COUNCIL DISTRICT: City-Wide
It is recommended that the City Council accept this status update on the preparations for transition to the 2002 Recycle Plus Program.
BACKGROUND
On March 27, 2001, the City Council approved the contracts with GreenTeam of San Jose, GreenWaste Recovery, and Norcal Waste Systems for the 2002 Recycle Plus services. The contractors will begin providing services under the new contracts on July 1, 2002. With this change, San Jose residents will be introduced to enhanced garbage and recycling services, including:
· Commingled recyclables to simplify the recycling process for residents
· Wheeled carts for easier set-outs of recyclables
· Lower cost mini-garbage cart option
· Subscription yard trimmings cart option
· Increased street sweeping frequency
Effective planning and preparations are critical to ensuring that the service changes occur seamlessly and that residents are aware of how they will be affected by programmatic changes. This report provides an update of activities that have occurred since the approval of the new contracts in preparation for the transition of service.
The planning and development of the comprehensive community education campaign is well underway.
“Clean ‘n Green San Jose: Services With Curb Appeal” has been chosen as the creative theme of the campaign, setting the stage to educate the City’s diverse audiences about the enhanced curbside services. ICF Consulting and ESD staff are in the final stages of developing the strategic plan that includes specific activities and message concepts. The education campaign will be implemented in four phases:
· Pre-selection – October through December 2001. The messages in this phase will thank residents for their recycling efforts and in helping the City meet its diversion goals, as well as letting them know change is coming. Activities include a direct mail letter to all service recipients, news media relations and bill inserts. The October edition of Inside San Jose will include an article thanking San Jose residents for their recycling efforts and introducing the 2002 enhanced services. A similar article will be included in the fall issue of the Strong Neighborhood Initiatives newsletter.
· Selection – January and February 2002. In this phase, residents will hear more details about the enhancements to the curbside services. Single-family dwelling residents (SFD) will receive a selection mailer asking them to choose the size of recycling cart they prefer, whether they would like to reduce the size of their garbage service to 20 gallons, and elect whether they would like to subscribe to containerized yard trimming collection.
The primary activity during this phase is community meetings. Staff will be conducting at least two community meetings per Council district during the months of January and February 2002. These meetings are designed to introduce residents to the enhanced services, answer questions about the program and encourage the return of the selection cards indicating their choice of recycling cart size. ESD staff has been working with Council staff to determine the preferred time and locations of these meeting. Five meetings have been confirmed and several more are in the process of being scheduled. All Council district community meetings will be scheduled by the end of September 2001. Invitations to the meetings will be published in community center schedules, neighborhood association newsletters and paid radio and newspaper advertising. Additionally, invitations will be sent directly to all San Jose residents.
ESD staff is working closely with the SNI Communications Team to coordinate information dissemination through their regional and neighborhood meetings. In addition, ESD staff will be attending neighborhood association meetings throughout the months of January and February 2002. Scheduling of these meetings is well under way.
Other proposed activities during this phase include special events, displays in libraries and community centers, partnerships with local businesses for displays, paid advertising, and news media relations including releases and interviews, radio ads, movie slides, and others.
· Launch/Program Roll Out – March through September 2002. During this phase messages will concentrate on the details of the program. These messages will include:
· New cart delivery schedule.
· Collection day changes.
· Explaining commingled recycling and the split truck collection.
· Making clear which materials are recyclable.
· What happens to the recyclables after they are collected.
· Why we are making these changes.
· The importance of not parking on the street on street sweeping days.
Activities for this phase include special events, news media, out door advertising, web site promotion, public area displays, paid advertising and more. A primary collateral piece will be delivered with the recycling carts containing a detailed how-to manual and a new poster.
·
Post-Launch/Reinforcement
– October through December 2002. This
phase will concentrate on thanking the residents for their patience and support
in making a smooth and seamless transition to the 2002 program. Additional recycling messages will be
included as needed. Activities include
paid advertising, news media relations and bill inserts.
Throughout the campaign, all educational materials and presentations will be developed with our multi-cultural audiences in mind including translations into Spanish and Vietnamese.
Contractors have placed orders with all major equipment suppliers. Production of the new recycling carts is underway and proceeding as scheduled. Prototype carts have been received and will be used in the City’s public education efforts. It is anticipated that all equipment will be in place well in advance of transition.
Norcal has proposed to use a different alternative fuel to fuel their collection vehicles. Staff will be working with Norcal to finalize its alternative fuel choice and will report back to Council in the next few months.
Norcal has secured land for its San Jose operations headquarters and corporation yard. The parcel is located at 1158 Berryessa Road and is approximately 7 acres. Norcal also plans to develop a transfer facility for its yard trimmings collection operations on this site. Preliminary plans and the permit application for this facility have been submitted to the Planning Department and are currently under review. Construction on this new facility is scheduled to begin in December 2001.
Staff is continuing to work closely with Norcal and its subcontractor, California Waste Solutions Inc., as the permit for the Materials Recovery Facility undergoes its review. Contingency plans are also being developed should there be delays in the permitting of this facility.
Planning for the conversion of the GreenTeam Materials Recovery Facility is almost complete. Construction work on the new sorting line is scheduled to begin in January 2002.
Quarterly meetings between City staff and all the new haulers are being held to discuss and coordinate transition activities. It is anticipated the frequency of these meetings will be increased as transition approaches and transition activity increases.
The new haulers have been provided with updated maps and customer data. Outgoing haulers are coordinating and sharing route information with new haulers. Preliminary work on developing new routes is underway.
ESD staff have been working with staff from the Office of Equality Assurance along with the new and outgoing contractors to develop procedures for the implementation of the worker retention policies adopted by the City Council and incorporated into the new contracts. These procedures will guide the placement of qualified displaced workers with the new companies. Meetings will be scheduled to discuss the proposed process with the unions and affected employees in the upcoming months.
See Transition Outreach section above.
The memorandum has been coordinated with the Office of Equality Assurance and the City Attorney’s Office.
COST IMPLICATIONS
There are no cost implications associated with this report.
BUDGET REFERENCE
N/A
CARL W. MOSHER
Director, Environmental Services Department