Topics in This Issue:

-Plastic Blocks

-Sustainable Tucson

-Ethylene Oxide (EtO)-Center for Mediation and Facilitation

-911 Center

-Afghanistan

-Parks & Connections Bond Oversight Commission

-Thrive on 29^th Street

-TUSD Clothing Bank

-Teachers and Guns

-Active Attacker Response Training

-EV Readiness

-COVID

Plastic Blocks

On Friday we sent our first full roll-off over to Tank’s Green Stuff to begin the baling process. We’ll need several more of these loads before we can start putting baled plastic onto pallets and send them to ByFusion, but it was a cool milestone to get Tank’s the first one. It was also the continuation of the learning process. These are photos of what some people tossed into the bin.

You cannot use the ”Plastic Only” bin for aluminum cans. That is contamination and cannot be used in this project. Do not toss cans in with your plastic.

I mentioned this in last week’s newsletter – the frame and motor in this fan are all metal. It is contamination and will not be used in the project. Do not put metal of any sort into the ”Plastic Only” bin.

Picture shows the egg container and some plastic bags
That egg container is styrofoam. No styrofoam in the bin. It is also contamination and will not be used in the project.

Adding contaminants to the bin means someone downstream in this process will have to sort through and pull it all out. That brings a cost. The city is paying Republic Services over $360K annually to do that. If it becomes an issue in this program, we’ll simply have to cancel it. Adding some items inadvertently, or as with the egg carton maybe thinking it’s made of plastic is understandable. But nobody thinks aluminum cans and a box fan are plastic. Please self-police.

Our first trip to Tank’s yielded just under a half ton of plastic. That includes the contaminants though so it’s not a ‘net plastic’ figure. We’re going to need several more deliveries out to Tank’s before the baling starts. But the contamination rate has got to be improved upon if the project is going to continue past the pilot period.

Last week we did our drive-thru event – the give-away for Starter Kits. We had it scheduled for 9:30am until 12:30pm. By 11am we had gone through over 100 of the kits. I rummaged through our custodial closet supply and Ann had to run over to Walgreens to buy more plastic bags. We were very pleasantly surprised at the turnout, and extremely gratified that the community has bought into the program.

The picture here shows the Starter Kit – it has 10 bags and the informational flyers. I’ve ordered more and when they get here, we’ll do the event again. But you do not need to use our clear plastic bags – any garbage bag or the single use plastic bags you leave the grocery store with will work. The good part is that even the bag you put your plastics in will be used when we create the blocks.

Click here to View the More Information About City Of Tucson A Message from Steve K Newsletter - May 31, 2022