transfer station for literally every barrel and bin they don’t want to continue to use,” says Tyler.
In addition to sorting out that project, future sustainability projects Tyler is interested in taking on for the town include those supporting food waste reduction, rain barrels, coastal beach and water cleanups, and miniature liquor bottle cleanups, among others.
In his daily work role, Tyler manages many areas involving sustainability and compliance and works with a variety of committees, commissions, and boards on projects spanning clean energy to environmental and conservation concepts, issues, and ideas. He oversees eight different contracts involving Branford solid waste and recycling matters, manages the town’s growing number of Electric Vehicle charging stations and installations (currently at four), oversees the former landfill’s environmental monitoring, is the sustainable representative for town building remodels, renovations, and upgrades, and is the town representative for the Clean Energy ad hoc committee and for the Solid Waste Commission, among other responsibilities.
As Branford’s sustainability efforts continue to evolve, Tyler will continue to evolve in his role, he says.
“It’s a really interesting position in that it can be moved in a fluid motion toward what makes sense.”
He says Branford has a wealth of extremely well-educated community volunteers and appointed local leaders who are deeply committed and involved in community and town efforts to enhance sustainability.
“Coming here from positions where I was usually the most sustainably-minded person at that spot, and seeing there are commissions, and people leading these commissions, to push forward the things that I also believe in and think are important, has been huge. It’s helped me to hit the ground running, and it’s been amazing to see people that genuinely care. They’re all very committed to their work.”
For more information on what items are acceptable for collection in Branford’s single-stream recycling program, visit www.branford-ct.gov/departments/solid-waste-recycling