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Howdy neighbor,

Wondering what’s with the buffalo?

It’s my favorite part of a conversation starter our four year introduced to our family this summer. Each night (when we aren’t too exhausted) we share our:

• High: best part of the day

• Low: worst part of the day

• Buffalo: something random from the day

It’s fun and helps us cut through the unsatisfying Q: “How was your day?”, A: “Good,” junk that leaves you wondering if your dinner companions even left the house.

I’ve had a lot of highs, lows and buffalos since I last wrote, but here are the highlights from October:

• High: All of the passenger and light-duty vehicles approved at the Fall Annual Town Meeting will be hybrids! This includes police cruisers, Public Works vehicles and more. A phased approach to transitioning to all-electric passenger and light-duty vehicles are part of our plan too. Yay for progress!

• Low: I’m sad (for me/happy for him) that Tom Hladick, our Deputy Director of Public Works and Highway and Sanitation Supervisor, is retiring after 40 years! Tom is the kind of guy you always want on your team and has always been an excellent partner - helping with “crazy” ideas like curbside composting, even when it meant more work for his department. We are all happy for him, but will miss him dearly!

• Buffalo: This isn’t work-related, but it’s probably my real high if I am being honest! I was lucky enough to visit Iceland (!) a couple weeks ago and had such a good time. I *almost* went on a geothermal plant tour there, but opted for a geothermal spa instead. ;) Still, it’s inspiring: about 85% of all houses in Iceland are heated with geothermal energy, with the heat being distributed to buildings through extensive district-heating systems. And you don’t need volcanoes to make these type of systems possible! Eversource is actually piloting a networked geothermal system in Framingham. So cool!

Keep reading for other information on composting your pumpkin, the new waste ban, and more below!

With gratitude,

Jillian Wilson Martin, Natick Sustainability Director

Do you have a pumpkin you’d like to get rid of? Don’t trash it, compost it!

• If you participate in weekly curbside composting: you can simply place it on top of your green bin and Black Earth will compost it. Small pumpkins and gourdes can go in the bin. FYI, they do ask customers to limit one pumpkin per pick-up.

• If you don’t: bring your pumpkins to the Recycling Center this weekend. There will be a special container opposite the yard waste pile (on the left, in the back) for pumpkins. Collected pumpkins will be composted by Black Earth.

Please remember, no pumpkins with paint, glitter or stickers and don't forget to remove the candle!

PS: If you aren’t curbside composting, the time is now! Americans generate 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year than any other time of year. A lot of that is food waste. New participants are encouraged to use coupon code NEWNATICKHOME to sign up with Black Earth Compost and receive 10% off.

Speaking of waste, there has been a lot of press about Massachusetts’ new waste laws.

As of Monday, everyone has to recycle their old clothing and other textiles (bedding, clothing, curtains, fabric, footwear, towels, and similar items). You can’t throw them in the trash. Mattresses must also be recycled. In Natick, we’ve been preparing for this for some time and already have programs in place.

Textiles

Getting textiles out of the trash makes soooooo much sense. Virtually any textile can be reused, repurposed, or recycled if clean and dry. Even worn, torn, and stained items have value and can be made into something new!

In Natick, you have two easy options:

• Use the pink bag program. This free program has been run by Simple Recycling in cooperation with Natick Public Works since 2017. You can receive free pink collection bags at the DPW, by contacting SimpleRecycling.com or calling 866.835.5068. Fill your pink bag with textiles and place it at the curb on your recycling day, at least 3 feet from your recycling tote. Simple Recycling will collect the bags using a separate truck. If they miss your bag or you don’t want to wait for your recycling day, you can schedule a pick up here.

• Use a drop off bin. Baystate Textiles hosts textile bins in every Natick Public Schools parking lot and pays NPS for every pound they collect. We also have textile bins at the Recycling Center. If you have had trouble with the pink bag program, these are a great option - available day or night!

Mattresses

Most mattress retailers will pick up and recycle your old mattress when they deliver your new one.

If that isn’t an option, Public Works will accept mattresses for recycling, for a $35 fee as part of the bulk pickup program. This is because it costs the Town money to hire a company to recycle them. As much as we would all love recycling to always be a cost savings, it sometimes is not.

Natick is filing our FY22 Annual Green Communities Report tomorrow, which accounts for municipal energy use, solar generation, changes to our vehicle inventory, energy efficiency projects and more. It’s a bit of a slog to complete every year, but the data is always super valuable.

The good news is our energy use remains lower than it was before the pandemic. The bad news is our work is never done and is becoming increasingly complex. The bright side is we have great partners and funding is increasingly available.

In mid-October, Bill Spratt, our Director of Facilities Management and I presented this summary of the report to the Select Board, which you can watch here at the 36 minute mark (warning, my four year old makes a surprise appearance!).

Green Communities has been an incredible resource for Natick, providing the Town with more than $2M in grant funding. In FY23, I hope Natick will be ready to apply for the “Green Communities 2.0” program, tentatively called Climate Leaders. To qualify, we will need to adopt new policies and local regulations, such as the Specialized Municipal Opt-in Energy Code for new construction. Stay tuned as we work to explore these and understand if they are right for Natick.

Yay for good news! Our community’s first commercial solar + battery storage system was installed at Kennedy Middle School in October. It’s being commissioned this week and we expect to have permission to operate by the end of the month! The Natick Fire Department will be trained on the system, which was designed with their input.

In my experience, “leading by example” is one of the most important things a municipality can do as it relates to sustainability, and I hope this project serves as inspiration for further adoption of commercial battery storage locally.

My sincere thanks to Natick Public Schools and the Kennedy School Building Committee for their support of this project.

Thanks for reading this newsletter!