ORDER-2020-21 : Amending Melrose Revised Ordinances Chapter 198 by adding Article VII – Sustainable Food Containers and Packaging; further add Section 198-13 “Use of Sustainable Food Containers and Packaging,” as set forth herein.

Transcript (~11 min @ 2:26:22)

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▶ 2:25:55 Francis X. Wright Jr.: work out to hold this item in committee seconded by president forbes all in favor opposed matter will be held in committee fourth and last item on our agenda this evening is order 2020-21 amending melrose revised ordinances chapter 198 by adding articles roman numeral Article 7, sustainable food containers and packaging. Further add section 198-13, use of sustainable food containers and packaging as set forth herein. This item is sponsored by Councilor Zwirko and Councilor Bewtra.

▶ 2:26:37 Speaker 7: Councilor Zwirko.

▶ 2:26:39 Michael P. Zwirko: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So again, just like the last order, I'd like to employ the same method here. me first state that I'd like to also thank the support of my colleague councillor Bewtra and supporting this order co-sponsoring this with me and we did not just arrive here when this was filed in August there was a lot of work that was done by zero waste Melrose by a couple of members of the public that spoke this evening to really when you're talking about nudging communities and individuals as to approaches about their lifestyles and how these are going to impact some of your changes not only in the marketplace but what we've gotten so accustomed to it's really important to go out and explain and educate and gather data so that was done over the past few months and it's really been a concerted effort to kind of see where even the market itself is we've seen in the private markets like Dunkin Donuts wants to remove styrofoam cups from you know their their stream they said by 2020 it looks like there might be a little bit past that that goal deadline but they are they are conscious of this and we're seeing our own restaurants our own even takeout restaurant facilities you know moving to something like aluminum which is easily recyclable washable etc and then of course this evening we heard about there are some schools that don't have dishwasher facilities so because they don't have dishwasher facilities they have to use single-use food containers paper boats or the styrofoam trays and unfortunately depending on the type of meal that's served they have to opt in this instance to styrofoam trays we were told a back of the napkin statistic that about 25% or 22,000 styrofoam trays were collected in one school year if you multiply that by 4 that's 88,000 so I mean this stuff is happening every single day the chemical breakdown of this product it does not biodegrade it is there forever when burned if we throw it away ultimately it's burned it is released into the atmosphere unlike other ordinances that seek to ban something there are materials and products available that are on parallel if not better certainly when it comes to a green score they are so I think that this is not really a wholehearted change that consumers wouldn't be affected by if anything it would probably benefit them as we had testimony this this evening from a sixth grader who stated about molecules being transferable from one product to a food source to the other and given the fact that it is now 1010 I am sure that said participant this evening is home in bed at this time but that's really what the purpose of this ordinance is it's it's to remove this from our community we have had the gauntlet thrown to us you know certainly we've seen it over the last couple of weeks in our in our world news the reality is is that we are running out of time we are running out of time and they say all politics is local that's what we're trying to do here this evening we will not be negatively impacted by removing polystyrene from our community I can promise you that so I am here this evening obviously in support of this order I always enjoy working through the legislative process with this body that is what we will do this evening we have put a lot of work out and I think that folks that are watching from home or that will watch later even folks that are here this evening we're very interested in the feedback and I think that this is something that you know that we can we can ultimately get to passage on and I look forward to the comments that were not only made this evening but that from my fellow

▶ 2:30:50 Francis X. Wright Jr.: colleagues this evening Thank You mr. chairman Thank You councillors work of

▶ 2:30:54 Manisha Bewtra: council Bhutra thank you I just wanted to first thank councillors work oh for initiating this order I was really happy to co-sponsor both because it was very well written but also because to me it it feels like a no-brainer I've always been very troubled that by the amount of styrofoam to use the I guess one term that's I guess a particular company term but to see so much polystyrene already in use in our community but I also wanted to commend zero waste Melrose and the members of the public who have weighed in I really appreciate the effort that they've made in researching alternatives researching even you know using companies like refoam it when it was in business really turning over every possibility in terms of what are cost-effective alternatives what are is it does it make sense to keep using this product things like that I also appreciate their efforts in talking to folks who may not initially have been in support of this ordinance including business owners members of the public a lot of the folks who have written in to us have been folks who encountered zero waste Melrose at at healthy Melrose or at the Victorian fair elsewhere where they learned really kind of firsthand the effect that polystyrene has on our health as well as our environment um anyway i'm really excited to support this order uh and look

▶ 2:32:46 Francis X. Wright Jr.: forward to the discussion as well thank you counselor any other counselors president forbes

▶ 2:32:56 Scott M. Forbes: right this time thank you um again i i appreciate the maker of the order uh i definitely uh can see that there's a lot of work that's been done on this what i would uh be interested in uh through the chair obviously is is being able to uh when you did your research to figure out who the high users of these containers were and what the impact on those uh was and whether or not that conversation was positive or neutral or negative i do think that there are alternatives out there and i know that i said that in a previous discussion with a previous item that if you can present a product that is more favorable than the one that is being used then obviously that's something that i could fully support and i do think in terms of this order that there are other products out there that we can use in order to be a cost benefit and also an environmental benefit for the community so i'd be interested in those things and other than i think that's it thank you thank you president

▶ 2:33:58 Francis X. Wright Jr.: any other counselors this evening i will just take a moment to say and i definitely support this Um, I think, um, as, uh, Councilor Zwirko pointed out, uh, even Dunkin' Donuts is, um, moving in this direction and, uh, could be there, um, as soon as, uh, you know, next year, which is their pledge.

▶ 2:34:25 Francis X. Wright Jr.: So, um, I think it's, uh, it's one of the worst products out there as far as single use products because it's not recyclable it does break down it does stay in the environment if you have ever burned a styrofoam cup it burns black acrid smoke so I don't know if that's going into our landfills or into our rescue plant over and so I guess but any event there are better alternatives well I'd like to see paper there are even better plastic alternatives so I definitely am in support of this thank you

▶ 2:35:10 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: councillor Lipper-Garabedian thank you in terms of just feedback one thing I agree with my colleagues that this is really well written it's fairly clear so the one thing that I'm wondering is whether there was any outreach on the foam or rigid packing material component of this because we did here it sounds like there was a tremendous effort to speak to more nearly 50 maybe commercial enterprises and that may include businesses like Marty's furniture but I know sometimes when I order furniture and it gets delivered it comes in packing material that is made of these products so I'm wondering if Marty's uses that sometimes to to pack and if they do how they would feel about this and if there are alternatives for them as we just didn't hear a lot about that tonight otherwise the presentations from zero waste all of the comments that we got with I think we're overwhelmingly in support of this I have engaged with one person who was concerned about it but as I shared with people who wrote in and as I met my kindred spirit tonight I started a petition when I was in elementary school to ask McDonald's to stop using styrofoam food containers and I'm on the record as mentioning that more than two years ago so I'm not just making it up for tonight so obviously my heart is in support of this and I would support it if it comes out of the committee with a recommendation for

▶ 2:36:38 Speaker 7: passage and the other councils this evening we have a motion motion to

▶ 2:36:43 Francis X. Wright Jr.: retain this order in committee. Councillor Zwirko has made a motion that we retain

▶ 2:36:54 Francis X. Wright Jr.: this item in committee. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by President Forbes. All in favor of keeping this matter in committee? Aye. Opposed? The item will be

▶ 2:37:09 Francis X. Wright Jr.: kept in committee motion to adjourn so moved the motion to adjourn the second seconded by President Forbes all in favor aye