The Daily Agenda: How many plastic bags makes an impact?
Tucson’s plastic program nears 150 tons in collections ... Other cities are getting curious ... The Rosemont mine saga continues.
Tucson’s plastic reuse program is picking up steam, topping 6 tons of donations in one recent week and catching the eye of officials in other cities.
Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik initiated a pilot program last August to test-run a project that takes plastic waste and converts it to 22-pound blocks using steam and compression, the Arizona Daily Star’s Nicole Ludden reported at the time.
The construction-grade blocks, called ByBlocks, fit together with interlocking pegs and can be made into walls, sheds, landscaping, furniture and more.
The test was a success and, in May, the city council approved a 4-year contract with Los Angeles-based ByFusion to bring the company’s operations here. With the vote, Tucson became the first city in the world to scale up the program to a city-wide service.
But with single-use plastics — including grocery bags, food wrappers and cups — seemingly ingrained in American life, will this type of program make a difference?
Collections are steady and averaged around 4 tons per week up until last month’s peak, Kozachik said in his newsletter. He’s been providing weekly updates on the program in the newsletter, and word about Tucson’s creative use of plastic waste quickly made its way around and out of town.
His office has had inquiries from Flagstaff and Phoenix about the city’s program. A mining operation reached out, wanting to donate their plastic waste to the program. He’s also heard from RV parks, teachers and more.
“The community really has grabbed ahold of the program in a big way,” Kozachik told the Tucson Agenda. “People are looking for a way to be a part of a solution to an international problem. We're the only ones who are offering it for plastic.”
One couple in Flagstaff is even using the plastic blocks to build their house as part of Coconino County’s program to foster innovation in building, the Arizona Daily Sun’s Adrian Skabelund reported in June.
The city council will likely vote on a revision to the agreement with ByFusion later this month, Kozachik said, and will soon vote to approve the future operations site of the company’s Tucson facility. That’s good, since the city is amassing quite the collection of trash.
“Once ByFusion is finally up and running in Tucson we’ll have some serious catching up to do in whittling down the accumulating pile,” Kozachik wrote in his newsletter.
The majority of plastics are not recyclable, and those that are recyclable often end up in the trash because facilities have a difficult time sorting them from other plastic. The program should cut down on the amount of plastic coming into landfills, given that ByBlocks can be made out of just about any kind of plastic.
To address the confusion and contamination surrounding plastic recycling, California passed a law that bans the use of the recycling symbol on products unless they’re accepted in at least 60% of the recycling facilities in the state, Kozachik wrote in his newsletter.
The Federal Trade Commission is also updating its guidelines to make the label cleaner, but it doesn’t appear that Arizona lawmakers are mulling any such legislation.
With ByFusion’s Tucson facility not yet up and running, the city has found itself in something of a holding pattern. No revenue has been coming in, but the city has still been absorbing associated costs, including collecting the plastic delivered to drop-off sites.
“Being first in the world to try to stand up an operation like this is exposing some pain points in the process,” Kozachik said. “But the fact that we're working through them now will only make it easier for others who will follow in our footsteps.”
And while the drop-off sites’ 24/7 availability has proven convenient for many people, it’s also led to recent issues involving vandalism and hazardous materials.
Last Wednesday night, a man tossed an accelerant into the collection bin at the Ward 6 office, starting a “pretty significant fire,” Kozachik wrote in his most recent newsletter.
Tucson Fire Department had the blaze under control in under 10 minutes and the bin was replaced by noon the next day.
But shortly after its replacement, someone dropped a nearly full plastic motor oil bottle into the same bin, resulting in the contamination of about 900 pounds of otherwise usable plastics and major cleanup work at the site to avoid runoff of the oil into nearby soil.
“We tell people that they don’t need to put cottage cheese containers through the dishwasher — the ByFusion process will clean those small bits of contaminants,” Kozachik wrote. “But really? A nearly full container of motor oil? Whoever tossed it in certainly had to notice it wasn’t empty.”
The city periodically has to shut down hazardous waste and neighborhood recycle centers due to fires or “inappropriate materials” being left in the bins, Kozachik said, adding that he wouldn’t let a few bad actors ruin the hard work of hundreds of other community members.
Their efforts to chip away at the very big single-use plastic problem are admirable, but even Kozachik admitted the impact will likely be minimal.
“If everybody in Tucson … was able to cut even 50% of your plastic use out, the impact on the ByFusion program would be negligible,” he wrote in his newsletter. “The stuff is pervasive in our lives.”
But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. At this point, reducing the trash in our landfills by even a small amount is worth the effort.
Less room to roam: A federal judge has ruled that the 50,000 acres containing the proposed Rosemont and Copper World mine site will be removed from an important area of federally protected jaguar habitat south of Tucson, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. Last week’s ruling leaves another 301,000 acres of protected jaguar habitat intact on land south of the prospective mine sites.
One final performance: Tucson’s HOCO Fest will return to downtown for one final extravaganza on Labor Day Weekend, ending an 18-year run, the Arizona Republic’s Ed Masley reports. The event is being billed as HOCO Homecoming and will feature 60 acts over four days and a daily celebration of Linda Ronstadt. The first HOCO fest was supposed to be a one-time event, but it was so popular, organizers kept it going. Organizer David Slutes said that 2022 was “probably our best festival ever” and that he wanted to preserve its legacy by ending on a high note.
Resources on wheels: The Sahuarita Food Bank is launching a mobile resource center next month, which will serve as a community center on wheels and support people already working on the ground, the Green Valley News’ Jorge Encinas reports. Project Arizona Uniting Lives, or Project AZUL, will likely begin with open houses and community feedback about the resources that are needed in their areas. Once it gains traction, the program will serve area communities four days a week.
Improving school safety: The University of Arizona’s Interim Vice President and Chief Safety Officer touted extensive improvements to campus security in an email sent to faculty and staff Tuesday, including security plans for more than 170 UA buildings. These include new locks, digital message boards and emergency procedure posters in classrooms, and a change to the UAlert emergency system that automatically registers employee cell phone numbers to receive text message alerts. Steven C. Patterson said in the email that his office had met with many students, faculty, staff and community groups to gather input about campus safety concerns and will continue the conversations in the school’s newly developed Safety Commission.
Fun with Fitz: Legendary cartoonist David Fitzsimmons is returning to the stage next weekend to host our event, “Agenda Live!” Before we get into the behind-the-scenes of life as an Agenda reporter, David will treat attendees to a trip down memory lane with some vintage cartoons and a live sketch demonstration with a few lucky audience members. You can purchase your tickets here and if you signed up as a founding member, your ticket is on us. Send us a note at info@tucsonagenda.com.
When life gives you pumpkins: The Marana Town Council will be voting soon on a proposal for the annexation of land under the Marana Pumpkin Patch, Tucson Local Media’s Veronica Kuffel writes. The council held a public meeting Tuesday regarding the proposal, which would include the property southwest of the North Trico Road and West Hardin Road intersection. It would connect to the northwest border of Marana, just north of Avra Valley and Picture Rocks.
“It just seems fitting for something so centric to what Marana is all about to be in the town, not just outside of its boundaries,” Town Manager Terry Rozema said.
80: The percent of plastic in the ocean that’s estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20% coming from boats and other marine sources, according to National Geographic. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of the litter in the ocean actually sinks to the seafloor.
We’d love to keep reporting on sustainability efforts and solutions in Southern Arizona, but we have to become sustainable ourselves in order to do that long-term. Help us get there.
This is tangential, but I've been wondering for awhile, where does my recycling really go? Does it end up in the landfill? I bring more and more plastic to Steve's office, because I am unsure where my paid recycling goes. Is there a story here?