Julie Barreda, a representative of Avalon Environmental Services, Inc., updated the council last week on state-mandate recycling standards.
The major change in recycling has been the state requirement that food and “green” waste be separated from trash and recyclables. Senate Bill 1383’s goal, according to CalRecycle, is to reduce pollution that adversely effects the environment.
Cities, and their residents, face substantial penalties for non-compliance.
Among the requirements is that businesses and individuals separate food waste.
Barreda said their goal was twofold:
One, to roll out organic recycling and make sure everyone was doing their part.
“We decided to bring our five supervisors, these are the cream of the crop that we have. So, they manage some contracts on the mainland and then each manages a group of sustainability team members as well,” Barreda said.
“We had this idea, rather than bring one person over, why don’t we blitz the town?” Barreda asked.
The group, according to Barreda, came over the morning of the June 20 meeting. The group stayed until 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 21.
They were expected to visit more than 300 businesses and multi-family properties.
“One, in part to make sure there’s education, meet with the businesses, meet with the multi-family properties, talk to them, talk to them about recycling recycling food scraps, handing out iterature [explaining] why they’re here,” Barreda said.
“People were very excited,” Barreda said.
“If the landlord’s not getting on board, how are the tenants getting on board?” Barreda said.
“Each of them all had great feedback that they shared, met with individual people. There’s some folks that say ‘I don’t have it’ or ‘I need more. Can y ou please deliver an organic can?” Barreda said.
“We actually had a restaurant that wants a dumpster for organics,” Barreda said.
“A bunch of restaurants share and they feel that a cart isn’t enough,” Barreda said.
She said most people have been supportive of the recyling campaign. She said maybe two people said, “I don’t want to do that.”
Barreda said SB 1383 legislation requires cities to conduct annual visits to every commercial location. “At this point, we’re checking the box twice,” Barreda said.
Barreda said she would be on the Island for the Fourth of July.
In response to a question, Barreda said you can recycle loose or you can bag it.
Mayor Anni Marshall brought up vacation rentals. She said the city had two vacation rentals and suggested getting them on board as well.
Councilmember Michael Ponce said Avalon Environmental had vacation rentals catagorized as residential. He said the city needed to get the information about recycling out to the property management companies.
Councilmember Lisa Lavelle said she appreciated the work Avalon Environmental was doing with businesses and shared facilities. Levelle, citing a letter she received from a resident, suggested checking under the lids of trash cans to check the contents.
Levelle asked if Avalon Environmental had an idea of the current percentage of compliance for residential propertites.
“It’s something that we want to do,” Barreda said.
She said Avalon Environmental definitely plans on doing that.
Lavelle said half of California was doing great and half of California has literally no idea, apparently referring to the trash spearation requirements of SB 1383.
(“70% of California Communities report they have residential organic waste collection in place,” since the implementation of SB 1383 in January 2022, according to the CalRecycle website.)
Councilmember Mary Schickling said her landlord opted to keep the old 55 gallon trash cans, so he painted a blue rim around the ones for recycleables.
“I feel for the guys on the trucks because, how can you tell?” Schickling said.
Later, Barreda said that the bags with the organics in them had to be organic.
City Attorney Scott Campbell said he uses Glad blue bags, so they are available. “They’re twice as big as the white bags,” Campbell said. “But they’re specially made for recycling.”
He suggested asking Vons if they supply the bags, as they are available at grocery stores.
Barreda said she would bring some samples for her booth on the Fourth of July. Barreda said that also long as the driver can see through the bag to see the contents, it’s OK.
Barreda said otherwise, the drivers are going to assume it’s just a trash bag.
Barreda said Avalon Environmental prefers people use dumpsters for recyclables.
Having personally experienced the positive impact of organic recycling in my community, I am thrilled to read about the “City Council gets organic recycling update” article. In my town, the introduction of organic recycling has significantly reduced the amount of waste sent to landfills, benefiting both the environment and our community’s overall sustainability efforts. It’s inspiring to see local authorities actively taking steps towards a greener future, and I hope this update encourages more cities to embrace organic recycling initiatives. Together, we can make a difference in preserving our planet for future generations.