| | | | | | | | | | Item 4.
COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM | | | |
| | | | | | | | | TO: | Sustainability Resiliency Committee Meeting |
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| FROM:
| Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
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| | DATE: | February 27, 2019
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| | SUBJECT: | DISCUSS THE SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE MOTION ON REQUIRING WASTE HAULER CONTRACTORS TO HAVE UNIFIED MESSAGING |
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| | | | | | | | RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT:
Jay Fink, Public Works | Elizabeth Wheaton, Environment and Sustainability |
| | | | | | | | LEGISLATIVE TRACKING:
Item C4 AI - January 16, 2019 Commission Meeting |
| | | | | | | | BACKGROUND:
At the May 30, 2017 resident Sustainability Committee meeting, members discussed difficulty differentiating between the waste and recycling containers (Attachment A) provided by the city’s waste haulers for waste collection from residential and commercial properties that are not serviced by the Miami-Dade County’s recycling service. They would like to see that effective messaging and identification on carts and dumpsters through unified coloring, multilingual phrasing, as well as detailed labels that depict what can and cannot be recycled. The Committee then passed a motion (Attachment B) recommending that the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee (SRC) support efforts to collaborate with the franchisee waste haulers by implementing the following initiatives:
• The City of Miami Beach should work in partnership with the franchisee waste haulers to develop a solution that increases education, improves recycling rates and reduces contamination;
• The City of Miami Beach should mandate unified color and messaging on all newly purchased bins (not retroactive);
• The City of Miami Beach should design appropriate visual graphics / labels to be used city wide;
• Either the City of Miami Beach or the franchisee waste haulers should produce appropriate visual labels; and,
• The City of Miami Beach or the franchisee waste haulers should install labels on all cans on all sides to achieve consistency.
On October 30, 2017, this item was referred to the SRC for discussion by Commissioner Joy Malakoff. Since that meeting, staff has been working diligently with the city’s approved waste haulers, Progressive Waste Services and Waste Management, on improving overall messaging efforts. Both companies have agreed to make improvements as outlined within the motion. The Public Works Department agreed to review the anticipated request for proposals associated with the franchise waste haulers agreement to incorporate messaging and container standardization in 2019, in conjunction with the anticipated request for qualifications (RFQ) of the waste haulers franchise contracts.
On December 18, 2018, the resident Sustainability Committee passed a similar motion (Attachment C) to the one passed in 2017 with the intent to require future waste hauler contractors to install city-approved unified messaging on all sides of commercial and multi-family waste and recycling containers. On January 16, 2018, the Mayor and City Commission referred a discussion to the SRC requiring waste hauler contractors to have unified messaging. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Mark Samuelian and Co-sponsored by Vice-Mayor Michael Gongora.
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| | | | | | | | Analysis
The Environment and Sustainability Department recently completed the first city-wide recycling assessment. In addition to addressing education, policy and interdepartmental issues, the assessment identified the need to improve upon current bin designs, messaging, and education throughout the city in order to reduce contamination and increase recycling rates. This demonstrates a need for collaboration between the city and contracted waste haulers when choosing and labeling bins. In addition, studies carried out by organizations such as Keep America Beautiful suggest that clear, standardized messaging is imperative to the success of a community recycling program. These studies also support the resident Sustainability Committee’s recommendations on bin messaging.
On September 30, 2019, the existing agreement for the Franchise Waste Contractors will expire. A Request For Qualifications (RFQ) is anticipated to be published for a future agreement, allowing the opportunity to support the resident Sustainability Committee’s past motions and incorporate language that requires clear, standardized messaging on bins provided and serviced by the contractors. |
| | | | | | | | CONCLUSION:
The following is presented to the members of the SRC for discussion with the recommendation to incorporate a requirement for unified messaging and standardized language on commercial and residential bins with the Franchise Waste Contractor RFQ. | | |
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