Public Comment

Transcript (~8 min @ 40:15)

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▶ 39:57 Maya Jamaleddine: Romanul Stewart, and Ver and President LY XFU. This serves as notice of Quorum for the record and pursuant to current allowances under the Open Meeting law enacted under chapter two of the, uh, acts of 2023, signed into law by Governor Healy on March 29th, 2023. City Councilor Pin Chiro is participating in this meeting tonight remotely via the City Zoom's, uh, platform

▶ 40:32 Maya Jamaleddine: in accordance, uh, with the open meeting law. This meeting is being recorded and broadcast live on MMTV.

▶ 40:42 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, and this is the portion of public comment. I will entertain a motion to open the floor for public comment.

▶ 40:48 Robb Stewart: Madam Chair, I'll make a motion to open the floor for public comment. Second,

▶ 40:52 Maya Jamaleddine: We have a motion, uh, to open the floor for public comment made by counselor, uh, Stewart, seconded by counselor Karen Sheti.

▶ 41:02 Speaker 9: Um, chair Clerk

▶ 41:03 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Williams? Yes. Councillor Repe. Yes. Councillor Stewart? Yes. Councillor Ti? Yes. Councillor Reky. Yes. Councillor Hamilton? Yes. Councilor Vandiver. Yes. Councillor Romanul? Yes. Councilor Finocchiaro? Yes. Uh, president Elli? Yes. And Chair Jamal Dean? Yes. Unanimous.

▶ 41:27 Maya Jamaleddine: We, um, and the, um, the floor is now open for public comment. Do we have anyone to speak?

▶ 41:38 Speaker 9: Um, in person.

▶ 41:45 Speaker 10: Gina McNeil Of Maple Street, also of Zero Waste, Melrose. Nice to be here tonight.

▶ 41:54 Speaker 7: I'm Elaine ve of Bradley Street. Also, uh, a volunteer with Zero Waste Melrose and a small business owner in the community. Alright.

▶ 42:03 Speaker 10: Uh, we just wanted to comment about the recycling, um, services, um, that are on the agenda tonight. Um, I think just overall we're really appreciative of Zero Waste Melrose of the Council's, um, attention to recycling services and having this sort of informational session. Um, I know this is one of multiple sessions that, that you all have had to hear about the, the service changes. Um, also at Zero Waste Melrose, we wanted to take this opportunity just to, well, and I should say we're also very excited about the public feedback around, uh, keeping weekly recycling services. Um, you know, obviously we're, we're zero Waste Melrose. We used to be the Melrose Recycling Committee. So in our eyes, um, the journey, uh, around waste is, is much bigger than recycling, but recycling is such a critical piece and maintaining people's access to that on a regular basis. Um, it's really a big way about how people, um, kind of connect with waste reduction currently. Um, but it's also a great opportunity for the community going forward. Um, now that there's a lot of attention around recycling, um, and trash and what it costs, it's a, uh, a really unique opportunity to, uh, educate the public, inform the public more about how do we actually make a more significant, um, effort to truly reduce waste, which of course has, uh, a of financial, fiscal benefit, um, but many other benefits as well. Um, a couple of the ideas that we wanted to mention, um, that we hope as a council, council members as individually and as a body that you will think about, and, and members of the, the city as well who are present tonight, um, uh, sharing of data around how much trash, how much recycling we create, how that's changing over time, um, and how it might respond to waste reduction efforts that the city puts into place. There's a lot of data that's available that I think could be really interesting to the public, um, or maybe not interesting to all of the pug book, but, but, um, at least could be impactful to them to really think about the tonnages that we make and how that could be shifted based on behavioral changes. Um, one of the tools to do that is to look more seriously at food waste composting. I know that there's a lot of cost associated with a municipally run or municipally, um, funded curbside food waste composting program. But that isn't the only answer to how we can encourage food waste in the community. Um, there are even just municipally sort of, um, endorsed food waste composting programs that other communities are doing, or, uh, food waste compost drop off programs like Project Oscar and Boston where you just have secure bins around the city where people can come and put their food waste compost in. Um, that's a huge impact. And the last item that I wanted to mention then I'll turn it over to Elena, is, um, that at the, you know, right now, and historically taxpayers, we have all paid to throw away a bunch of stuff that we don't have any control over, right? So we buy things, it comes in a lot of wasteful and excessive packaging. Um, there's an effort at the state level, um, in Massachusetts right now around extended producer responsibility, which essentially shifts some of that burden back to the manufacturers to say, if you're going to make products and things that come in packaging, et cetera, you have to make it with that circular model in mind. Um, so it's really shifting some of that cost back to the people or the organizations making that waste as opposed to being fully funded by us as taxpayers, which obviously we're seeing the, the impact of that, um, here in Melrose as well. So just some things that we hope can be part of the agenda and part of the activities going forward.

▶ 45:51 Speaker 7: Thank you, Gina. It's not a lot I can add to that. Um, that was really well said. Uh, I think just to echo that, this is one of those rare opportunities where being environmentally minded actually coincides with being financially minded, where the less we are throwing out, the less tonnage there is in the garbage. Uh, the less we are paying as a city. So anything we can be doing to remove trash from trash barrels is actually a good thing. So even though there might be an investment in a compost program or a food waste diversion, organics waste diversion, or whether it's just plain education, this will actually save money and not just, and that cost will only go up over time because even if things like waste to energy, which are, you know, incinerating trash for energy, even with those we are running outta space in landfills, even burning trash creates enough ash that we are still putting a lot of trash in the landfills at all time. And so with just a limiting of space, the cost of trash disposal will only continue to rise for everyone. So the more that we can do to stem the problem, um, the better it will be, not only for the planet, but for taxpayers. Um, so it was definitely, I I, you know, everyone felt the shock to the system when this new contract came up and the price was very drastically renegotiated. But this is sort of where we are at, at this negotiation process after several years of sort of being on the lower end of contract. So, um, again, really appreciate the opportunity for discussion and really appreciate any, um, outreach and education and definitely appreciate our ability to take advantage of this public moment that recycling is getting, um, to make a difference in just the amount of, of waste that we're producing as a city.

▶ 47:46 Speaker 10: And I feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't say that Elena's Next Repair Cafe is coming up on April 21st. I hope to see all of you there. It's a great way to just really see these principles in action. So

▶ 47:58 Speaker 9: Thanks. Thank you both.

▶ 48:04 Maya Jamaleddine: Do we have anyone online?

▶ 48:06 Speaker 1: Uh, there's no one else at this time.

▶ 48:09 Robb Stewart: Okay. Adam, Chair, I'd make a motion to close public comment second.

▶ 48:14 Maya Jamaleddine: And, um, since we don't have anymore, um, anyone, uh, else to speak in public comment, we have a motion, uh, made by Councilor Stewart and seconded by Councilor Chetty to close public comment.