Plastic bags and styrofoam containers may soon be a thing of the past — at least in Gainesville.

In an effort to move Gainesville toward becoming a “zero-waste city,” Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos has proposed a series of commercial, residential and municipal changes to the city’s recycling policy. Commissioners unanimously agreed to discuss the changes at an upcoming meeting.

Among the changes: banning plastic bags and styrofoam containers, requiring businesses to collect food waste to be used for composting, creating an office of sustainability, offering larger residential recycling bins and requiring residential recycling.

Such a move, Hayes-Santos said, will show that Gainesville stands for environmental stewardship.

“Right now, we’ve fallen behind on recycling,” he said. “We will not reach our state goal by 2020 to have 75 percent recycling. What we’re currently doing will not reach that, so we need to start taking those steps.”

There are 17 potential changes in all, according to a 5-page, double-sided report provided and written by Hayes-Santos. In it, he writes the city has remained “stagnant,” while other cities across the country are taking progressive steps in recycling.

The plan, he says, will aim for Gainesville to become a zero-waste city by 2040.

Hayes-Santos believes that composting and more aggressive recycling will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve soil and reduce pesticide use.

The city already requires commercial businesses to recycle. Residential recycling is optional.

Hayes-Santos said the average recycling rate over the last 8 years is only 50 percent. The highest it has ever been is 55 percent, according to the Alachua County Public Works Department. Also, complexes and duplexes, he said, only have a 3 to 4 percent recycling rate.

Banning styrofoam containers and single-use plastic bags, which are frequently handed out at retail stores and restaurants, “will not only help Gainesville become zero waste, it will have many other positive environmental impacts,” the report said.

“Often plastic bags and polystyrene materials end up as litter on our roads and water bodies causing trash collectors extra work to keep our city beautiful,” the report said.

Some city residents might also be part of a pilot composting program, which would determine whether composting would be affordable and something residents would use.

In order for the change to be successful, Hayes-Santos said the community would need to buy in to the program, including the school district and University of Florida.

“I think there’s a consensus across the community that we need to do more and step up to the plate, and it needs to be a collaboration between all of the major public institutions in order to work well,” he said. “Gainesville should be a leader in sustainability, protecting the environment and we should do better. These are steps we need to take for the future generations.”

To read the full  story, visit http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170909/zero-waste-recycling-plan-would-mean-big-changes.

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