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Arcadia City Council Recap: Weed Abatement and Recycling
Arcadia Weekly Feb 21, 2018
A garbage truck dumps recyclable paper products into a pile at a recycling plant near Aviano Air Base, Sept. 5.There are different types of recyclable materials such as a non-recycling dry waste, wet waste, paper/cardboard, aluminum cans/glass, and plastics. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Matthew Lotz)
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The U.S. depends heavily on China accepting our recyclables, but China’s contamination laws have become more strict. – Courtesy photo
By Galen Patterson
On the evening of Feb. 20, Arcadia’s City Council gathered in the Council Chambers for a short meeting of local legislation.
After the customary prayer and pledge of allegiance offered by guest speakers, council was presented with a gift from the Arcadia Chinese Association. The gift, although wrapped in a large box, is reported to be gift certificates to Mimi’s Café and was awarded to council for appreciation of providing excellent customer service, according to the council’s issued agenda.
Council then moved onto a regular issue within the city; annual weed abatement for properties within the City of Arcadia. The council approved the abatement and thereby directed the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner to move forward with the process of removing of rubbish and weeds from the list of properties within the city.
According to city manager Dominic Lazzaretto, this action helps with community fire safety and the properties on the list are generally willing to accept the service, because it is more cost-effective than other means of property beautification. “[The list] is very similar to the list you see almost every year, because the properties tend to remain the same,” said Lazzaretto.
After the presentation, public comments were heard, from three residents. The first speaker was a representative of Waste Management, who delivered Waste Management’s 2017 Year-In-Review. Residential recycling increased by one percent from 2016 – 2017, according to Waste Management.
The speaker then switched gears and began to notify the city on the changes in recycling demands. A majority of recycled materials in the U.S. are shipped to China. However, China has recently begun cracking down on the quality of recycled materials and are willing to turn away and send back containers of recyclables if they so much as smell like trash.
Waste Management suggests three adaptive steps to help recycling run smoothly. The first step: “recycle all empty bottles, cans and cardboard,” said the Waste Management speaker. The second step is to clean the recyclables before discard them. Although Americans have been told this for years, it has never been more important to clean out recyclables. The third step is to not throw recyclables inside a plastic bag into the recycling bin. Workers at recycling centers may consider those bags trash, and throw them out accordingly.
Following a short conversation with Councilman Roger Chandler, Waste Management points out that although California is in a drought and water conservation is important, citizens should do their best to clean their recyclables through other means, such as a paper towel.
The second speaker was former mayor Gail Marshall, who praised Arcadia’s trash pickup and accused Mayor Pro Tempore Sho Tay of interfering negatively with the local elections. “We are being looked at as a corrupt political campaigning city and it’s rather disturbing,” said former mayor Marshall.
The third speaker, Arcadia resident Judy Xu, voiced her concerns over several issues in the city, including crime, historic preservation and the elections.
All items on the consent calendar was read and approved, after a brief discussion surrounding Resolution 7202, the establishing of a Citizen’s Financial Committee to help Arcadia move towards a brighter financial future.
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