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Swap shop use prompts TAR staff to consider limits; facility wins Green Government Award nomination
Summary
The household pollutants facility reported higher year-over-year pollutant collections and growing swap shop use, prompting staff to propose a trial of limits on repeat takers to ensure donated items are available to citizens who drop off material.
Brian Lewis, speaking for the household pollutants program, told the board the facility served 438 customers in September (10 fewer than the previous month) but collected more pounds of pollutants than the prior month and nearly 11,500 more pounds than the same time last year.
Lewis said 223 customers visited the swap shop and took 922 items during the month, removing about 2,135 pounds of items from the waste stream at no cost. Staff reported repeat visitors who take items frequently are leaving shelves bare. To address that pattern, staff proposed reinstituting a requirement that some visitors drop off items to be eligible to take up to five items from the swap shop; staff suggested still allowing people to visit without dropping off but with tighter limits on the number of items they may take.
Board members discussed trade-offs between incentivizing drop-offs and discouraging use; one member suggested staff reserve a small restock inventory to keep shelves stocked for drop-off visitors. Lewis said staff would trial an approach and revert to prior rules if the change yields worse outcomes.
Lewis also told the board the swap shop was nominated by a board member for the Green Government Award at the American Recycles Day celebration and that the program "won that award." He said the award will be presented Nov. 17.
Staff asked whether there were questions and received general board support for the facility's operations and the proposed trial of revised swap-shop rules.
