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.

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.

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.

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.

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

So that all can be processed at this facility.

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

And this facility makes two main products.

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.

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

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.

And then cull it is cool because it is melted and turned into new bottles, and it melts at a lower temperature than what would normally be made used to make bottles.

So it saves literally tons of uh carbon dioxide emissions.

So both of these products are really great for the environment and reduce CO2 emissions.

And just uh real quick on kind of the impact we've had over the last five almost six years.

We've diverted more than 12 million pounds of glass from our landfills, created 25 jobs here in New Orleans, um, completed six coastal restoration projects, and since getting into other recyclable materials, we've been able to divert more than a million pounds of those types of materials as well.

Thank you.

And then this is just an example of one of the coastal restoration projects we've participated in.

This is on the shores of Lake Ponch Train that we did with the coalition to restore coastal Louisiana and Common Ground Relief, both nonprofits based here in New Orleans, um, where we basically filled in a hole in the marsh.

We were able to utilize our sand and CRCL brought the plants to help turn this from open water that you see on the left back into thriving marshland within one year.

And so, real quick, I just like to kind of chat about what we see as opportunities here in New Orleans to expand recycling access and just divert more waste from our landfills that can be used otherwise to create jobs or um economic opportunity.

One of the main ones that pertains to us is expanding free glass recycling drop-off locations.

So I have a map here of where we currently have free glass recycling drop-offs where anyone can bring their glass.

But you can see there's definitely gaps in the city where we could use more locations for people to be able to bring their glass, and we'd like to, you know, potentially partner with the city or anyone else who might be interested to add more drop-off locations.

Um, Lakeview, Gentili could all potentially use some more options for where people can bring their glass for free.

The second opportunity is our Mardi Gras Recycling Program.

We've been honored to work with the city on recycled at for the past couple years since its inception.

And one of the we we do a lot of programming within Recycle DAT, but one of the main ones is a competition that we do between bars that are on or near the parade route where they compete for who can recycle the most glass.

So instead of celebrating how much trash we're sending to our landfills, we can celebrate how much recyclable materials we're able to divert from landfills and make it a fun competition.

Bars can participate for free during this program, um, thanks to the awesome sponsors of Recycle That.

And so if you know any bars in your district that might be interested, uh we'd love to kind of reach out to them and see if we can divert glass as well as aluminum, we'll be adding this year.

And then lastly, I know um Matt Torrey and Chris Lang will be speaking much more on this, but I just kind of wanted to express my support for also expanding the curbside residential recycling program.

I know glass isn't included.

Maybe that will be something for the future, but um I do truly believe everyone in the city deserves you know equal access to curbside recycling, especially since we're already paying for it.

Um I do agree there are valid concerns being brought up about potential contamination and education that's needed, but I don't think it's rocket science.

I think these are things that can all be figured out in a city like New Orleans, and I'm happy to you know continue being a resource to expand outreach, to expand education, or anything else that I can help with in terms of supporting the curbside expansion.

And with that, here's my contact information if you want to reach out about the recycling competition for Mardi Gras for any you know drop-off expansions or anything about curbside recycling.

And I appreciate your time and I'll take any questions, I guess if anyone has any.

Any questions?

Council Member Green.

I appreciate um glass hair full filling that void.

Um is the private sector stepping up, doing something that government can't do.

I want to encourage everyone who's watching that if you go to Louisa slash Johnny Jackson to um bring your glass product, it's almost become like a social event.

It is, yes.

We also make people who enjoy coming there to see their friends, and there are people who come from Mississippi as far away.

With glass that they collected in a neighborhood.

I want to encourage everybody to recognize that you've seen the benefits in terms of filling the hole in the marsh, but there's a whole a lot of other benefits too that um you all participate in.

I just want to encourage people to do it.

I do it by the end of the day.

I want to encourage folks to fade that glass and bring it to Johnny Jackson Boulevard, meet a couple of friends, and know that you're doing something that's very, very positive.

So thank you for the work that you do and the way that you're filling that gap.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

Uh look, I used to go to that location before I had local glass drop-off, and my favorite story is uh running into a group of nuns dropping off a lot of us cases of wine bottles, and it just made me so happy to see.

Um but I I use the Mardi Gras Indian Den, um drop off glass weekly there, and it's just been such a benefit to me.

Um, you know, I've changed going from drinking water all to plastic because I drink a lot of fizzy water from plastic to glass because of you and and your team and the recycling efforts.

And I know that glass is probably the easiest material to recycle, and we definitely need it, especially here for coastal restoration.

So I just want to thank you for everything that you've done.

And I know that you've spoken out a lot um on social media about recycling and your efforts there.

I've been a fan for a huge huge long time since you were at Sea Lane.

Um, and so I just want to say thank you for all of your efforts.

And the partnership, if y'all don't know, Matt Tori can talk about it here at City Hall.

Yes, Glass Half Pool has a drop-off location.

So if you are a City Hall person and you have glass to drop off, you can do it right here at City Hall.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Um, I do have a comment card from Brett Davis.

Do you want to speak now or later for the Matt Tori situation?

Tori, please.

Okay.

All right.

I'll wait for you, Brett.

Brand, thank you so much.

Big fan.

Continue the good work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anita, you want to do the second agenda item?

Sure, we did have one online comment.

Okay.

Um, that was let's see.

Ronnie La NASA comments, City Hall, the council in New Orleans must prioritize basic twice weekly garbage collection at the lowest possible cost.

Spending five million dollars on free plastic trash cans.

Does nothing to improve residents' quality of life, stop this waste, fraud, and abuse, and focus on what truly matters.

Reliable twice a week garbage service, all residential trash contracts should be rebid with a clear emphasis on lower costs with twice a week service.

Please do not spend a pecune on grounding glass to dump in the marine habitat.

That's it.

All right, great.

Second item, please.

Yeah, the next item is from the is we've got Department of Safety of Sanitation with some recycling updates.

Got Matt Torrey, um, Chris Lang.

Yeah.

When are you ready?

Well, good afternoon.

Uh thank you so much for having us here.

Uh I'm Matt Torrey, I'm the director for the Department of Sanitation.

Chris Lang introduce themselves.

Hey everybody, my name is Chris Lang.

Pleasure to be here.

I'm uh with the Office of Resilience and Sustainability, and I'm the circular economy program and policy manager.

Well, it's wonderful to be here for uh your last quality of life meeting.

You've been such a wonderful advocate for recycling um throughout your time on the council.

So we certainly appreciate everyone's um support and attention on these important matters.

We're uh extremely lucky to have Chris Lang with us.

He joined us this year uh in a long overdue position as the city's circular economy manager, someone to actually focus uh on recycling and moving the city forward, which is a position we haven't had uh at the city for as long as as I've been here, a dedicated resource focused purely on um recycling and improving our diversion rate.

So I mean, Chris is uh time here and his presence has already paid dividends uh already, so we're excited about the work that he can do.

And uh he's gonna talk a lot about the state of recycling here in the city and some of the initiatives we have going on from the Department of Sanitation's perspective.

So we do have recycling, I think at over 30 city facilities, um, which is great, as you mentioned, based on uh a recommendation from you and this council, we did bring uh glass recycling to City Hall through Glass Hat Full, which is a wonderful partnership.

We also partner with Glass Hat Full for the weekly uh drop off that the Department of Sanitation facilitates on Allegian Fields every Saturday from 8 to 1.

That's a great um opportunity for folks that maybe aren't able to participate in the city's curb side recycling program or have items that aren't easy to recycle that they need to get rid of.

So, in addition to your your staple, paper plastic, cardboard, aluminum.

We also take hazardous materials there, light bulbs, batteries, we take waste tires, we take Mardi Gras beads.

Uh during uh our annual hazardous waste day event, we take uh gasoline, oils, pesticides, paint, all of those things, and four times a year we have a shred day event open to the public.

And our last shred day event for this year is actually this coming Saturday, December 13th.

So we encourage everybody to take advantage of that as well.

So again, happy to be here.

I'm gonna hand off to Chris.

He's gonna walk through the presentation, but certainly available to answer any questions.

Certainly.

Okay, thanks so much, Matt, for the introduction, and thank you so much, Councilmember Harris, for allowing us to speak and and for your your work with this Quality of Life Committee throughout the years.

Um I just want to give a quick current landscape check before we go into the sort of the program overview.

Um, you know, looking back in the the archives, the records here, even within the public library, we've seen in 1989, Louisiana had a Solid Waste Reduction Act that prompted us to have a solid waste master plan in 1990.

And in those, in that report, there was actually evidence that they estimated 25% landfill diversion rate by 1992.

So here we are 33 years later in 2025, and we're still at uh a 98%.

Um we send 98% of our waste to the landfill.

That's a 2% landfill diversion rate.

So we have a huge amount of room for improvement, but there's it seems like there's um historic precedent of just being stuck in this constant loop of trying to do better to improve our recycling, but we just keep getting stuck, and we're still at 2%, and it's been like that for 33 years.

Oh, sorry.

And so New Orleans, you know, by sending 98% of what we consume to the landfill, we really epitomize what we call the disposable economy.

Um a lot of folks might call it the take-make waste model.

So we take to consume our products, right?

We're taking stuff from the natural world, we're taking oil, we're extracting oil, we're harvesting metals, minerals, we're also deforesting to create you know paper products and cardboard.

A lot of these materials are compostable.

We're a tourist economy city, but we also have a lot of consumer materials that could be easily recycled.

But these are just pictures that I've taken from walk in the streets.

I'm sure you guys have seen evidence within your own trash cans.

And so, you know, it epitomizes the need for us to really upgrade and level up as a city to move from a disposable economy to a circular economy, which is what my role is about.

But this disposable economy doesn't just have impacts on the environment, that take make waste model has impacts also on human health.

And so that's what I've always been really most passionate about is how humans and the environment are interlinked.

And so we're we're in an industrial state, so there's a huge prioritization on manufacturing.

Umfortunately, there's also a side effect of that on human health.

And so for us to be consuming as we do, we have some of the most, I think we have the most bars per capita of any city, or at least we did back in 2015.

Um, for us to be sending all of these you know consumable items straight to the landfill without even you know second thought about you know where they came from, who's been impacted.

Oftentimes the impacts are right here within the state and even within the city.

Um it also shows that we have room for improvement and and we can step up into that that void.

Pollution has a huge impact on human health.

The Lancet in 2022 published that one in six deaths globally are linked uh linked to pollution.

It's a huge cause for premature death within this city.

Um there was a New Orleans Health department, they published a health equity report that noted that the black community here experiences premature death more than 2.2 times the rate of the white community here, um, and over 20% the state average, right?

And some of the listed reasons for that they they displayed were you know chronic poverty, housing insecurity, but also environmental pollutant exposure.

So this is really more than just a question of material management, it's also human health at stake from this disposable economy.

And that's what I hope to bring up with recycling, is one of many spokes on the wheel of a circular economy agenda to get at and take a dent out of this disposable reality that we're living in.

And you know, from the take and the make and the waste that we are contributing to, recycling puts a dent in all of those.

We don't need to take as much from the natural environment because we're safeguarding more materials that can be used in the manufacturing process, and we're wasting less because we're sending less to the landfill.

Now, when we're thinking about the human health concerns, we also need to think about access and equity.

If you look on this map on the uh on the presentation, we've got uh racial demographics of New Orleans on the left, and we've got the access and participation access to recycling on the right.

And we're noticing also neighborhoods that are populated with more of a black community have not opted into a service that we've already that folks are already paying for, right?

That's an equity issue.

Even if it's an opt-in process and we're saying feasibly everyone has equal quote unquote access, we know that there's systemic barriers to an opt-in model.

We also know that within the wealth disparity and the wealth gap that exists within the city that the New Orleans data center said uh within the average black household has about one tenth the wealth of the average white household in the city.

Um we're also through an opt-in program, and we're seeing through the recycling access that basically folks who are not uh opted in are basically subsidizing the service for the rest of the community.

So there's almost a double tax there because folks who don't have as much expendable income are are still paying for this service but not receiving that service as well.

That also has implications in terms of the future as we project future waste expertise and who be at who's able to hold the expertise mantle in terms of sustainability here, and that's across the nation.

We have an issue in terms of how how sustainability sustainability is coded through affluence through through whiteness and ways in which to destabilize that you know, you have to consider equity at the front and center.

And so that's one reason why we actually applied for this grant was understanding there's equity concerns in recycling access as it stands, and then the best way to break through that barrier is to move forward towards an opt-out program.

This chart says a lot, but what I'm gonna focus on is the bottom numbers, uh, the totals, right?

So we've got about 160,000 households in New Orleans, 92,000 have not opted into the recycling uh cart program.

That's about 58% that have not opted in.

So 42% of the city has a recycling car as it stands.

And the other big number that I want us to pay attention to is the number 10.5 million, right?

That's the amount that we're paying as a municipality for the service of recycling across the four different service areas, even though only 42% of the households are currently recycling, so there's a huge gap in terms of what we're paying for and the actual the mileage of what we're getting to.

And that's one reason we want to get to an opt-out so this can be more operationally efficient for us in terms of the dollars that we're spending as a municipality.

I'm not gonna spend too much time on these, but if you look and we zoom in on the on the heat map that was created to show the demographics, we can pick certain neighborhoods within each service area that have very high amounts of of no no carts, right?

So if you look in the top, we've got central city, we've got mid-city, Tremay, um, they're in descending order in terms of cart amount, and there also is on the right a heat code that is color-coded to show the percent that have opted that do not have a cart, right?

So anything that's in the orange and the yellows representing uh a neighborhood that could strongly benefit from more recycling car outreach and education, but also just the existence of carts throughout.

Service Area 2, we've got Seventh Ward, St.

Rock, St.

Claude, maybe Dillard, Area 3, Littlewoods, Village Est, Lower Ninth Ward, Plum Orchard, and we've got in Service Area 4, Berman, McDonough, Whitney, and so forth.

But what I really want to kind of hit home is is that our environment shapes our consumer behavior, it shapes our behavior, our reality.

When you don't have access to glass recycling, as you as you noted earlier, right, it changed how you were able to consume later on.

So for three generations, a lot of folks have never seen a recycling car or who have never really benefited and and uh learned from recycling because the lack of infrastructure that the municipality is supposed to provide.

This is the lowest cost sustainable option that we can offer as a as a municipality to residents, and so we want to make sure that that's accessible across the board with no gaps in access, so that we can also develop waste literacy across the board.

Sorry.

So getting into the EPA grant, which I think you all know about, um, but I want to just harp on it really quick.

We got about 5.3 million dollars through federal and nonprofit funding, um, mostly to fund the expansion of recycling for curbside for single family residences to move as you mentioned from 42% opting in to 100% where everyone gets a recycling cart.

Um, this comes with you know extensive outreach and education, it also comes with the development of a solid waste master plan, which I'm really excited to say.

We're in this in the in the part where we're selecting, we've received RFPs and we're selecting who's gonna be leading that effort for us in the next week.

But we know that there's a lot at stake right now.

We know that the federal landscape has changed, and we've already lost tons of money in the last 11 months, and if we don't use this funds, we're going to lose it.

Um we have a period of performance deadline for March 31st of next year for this particular grant.

We're hopeful to apply for you know a no-cost time extension.

Um and also, regardless, we're gonna need a contract to procure carts in the future, recycling carts.

That cart that that contract that we have has already expired.

So for future cart purchases, we're gonna need to have a contract in place.

Some of the outreach and education efforts include both the EPA funding, our own personal efforts, as well as uh the recycling partnership funding, cart packets, mailers, uh different info cards, welcome letters, as well as what I am most excited about is the feed on the street program, which I'll get into a little bit more detail, the in mold label on the recycling cart lids, as well as what we've been doing, what I've been doing for basically the last 14 weeks, um, yeah, since September, really, has been going to neighborhood association meetings, speaking, promoting recycling to folks, you know, um, and also social media posts, website updates, and then the discretionary funds that could come from the recycling partnership if the grant remains an opt-out program because that's how it was written, would be more um discretionary funds for PSAs, creative videography, getting some of the local artists involved to help make this more appealing for folks, right?

As well as some community orgs who can get in the you know get some of the funds to do locally based initiatives, and then what I'm also excited about is uh what goes where app.

There are several apps that you know municipalities have relied on that people can download to be able to know they can take a picture and say, oh, this is you know the closest place to put this.

If you're moving out, for example, you can you know sort all of your waste more accordingly and put it to the right place.

A lot of people don't want to just send it straight to the landfill.

The feed on the street program is essential.

I've talked to four different zero waste coordinators in different cities from Greensboro, Austin, Gainesville, Louisville, and no recycling program can really succeed without some sort of accountability measure, and that's what this is the tagging program that oftentimes the haulers do, but this is a program that we're offering through this recycling outreach for four for four weeks.

Basically, whoever is receiving a cart is gonna be is gonna also be receiving a tagging initiative where if you put contaminants in there, we're tagging it to say, oops, sorry, no drywalls accepted, no glasses accepted here curbside.

And through the four-week process, every week, you know, residents are are trained what is and what is not allowed.

It's also important as a model and a template for our waste haulers who currently don't do this, even though it is written in the contract for them to do for any improper setup for contaminants.

Um this is a template for them.

We can have the tags for them to basically do this on a you know biannual schedule or maybe quarterly.

And um in Louisville, for example, they initiated this and saw you know, I think under twenty uh over 50% reduction in their contamination.

So it's really exciting, and I hope we can do that with the phase rollout of this expansion.

The in mold label, so I brought the cart in today.

This is not the cart that we would order with this uh with this contract that we've been you know hoping to push through.

But if you look on the lid, we simulated uh some laminated uh info visual uh uh infographic basically to show what is and what is not recyclable.

This will be a fixed to the lids of every single cart that is purchased with a new contract through RAIR rig, who we selected as a cart uh manufacturer, and that will do a huge amount of lifting because imagine you you in the past you just received a blue cart, but there were not there was instructions, but they were coming in the mail, and then they were you left on your refrigerator and you forgot it or you threw it away.

Now, when you're you're taking your recycling out on the place of recycling, the actual cart itself, you're able to see what is and what is not accepted, and it doesn't require you know intense reading skills, there's a lot of visuals, there's do's and don'ts, there's you know X's and O's.

So we think that that will be you know really complementing some of our other efforts for outreach and education.

We have received concerns about this.

Um we'll list just a few.

One is contamination, right?

Well, as I mentioned with the feed on the street program, you know, contaminated carts as it stands through the contract, the way it's written with waste haulers, is not supposed to be picked up.

It is right now because there hasn't been enough effort to really retrain this process because right now, as I mentioned, there hasn't been much investment in recycling locally or regionally.

But when you when we start to double down on that and provide feed on the street in the program, we're hoping that can be a model to reduce contamination.

Also, train some of the waste haulers to be able to do this service that they're contractually obligated to do.

It's worth mentioning that a MERF, a material recovery facility is really meant to remove contamination.

Contamination free municipal recycling is a myth.

It exists.

You've got people with their trash from all over the parish that could include engine oil, it include all sorts of things, but a MERF exists to be able to sort out the contamination.

There's precedent also for several service areas in the past seven years to several years to send our waste to Baton Rouge, our recycling to Baton Rouge.

So the concern that it's just simply too far, there will be precedent that of doing that in the past, and we're hoping that with the tonnage that we get from recycling expansion, that we don't have to end up taking it that far.

We could do and develop a local material recovery facility here.

And that could be as soon as we have the investment.

The last point that we we hear a lot is people don't want these carts, they're just gonna be throwing it on them and they're not gonna be ready for it.

They never opted in.

But we we want to also counter that by saying there's a huge digital divide here, there's a huge equity access issue that I presented earlier.

And if people really don't want them, they can ask for them to be removed and do that on request.

That's what we call an opt-out program.

We assume that people, once folks are informed that this is a service you're already paying for at no additional cost, you'll want that service.

Oftentimes, and in the many neighborhood association meetings I've been to, folks they're thinking I'm soliciting them an extra thing.

Rather than knowing that this is something that you already have access to, you just have to do the opt-in process through 311, which I will say is is kind of burdensome.

It requires maybe five minutes of your time, but you know, for folks who may not have a computer at home or a phone line or internet access at home or haven't really been exposed to recycling to see it as a hot topic issue, or don't know that they're already paying for it, it may not be a top priority for them.

So we're trying to get ahead of that barrier by just providing it and letting them tell us that they don't want it if that's the case, which we doubt will be the case.

The pilot program.

So we heard concerns, we wanted to present an idea for a proof of concept because there is you know rightful reasons to be concerned about contamination and if folks really don't want this.

So we proposed having basically 10,000 carts be deployed across the four different service areas equally so that no hauler is um overly taxed through this process, and we would restrict the education outreach to all of those just to those particular areas, but we would deploy the same outreach strategies that were planned for in the original phase rollout, right?

We'd use the feed on the street program to address contamination concerns, and then we would use this metric whether you know the contamination, we would do an audit after the four weeks and see if the contamination is either above a certain threshold, which we used the the regional average about 34% to say if it's above that, then okay, the program uh has not succeeded, and so we'll move to an opt-in, right?

Or if folks really don't like it and they want to opt out, you know, if it's above a 15% rate, then we would say, okay, it hasn't succeeded.

But if it's below that, we see that as evidence that this is moving in the right direction, and we're going to, you know, see that as evidence to move forward.

We received feedback from this proposal that we submitted to the haulers.

Um, some of the feedback is that there's you know, not local processing facilities or not local processing facility uh capacity for an opt-out program.

We have also submitted our feedback to that.

We have responses.

Um, another one is that the DBE that has been selected from IB Waste cannot handle the increased capacity of recycling at it uh at the transfer station there, and that they will only support an opt-in model.

From Waste Pro, we heard that you know, residents who don't want recycling will be frustrated.

We we also have our thoughts on that, and you know, I've explained that we don't believe that that will always be the case, um, and they prefer an opt-in model as well.

We did not receive any feedback from Richard.

And this is my last slide, I'm sorry I went uh overboard, but I wanted to mention that you know, just to not to belabor this, but to address the huge equity concerns around recycling access.

We're not just talking about material tonnage that's being diverted, we're also talking about developing waste literacy across the board and making sure that everyone has access to a vessel to practice uh waste literate behavior, right?

And that's it can't be um overstated how important that is.

When you don't have a recycling cart, you're not gonna ask the questions, oh, where is this from?

You know, what is this?

Okay, this is cardboard.

Those questions, I know you mentioned earlier, Councilmember Harris, hey, why don't we start with the schools?

We don't we would have to pass policy for that.

I've talked with several, you know, of the of the public school board uh folks and also with edible schoolyard.

It's that's a challenge.

We're gonna hope to get there with the circular economy with my role, but also while we have the funding here, we can enter through the domestic space, and and in that process, kids can get excited about the blue cart that's at their house, and then maybe they go to the schools and apply pressure through the schools to also increase recycling efforts there.

But I mentioned earlier we need we would love to have local processing, you know.

We don't have that because of historic uh underinvestment regionally, um, but the tonnage that we get from expanding will also justify local MIRF.

A local MERF here means schools can take tour tours of MRFs.

I did that as a kid.

It really made a difference for me to understand why recycling is important, what isn't allowed, and the how the hazards that um exist when you put a plastic bag in recycling or a battery in a recycling uh MIRF.

Uh waste diversion is also part of our climate action plan, so it's it's typically really good, reduces the amount of pollution we're creating.

Um we mentioned like because of the lack of prioritization, the funding um hasn't been really there for this.

That's why we started as an opt-in program.

So we knew that, and that's why we secured federal funding in order to kind of bypass that.

So if we don't use this federal funding when we when we have it, um what does that really mean when we don't have it and when it's gone?

Are we ever gonna really prioritize recycling?

Are we gonna get stuck in the 1990s as we've been for 30 years?

If we don't use it, we lose it.

You know, we're in a severe budget deficit.

Are we, you know, and now that recycling is still gonna be on board for next year?

This is a perfect opportunity to um not lose funding that we're gonna have to spend in the future, right?

Parts are going to be needed, whether it's five years from now or next year or ten years from now, but hopefully, you know, in the next few months.

We're gonna need this cart contract to be signed regardless.

And then lastly, and as I mentioned this, um, you know, recycling expansion is a springboard for a larger conversation around waste literacy and waste aversion.

Right?

We can use this as sort of an inflection point to really nip it in the butt because New Orleans had a waste problem for generations, and there's this is a huge opportunity to basically put a spotlight on waste and talk about all of the other forms of waste aversion that we can talk about, right?

There's organics that have been brought up in the mix.

There's reefs economy, there's different policies that we can talk about.

But with this, we can have the whole city's attention on recycling for a split moment and be able to get into those conversations and also do that with a solid waste master plan.

So it's not just infrastructure, it's also an opportunity to shift culture, and I really want to end on that.

So thank you so much, and sorry for going a little bit overboard.

No, not at all.

Thank you.

Councilmember Green, any questions?

Yes, I appreciate your enthusiasm relative to recycling.

I remind you that the administration and at the Department of Sanitation controls the contracting side of it.

Okay.

It's important to recognize that at the you're not asking us to do something specific right now.

You have contracts that call for certain things to be done.

I don't think it's a good look for you to say publicly that you have measurements or you have metrics in your contract that aren't being adhered to, and that sanitation is not insisting that they be adhered to.

I'll also tell you that a second concern is that I'm not sure that the vendors are in favor for a variety of reasons, because of what I've seen and heard.

We could talk about that for a half hour, and the vendors need to be here, but at the end of the day, it's still that you contract.

Another concern that I have is that we many times obligate ourselves on a federal level, and I don't think those federal funds are gonna be here because we've seen it now.

That's part of the reason we have a budget deficit.

This administration just one year in has made something certainly clear.

I'm concerned about long-term federal obligations that then we as a city have to assume.

Now, it'll take a half hour to have that discussion.

But I do want you to go back to my original comment relative to the contracts.

We allocate money, you secure money through grants, and you executed a contract.

My only question is are you willing to go back to the vendors and renegotiate and maybe start an opt-in program, or what is the role that you should play relative to getting the metrics adhered to.

Thank you.

You know, I'm I am in conversation with uh the waste haulers from the recycling perspective, you know, working with them to um innovate some of the outreach and education that's going on.

I think the the most challenging part is entering into the improper setup clause of the contract because it does shift organizing how they've organized their labor, right?

Right now, a lot of uh recycling is treated as if it's just trash pickup, and it's a very different type of pickup, right?

You have to be nuanced, you have to be able to open the lid and see there's contaminants in there.

Right now, folks are being paid on a day rate, so there's an incentive to just blast through this particular route so that you can get home, feed your family.

But um, recycling versus trash, those are you know very different um issues, but because they're limp lumped together in this contract, you know, we're working with them, we're trying to you know get some some opening up on that, but um right now we're kind of at an impasse, I'd say.

They can speak for themselves, but you use a good example.

Um, we're trying to get as many um households covered in a date as we can.

But the correct way to do it is to open it up, look at it to determine if they're contaminants and make a decision as to whether or not it's gonna be picked up, right?

Totally.

And if it's not, that's to set out the you would put a tag on it to notify the resident, because right now there's no protocol to inform a resident on on improper setup.

So there would be no mechanism for them to change their behavior, right?

And so that's one of the reasons why the feet on the street program with the recycling expansion rollout can provide a template for our contractors in waste to be able to do that moving forward, and and that can serve us as a city to reduce our contamination because other cities do that regularly.

They haven't they have four people on their staff just doing that, right?

And we don't we don't have that capacity right now, but we can at least use the federal funds to do that as well with uh the phased rollout.

The vendors can speak for themselves, and I'm not trying to defend them.

You all have the contractuals, yeah, you all know the metrics.

But it seems to me that this program involves a little bit more thought consideration or action than is actually in the contracts.

The answer is I've seen it, and that's the problem.

Yeah.

I just don't want to put you on the spot.

But it's not as simple as us saying tomorrow we're gonna put out the 100,000 containers that collect the trash and that the contractors should just get to work.

Again, it's important to recognize I'm not defending anyone, but I do read the information that's been made available to me.

I hope that as part of the contracting process, which is on the administration side, you can sit down with the contractors and have a real negotiation that may have to take into account that there were some things that we didn't consider when the contracts were done originally.

One is the proactive and deliberate method that has to be used to address contaminants.

Certainly.

Thank you.

I don't have an answer.

Yeah, I want you to come back to us as necessary.

It is a good presentation, and I appreciate Councilman Har Councilwoman Harris for putting this on the agenda.

But I do know that the issue is much more simple, much more than a simple put out the 80,000 or 100,000 cans and get started.

I certainly recognize the value of recycling.

I hope that we can look to see maybe in um an area of our city where we can avoid having to go to Baton Rouge, because that's a real that's a real issue.

It's a concern.

I don't think that it's in the contract, the dollar amount that a contract is expected to spend on going back and forth, because we don't know how many pickups there are, right?

All of those are considerations that I just say that the good thing about these meetings is that it raises questions sometimes.

Those are questions that are still raised that I look forward to talking to you about and seeing Bar before this committee, the answers are important to me.

Certainly.

Thank you, Councilmember Green.

I was gonna talk about the contract as well.

You do control the contract, so having the haulers say we're not gonna agree to this pilot, there's some leverage that we have as a city to say you must agree to this pilot, you must do feed on the street, because if not your contract's in danger.

So I I'd like to switch the narrative a little bit and talk about that that contractually we pay them and we pay them for the service.

Every citizen pays them for the service, and so for them to come back and say we don't want to do it is problematic to me because they are our contractors and we control the contract.

And you don't have to respond to that, but that's that's my thought.

The other thing that I wanted to talk about is sort of the public service messaging of it, which is the fun part.

I just saw um something from New York City, it was from the 1970s where these kids were saying, turn off the water.

I tell my dad to turn off the water when he shaves.

I told my mom to turn off the water when she brushes their teeth.

And I think having something like that when we talk about the PSA, something creative like that, where we get our kids involved because as we all know, kids drive innovation in households.

And so getting kids to really push their parents and their families to recycle, I think is going to be very important going forward when we start messaging around recycling.

So thank you for all you do, and I certainly will want to invite you to um some of our neighborhood associations, churches, etc.

as we move this program forward.

But I do want to say publicly to the thousands of people who are watching, including our contractors, that we control the contract.

So to come back to us and say we're not going to do a pilot is very problematic to me as a council member.

And one final thought.

All right.

We have two comment cards.

Brett Davis, followed by Michael Essa.

And there was another comment card that was not germane to this.

I know there's a CPC hearing right after that.

Two minutes, my friend.

Yep.

Good afternoon, Council.

Uh, nice presentation, Chris.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Brett Davis, and I serve as the executive director of Grounds Crew, a local nonprofit dedicated to waste reduction and sustainable practices at Mardi Gras Parades and across the city.

Our organization has been very proud to partner with the Office of Resilience and Sustainability to launch and grow the Recycled at Parade Recycling Initiative along with Glass Half O.

What began as a small pilot has grown each year because the community keeps showing us something important.

Residents, crews, and businesses want more recycling.

They want cleaner parades, less waste on our streets, and more sustainable options for our neighborhoods.

The demand is real, and we see it every time people line up to drop off cans or glass or bring us throws to be reused.

The feedback I hear from the community, unlike the comment that was submitted earlier, directly counters a narrative that sometimes circulates the idea that New Orleans doesn't want recycling bins or doesn't care about sustainable choices.

Our work signals the opposite.

When you give people the access to it to well-designed recycling services, obviously we saw how well thought out Chris Chris's presentation was.

People will use those services.

And when you expand, participation grows even more.

This is why expanding residential recycling is so important.

It record it recognizes that sustainability should be a citywide service, not something reserved only for special events or certain neighborhoods.

Even in a difficult budget year, we see today's proposal as a critical investment.

Expanding recycling is not only an environmental win, it is a community of life win, a quality of life win, a public health win, and an economic win because it reduces disposal costs and creates opportunities for local reuse.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Michael Essa.

It is Michael.

I have a very creative mother.

So it's Michael Isaiah.

I live at the corner of Paris Avenue and Gentilli Boulevard.

Trash is a problem.

Councilman member Green, I'm in I'm in your district.

You know, I think we all remember after Ida, we didn't get our trash picked up for like three weeks, I think.

And or even um in my neighborhood, there's a catch basin that's that uh clogs all the time with plastic bottles, and it floods the street right next to a bus stop.

And so, you know, we know we have to make improvements in sanitation.

I should say also, I'm a student at the University of New Orleans, I'm not paid to be here, I'm just a concerned citizen.

I think we really need to flip the strip the scripts around recycling.

Uh the presentation earlier, it showed that map of the neighborhoods that get recycling.

Those are the wealthiest areas of the city, the whitest areas of the city.

The neighborhoods that don't get recycling are the blackest areas of the city, the working class and middle-class black homeowners in neighborhoods like mine, where litter is a problem that could be addressed with improved recycling.

And importantly, I think for us in New Orleans, this is a justice issue, because as council member Harris, you mentioned that this is a service that every single one of us in this city is paying for, and only half of us are getting it.

And the half that are not getting it are largely working class New Orleans, and many of them New Orleans of color.

This is not a bonus.

Recycling is not just a thing for rich hippies, no shade to them.

We all need it.

Um, to address briefly, oh, 40 more 40 seconds.

Okay, I I think you know, I'll just close by saying this.

Um we're all paying for this, it's in the contract.

The con the haulers need to need to abide by the contract that they signed.

We can renegotiate that, but the feed on the street program, importantly, will be a way for every single Norlinian to see our city government in action, to go door to door and really to educate the community and show people that our city cares and our city is trying to make a change that we need.

So I appreciate all of y'all's time.

Thank you so much, uh, Councilmember Harris for putting this on the agenda and giving me time to speak.

Thank you, Michael.

Any online comments?

How many?

I have uh four.

Let's just put them on the record.

All right.

Thank you, Matt Sori.

Thank you so much for your presentation.

It was amazing.

Thank you for bringing up recycling cart here.

So people can see it.

This is what you can request via 311 if you don't have one.

You can request your own recycling cart right at this moment online, give a call, and let's get those haulers on board.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And with that, I will move to adjourn.

Councilmember Green Seconds.

All in favor?

All right.

All right, we are adjourned.