City Council Item · Attachment A PN Intro

Attachment A Councillor Nolan Intro I’m glad we’re here today to talk about the implementation of the Zero Waste Master Plan (ZWMP 2.0). As you’ll remember, the City Council adopted the Zero Waste Master Plan 2.0 in June 2025. Master planning documents like this are essential oversight in terms of goal setting and achievement, but also in operationalizing across City departments. Through these kinds of documents, we can better coordinate resources, structure programming, and implement important changes over time. The Zero Waste Master Plan (ZWMP) meeting will be focused on the first round of ordinance changes called for by the ZWMP 2.0 Update which I worked to pass last year. These changes include updating the Litter and Refuse Ordinance, requiring Zero Waste Management Plans from large building owners (residential and commercial), mandatory food waste diversion (residential and commercial), updates to the Bring Your Own Bag Ordinance, and a new “Skip The Stuff” Ordinance, among other changes, which we will review again today. These are important ordinance changes which will codify a number of important initiatives within the ZWMP 2.0. As a reminder of the process that brought us here: the update to the Zero Waste Master Plan was a multi-year public process that included several Health and Environment Committee meetings, dozens of public meetings, events, and community outreach initiatives over several years. This update is the result of numerous rounds of council input along with years of staff research and operational work that informed the recommendations in the final document that this City Council voted to formally adopt last June. The changes we will discuss today build on the already great work that the City does in solid waste and recycling. We have 4 different curbside programs stop at my - and every - house to pick up trash, recycling, compost and yard waste. And we have made significant strides in reducing residential waste. These new changes help further that work and also expand the work to commercial uses while also implementing important plastic reduction strategies. This multifaceted approach to waste reduction allows us to take a strategic approach to reducing waste, and the attendant GHG emission pollution, reducing the financial impact of our solid waste efforts, and greening our city. Trash reduction is a large part of that - in the best case, our trash ends up in landfills and adds to carbon and methane emissions. In the worst case, our trash ends up in our streets, our parks, and in our waterways - clogging up drains, causing many problems - not to mention adding other public health ailments to our city. Trash reduction isn’t just a green solution, however, it’s also an important financial decision to reduce our budget liability for trash removal over time. This Zero Waste Master Plan update is essential to reducing our trash output, increasing our ratios of recycled and composted, and diverted materials, and protecting the public health of our city.

There are additional steps that we will be considering in the near term - including stronger efforts to reduce single use plastic. And to re-convene a meeting on eliminating nips citywide. With that, I’d like to introduce DPW Commissioner, John Nardone and his team for their presentation.