OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

December 9, 2025 Quality of Life Committee Meeting Summary

City Council — Tuesday, December 9, 2025
BodyNew Orleans, Louisiana
SessionCity Council
DateTuesday, December 9, 2025
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 50:28

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Today is Tuesday, December 9th, and it's the seventh and final quality of life committee meeting for 2025.

0:06

It's also my last quality of life chairing this meeting for this term.

0:13

During today's meeting, we will hear presentations on recycling updates from both Glass Half Full and Department of Sanitation.

0:19

And I just want to take a moment just to say it's been an absolute pleasure to share quality of life.

0:26

We've done some amazing topics and we've met almost every single month.

0:29

And I want to give a shout out, especially to Matthew, who has staffed and came up with the ideas for these meetings.

0:35

So Matt, thank you so much for all the work that you've done with me.

0:40

Councilmember King, thank you for coming today.

0:42

And I know that we can expect some other council members as well.

0:46

And with that, let me just give a refresher on public comment.

0:49

Public comments can be submitted online beforehand or in person.

0:52

Public comments will be limited to one comment per person per item.

0:56

Comments should be limited to two minutes when read aloud and be germane to the agenda item at hand and before voting on any agenda item, council staff will read any online public comment received for a pending agenda item.

1:08

Anita, do you want to call the first agenda item?

1:11

Roll call real quick.

1:12

Okay.

1:12

Councilmember Harris.

1:14

Here.

1:14

Councilmember Charuso.

1:16

Councilmember King.

1:17

Councilmember Green.

1:19

Councilmember Thomas.

1:20

We have two members.

1:22

We do not have a quorum.

1:23

That is that's okay.

1:25

So we'll skip over the colour.

1:26

Oh, Councilmember Green is stepping up.

1:29

All right.

1:31

So with that, I'll move to uh adopt the minutes.

1:35

Councilmember King seconds.

1:36

All in favor?

1:38

All right.

1:39

Aye.

1:41

Glass Half Full, you want to come up and do your presentation.

1:52

Ah.

1:55

Hey, thank you so much for having me.

1:57

Happy last meeting.

1:58

I'm honored to be here.

2:00

Um, if you don't know me, my name is Francisca Troutman.

2:03

You can call me Fran, and I'm here on behalf of my company, Glass Half Full.

2:08

Glass Hat Full started, if you don't know, over a bottle of wine, as you might guess.

2:13

Um, back in 2020, my co-founder Max and I were kind of lamenting over the lack of glass recycling options in South Louisiana and wanted to come up with a solution uh for for glass waste in Louisiana.

2:26

So we started Glass Half Full in the backyard of a fraternity house and started crushing glass and uh collecting it from all around town.

2:36

But fast forward to today, and we have two main facilities now.

2:40

So the one you might be familiar with is our facility on Louisa Street or Johnny Jackson Jr.

2:46

Boulevard.

2:47

Um this is our most popular drop-off spot where anyone can actually bring glass, obviously, but also more than that, we accept most recyclable materials here.

2:59

So that's cardboard, paper, plastics, aluminum, metals, and then also glass.

3:05

And this is kind of become because I'll get to our new facility a little later.

3:09

This has become our hub for um kind of like aggregating and separating recyclable materials from around the greater New Orleans area, and we collect tens of thousands of pounds of recyclable materials a week.

3:24

We service thousands of people per week at this location and aggregate materials from places like the Jefferson Parish Recycling Program that we run and all different places all over Louisiana as well as Mississippi.

3:38

Um but once all the recyclable materials are separated, the glass specifically goes to our new facility in Chalmette, which we just finished building back in March of this year.

3:50

So we opened up this three-acre glass recycling facility because since we started Glass Half Full, we've always had the problem of too much glass, and we were kind of tired of dealing with that.

4:00

So we built this giant facility that could handle all of the glass waste that currently goes to Louisiana and Mississippi landfills.

4:08

So that all can be processed at this facility.

4:11

It has the capacity to process half a million beer bottles in a single day, just to put it into perspective.

4:18

And this facility makes two main products.

4:21

So sand for coastal restoration, which we use locally in coastal restoration projects, and then a material called Cull It, which can be sold into the glass bottle making industry.

4:33

Um these two products go hand in hand and are also obviously very beneficial to the environment.

4:38

Obviously, we have a huge coastal erosion crisis here, and the sand helps contribute to coastal restoration projects that we do with with partners across Louisiana.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Sanitation and Waste Management█████████████████████████████████████████████61%
Public Engagement██████████████19%
Environmental Protection████████11%
Procedural████5%
Public Health███4%
Summary of Proceedings

December 9, 2025 Quality of Life Committee Meeting Summary

The final Quality of Life Committee meeting of 2025 focused on recycling updates and the expansion of residential curbside recycling in New Orleans. Hosted by Councilmember Harris, the meeting featured presentations from Glass Half Full and Department of Sanitation officials regarding new facilities, historical diversion rates, and a proposed federal grant-funded transition to an opt-out recycling model. The discussion highlighted significant disparities in recycling access across neighborhoods, the importance of waste literacy for public health and equity, and the urgency of utilizing specific EPA grant funding by March 31, 2026.

Consent Calendar

  • Minutes Approval: The minutes from the previous meeting were adopted via voice vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Councilmember Harris: Expressed full support for Glass Half Full, encouraging residents to utilize the drop-off locations on Louisa Street (Johnny Jr. Boulevard) for glass recycling and highlighting the community building aspects of the facility.
  • Councilmember Green: Expressed gratitude to Glass Half Full for filling a void in private sector recycling efforts; stated they personally changed their consumption from plastic to glass due to the organization's efforts and confirmed that Glass Half Full has a drop-off location at City Hall.
  • Brett Davis (Executive Director, Grounds Crew): Expressed full support for expanding residential recycling, countering the narrative that residents do not want recycling bins; argued that community demand is high and that expanding recycling is a quality of life, public health, and economic win.
  • Michael Essa (Student/Concerned Citizen): Expressed full support for flipping the script on recycling as a justice issue; noted the disparity where wealthy and white neighborhoods receive service while predominantly Black and working-class areas do not; stated that all residents pay for the service and that haulers must abide by their contracts, specifically supporting the "Feeding on the Street" education program.
  • Online Comment (Ronnie La NASA): Expressed strong opposition to spending five million dollars on plastic trash cans; argued the city must prioritize twice-weekly garbage collection at the lowest possible cost and warned against spending on glass recycling for marine habitats, calling it waste.

Discussion Items

  • Glass Half Full Presentation (Francisca Troutman):

    • Announced the March 2025 opening of a three-acre glass recycling facility in Chalmette with the capacity to process 500,000 beer bottles daily.
    • Outlined the production of sand for coastal restoration and "Cull It" for the bottle-making industry, noting a diversion of over 12 million pounds of glass and 1 million pounds of other recyclables.
    • Proposed expanding free drop-off locations to areas like Lakeview and Gentilly.
    • Expressed full support for expanding the curbside residential recycling program to include glass, citing equal access concerns while acknowledging the need for education regarding contamination.

  • Department of Sanitation/OOS Presentation (Matt Torrey & Chris Lang):

    • Current Landscape: Stated that despite a 1990 projection of a 25% diversion rate, New Orleans remains at a 2% landfill diversion rate (98% to landfill) in 2025.
    • Equity & Access: Highlighted that 58% of households (92,000 of 160,000) have not opted into recycling, disproportionately affecting Black neighborhoods and low-wealth households; argued that the current opt-in model forces residents to subsidize a service they do not receive.
    • Proposal: Discussed the plan to use a $5.3 million EPA grant to transition from an opt-in to an opt-out model, covering 100% of single-family residences.
    • Contamination Mitigation: Detailed the "Feeding on the Street" program (4-week tagging initiative) and in-mold labels on carts to reduce contamination, drawing parallels to success in Louisville.
    • Pilot Program: Proposed a pilot deploying 10,000 carts across four service areas to test contamination rates against a 34% regional average threshold before full rollout.
    • Contractual Concerns: Noted that waste haulers (IB Waste, Waste Pro) have expressed opposition to the opt-out pilot, citing lack of local processing capacity and labor concerns, and preferred continuing the opt-in model.

  • Councilmember Green's Query: Expressed concern regarding contract enforcement; questioned whether the administration is willing to renegotiate hauler contracts to enforce the pilot and metrics, warning against assuming federal funds will remain available given the budget deficit.

  • Councilmember King's Commentary: Expressed that the city controls the contracts and has the leverage to require haulers to participate in the pilot and implement "Feeding on the Street" if they are not already contractually obligated to do so; suggested creative public service messaging involving children to drive household participation.

Key Outcomes

  • No Formal Vote Taken: The committee did not cast a vote on the proposed opt-out expansion or the pilot program; Councilmember Harris moved to adjourn the meeting.
  • Directives to Administration: Councilmembers directed the Department of Sanitation to return to the committee to discuss specific strategies for renegotiating hauler contracts to enforce the proposed pilot program and ensure contract adherence regarding contamination protocols.
  • Next Steps Identified: The Department of Sanitation must proceed with selecting a contractor for the Solid Waste Master Plan and is urged to finalize the cart procurement contract as the current one has expired, while preparing to address the March 31, 2026 grant deadline.

Meeting Transcript

Today is Tuesday, December 9th, and it's the seventh and final quality of life committee meeting for 2025. It's also my last quality of life chairing this meeting for this term. During today's meeting, we will hear presentations on recycling updates from both Glass Half Full and Department of Sanitation. And I just want to take a moment just to say it's been an absolute pleasure to share quality of life. We've done some amazing topics and we've met almost every single month. And I want to give a shout out, especially to Matthew, who has staffed and came up with the ideas for these meetings. So Matt, thank you so much for all the work that you've done with me. Councilmember King, thank you for coming today. And I know that we can expect some other council members as well. And with that, let me just give a refresher on public comment. Public comments can be submitted online beforehand or in person. Public comments will be limited to one comment per person per item. Comments should be limited to two minutes when read aloud and be germane to the agenda item at hand and before voting on any agenda item, council staff will read any online public comment received for a pending agenda item. Anita, do you want to call the first agenda item? Roll call real quick. Okay. Councilmember Harris. Here. Councilmember Charuso. Councilmember King. Councilmember Green. Councilmember Thomas. We have two members. We do not have a quorum. That is that's okay. So we'll skip over the colour. Oh, Councilmember Green is stepping up. All right. So with that, I'll move to uh adopt the minutes. Councilmember King seconds. All in favor? All right. Aye. Glass Half Full, you want to come up and do your presentation. Ah. Hey, thank you so much for having me. Happy last meeting. I'm honored to be here. Um, if you don't know me, my name is Francisca Troutman. You can call me Fran, and I'm here on behalf of my company, Glass Half Full. Glass Hat Full started, if you don't know, over a bottle of wine, as you might guess. Um, back in 2020, my co-founder Max and I were kind of lamenting over the lack of glass recycling options in South Louisiana and wanted to come up with a solution uh for for glass waste in Louisiana. So we started Glass Half Full in the backyard of a fraternity house and started crushing glass and uh collecting it from all around town. But fast forward to today, and we have two main facilities now. So the one you might be familiar with is our facility on Louisa Street or Johnny Jackson Jr. Boulevard. Um this is our most popular drop-off spot where anyone can actually bring glass, obviously, but also more than that, we accept most recyclable materials here. So that's cardboard, paper, plastics, aluminum, metals, and then also glass. And this is kind of become because I'll get to our new facility a little later. This has become our hub for um kind of like aggregating and separating recyclable materials from around the greater New Orleans area, and we collect tens of thousands of pounds of recyclable materials a week.

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