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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/20/2017 Item Public Comment, Rands Purrington, Teresa From:Janine Kennel Rands < Sent:Tuesday, June 20, 2017 7:37 PM To:E-mail Council Website Subject:Submit speech on Recycle Bins Janine speech SLO CC 6-20-17.docx Attachments: Hello City Council. I missed the opportunity to present my speech this evening at CC by 5 minutes, parking.... arriving just after Public Comment was closed. Darn...am disappointed. I won't be at the next CC as we'll be out of town all of July. Dealing with trash and recycling in the City is a very important subject - as my speech refers to. In order for this to be addressed, does it need to be presented publicly, or will this letter suffice? I'd like to be involved in a group committee, if that happens. Last week I called and talked with IWMA on more recycle bins - and of course public education, and they suggested that they can go ahead and work on this. I suggested that I'd prefer this to come present this publicly at CC, thus I prepared my speech. I'd like, of course, if we could go ahead and deal with the rest of the issues of EPS, with an amendment of recycling and trash, but I suppose they might be considered separate items? So, I'm attaching my speech, that I would have given. Please advise as to how this issue will be handled? Sincerely, Janine Janine Rands San Luis Obispo 1 Mayor & City Council. June 20, 2017 I’m Janine Rands, and live at Los Verdes Park 2 Here this evening to discuss about the lack of recycle bins at restaurants and public events In the city. Several weekends ago at the Greek Festival, water and Gatorade was $2/ 12 oz bottles. I chatted with the event planners, about how we hope that soon there will be a policy on selling single use plastic containers and even the novel idea that water should be free, and how the City is working on a plan for water refill stations. The fellow in charge totally agreed with me, but did ask, “what would people drink”. He then went on to explain that here at this event, they weren’t provided with more than 2 recycle bins, and by Sat. afternoon, they were already quite full. We frequent Starbucks and YogurtLand. Neither place has a recycle bin in place. When we ask, the clerks say “they think there is recycling” but don’t really know. Both restaurants use recycled products but the only receptacles are the gray bins. Just yesterday morning, I watched an employee at Starbucks by Madonna wheel a gray bin out to the container – cardboard sticking out of the top. This week, at Panera’s, an employee rolled a large grey dumpster out to the trash. The fellow put only a couple cardboard boxes in recycling and the rest into trash. There are no visible recycle bins in the entire block by Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Roundtable Pizza and Food4Less. The problem – since there is no visible recyclable container for the patron to select for their trash, it all goes into the same. By the end of the day, recyclables are contaminated with food waste – which is what likely happening at COSTCO – in their two-bin system by the samples – food contamination is in both. We must get a handle on this to do the right thing and also comply with the state- mandated 75-25 Initiative. In 2015, the Legislature & Gov. Jerry Brown initiated California’s 75 Percent Initiative: -an ambitious goal of 75 percent recycling, composting or source reduction of solid waste by 2020 calling for a statewide approach to decreasing California’s reliance on landfills. These goals cannot be met without motivation and action at multiple levels within both the private and public sectors. I believe that many of us conscientiously recycle and reduce in our homes, but when we aren’t given the option at a restaurant, then it only goes to landfill. In order to help the constituency to get in the mindset of recycling downtown, we must provide the containers. I encourage San Luis Obispo to check out Manhattan Beach’s amendment to their EPS ordinance in 2014: “This ordinance was adopted to reduce litter and to ensure that all food service containers and materials are recyclable or compostable. If you own a local business that currently does not have recycling collection services, we encourage you to contact Waste Management….Waste Management will complete a waste audit of your business at no charge to setup your recycling and solid waste management needs. Recycling can reduce your disposal costs as well as ensure that your customers can properly recycle at your establishment. On April 1, 2014, City Council ….. approved the additional items to be included in the existing polystyrene ordinance, including straws, cup lids and utensils made from polystyrene materials” ..…stores.”