Stanislaus County Zero Waste Working Group Recent Meeting Recap + Resources

[Bonnie Betts]

Here is information forwarded from Gavin Bruce, Program Manager, Valley Improvement Projects (VIP), about their recent meeting with Californians Against Waste and other stakeholders. If you wish to get involved, please contact Gavin directly. I asked that he provide a link to the presentation slides, which I am sharing here.

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Good Afternoon,

Thanks to those of you who attended last week's Zero Waste Working Group meeting focusing on policy approaches to single-use plastics! For those of you that were not able to make it, you can view a recording of the presentation using the below link. I've also attached the presentation slides for your reference. 

Zoom Link: https://valleyimprovementprojects-org.zoom.us/rec/share/lY9Lk2rMyFf2AncVucMV97usy7niiNGTHuYFH_ua9BVmCt_92MKSYVgjgB_F_sQh.68_V5hoT9jBDIcWQ?startTime=1779317725000

Some key takeaways and discussion items include:

• The prevalence of plastic in our environment and in our bodies
• Some background on SB 54 "Extended Producer Responsibility" law
• Some areas of improvement on how we regulate plastics in California to better protect public health and the environment
• AB 1276 "Skip the Stuff" law requires restaurants and food establishments to ask customers before giving them straws, plastic utensils, or other single-use items
• Toolkits on how to reduce single-use plastics in restaurants exist through Surf Rider Foundation ( https://www.surfrider.org/programs/ocean-friendly-restaurants ) and Clean Water Action ( https://cleanwater.org/skip-stuff-toolkit )
• Some plastics have markets that enable them to be recycled. Common plastics that can be recycled are numbers 1, 2, and 5. Most other plastics do not have markets so are not recycleable
• Re-use ordinances passed at the local level could help reduce waste and prevent items from going to the landfill. Some examples to look at are Oakland, Los Angeles, and Hilo, Hawaii
• Additional challenges exist in reducing packaging in some contexts due to food safety standards (example given of meats and other parishable items on grocery store shelves)
• Case studies have been done by ReThink Disposable showing cost savings for small businesses who implement zero waste practices: https://cleanwater.org/author/rethink-disposable-case-studies
• CalRecycle has a reporting system to identify businesses in violation of the polystyrene ban: https://calrecycle.ca.gov/packaging/packaging-epr/notificationform/

Please mark your calendars for the June zero waste meeting which will be on June 17th at 2:30pm and will be in conjunction with CalEPA's Northern California Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fund Roundtable which will be held in Modesto! This is an opportunity for municipalities, waste haulers, businesses, and community members to provide input on guidelines for the fund, which will allocate $500 million per year for the next decade to implement zero waste initiatives and pollution mitigation measures across the state. The specific location has yet to be determined but we will be sure to keep you all in the loop!

Thank you for your ongoing interest in helping identify and implement zero waste solutions in Stanislaus County!

All the Best,

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Gavin Bruce

Program Manager

Valley Improvement Projects (VIP)

Cell: (209) 484-5933

Email: ga...@vip209.org 

Office: 1224 K St. Modesto, CA 95354