Welcome to Green to Go
Public Meetings
The City of San José is considering ways to reduce disposable food ware litter and keep our creeks clean. We want to hear your ideas and will host several meetings with restaurant, cafeteria, and food truck representatives, recyclers, makers of food ware, consumers, and community members between June and November 2011. Check the schedule for public meetings
Background
Every street in San José has storm drains. That’s over 30,000 street storm drains in San José! All the trash found in them flows to our local rivers and creeks, and eventually impact the San Francisco Bay. Trash in San José creeks and waterways has become a significant environmental issue.
The State Water Board has listed 24 creeks in the Bay Area, including the Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek, as “impaired by trash.” Cities must comply with a new regulation that calls for a 40 percent reduction in trash by 2014 and 100 percent by 2022.
The Environmental Services Department, in February 2011, presented a Trash and Litter Reduction Plan to the City’s Transportation and Environment Committee. This comprehensive trash and litter reduction effort contains three main strategies: prevention, interception, and clean-up.
As part of the prevention strategy, the Transportation and Environment Committee directed staff to consider options for reducing litter associated with disposable food ware and return to the Committee with options in December 2011.
Disposable food ware has become a common form of litter in San José’s waterways, rivers, and creek. Litter from food ware contributes to urban blight, negatively affecting quality of life in our community.
Some disposable food ware is made of polystyrene foam. Disposable food ware made from this material is unique from other forms of food ware when it becomes litter. Polystyrene foam is a very durable material produced to last a life time, and because of this, it does not degrade. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces creating a hazard for our water quality and habitat because it is very difficult to clean up and animals mistake the small pieces for food.
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