TO: TRANSPORTATION AND FROM: Bicycle and Pedestrian
ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE Advisory Committee
SUBJECT: Integrated Solid Waste Programs DATE: 2/24/25
Status Report
______________________________________________________________________________ Your Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) would like to submit the following comments on the "Integrated Solid Waste Programs Status Report":
1. Per our BPAC’s 3/25/24 meeting with Valerie Osmond, we know that her team is working on identifying the waste problem areas that are dangerous for cyclists. We appreciate your work on this.
2. We appreciate that this department plans to place reflective materials on the bigger carts, but for streets that are consistently blocked, that have poor street lighting, and are otherwise more dangerous for cyclists—like Vision Zero Corridors—these should be given special attention.
3. Please note that the 311 app does not have a category for reporting bikeway obstructions.
This prevents Integrated Waste Management from identifying serious problem areas.
4. Might the City issue non-collection notices for garbage and recycling carts that are placed in bikeways by both residential and commercial customers?
5. We understand that inappropriate leafy waste pile collection is only enforced between May and October. In the fall when leaves are still falling, these piles are difficult to see in the dark. Please extend enforcement to November when many more leaves obstruct our streets.
6. We respectfully request that the City conduct special outreach to landscape contractors who place yard waste regarding set-out guidelines on streets with bikeways.
These comments were appoved unanimously at the February 24, 2025 BPAC meeting.
Sincerely,
Aarshdeep Kahlon, Chairperson
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Jordan Moldow
Mitchell, Lori; Osmond, Valerie; Loft, Jennie; TEPublicComment; Agendadesk District4; District9; District3; District2; District5; Cohen, David; Foley, Pam; Salas, Carl; Campos, Pamela; Ortiz, Peter
Public Comment - Item (d)2. "Integrated Solid Waste Programs Status Report" - T&E 3/3 Monday, March 3, 2025 12:11:47 AM
I had the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft Zero Waste Element last year.
Achieving a Zero Waste society is important to me, and I'm proud that our city is working on this. I really appreciate the thought that has gone into this plan, and appreciate the way that public feedback was taken. I'm looking forward to reading the new version.
Thank you for the "Residential Garbage & Recycling Guide" that was mailed to residents. In particular, I want to thank IWM for working with BPAC and the bicycle advocacy community to include multiple diagrams for how to set out carts and yard trimmings outside of bikeways. [1]
Though I do not live in a single-family residence and have not encountered this directly, I appreciate the creativity and direct residential engagement model of the Contamination and Recycling Tagging (CART) Project. I do have one request: by the very nature of this project, the inspectors must be visiting the residences before the carts have been collected by the hauler. If a bin is found incorrectly in a bikeway, it must have been set out there by the resident. In this case, could the inspectors leave an "Oops!" tag that gives instructions for proper set out adjacent to the bikeway? This would allow us to efficiently accomplish two important goals with one task.
What is the ratio of residential waste that comes from carts (single-family homes and other small residences) vs. dumpsters (large multi-family residences)? And what is the composition of recyclables vs contamination for multi-family residences? Will IWM eventually need to create a CART-like project for multi-family residences, and if so, do you have any ideas for how to make sure the "Oops!" messages are effectively communicated to property managers and residents alike?
Thanks for all your work,
Jordan Moldow (speaking on his own behalf)
D3, Japantown, 95112
[1] For the benefit of new Councilmembers: carts and brush piles can be near invisible at night, even when using extremely bright bicycle lights. They have caused crashes, injuries, and even death for active transportation users in San Jose. Carts and yard trimmings are not supposed to be set out in bikeways (this violates IWM's set out instructions, city Municipal Code 9.10.430(C), and California vehicle code 21211(b)), but this seems to happen often, either because residents have put them there, and/or because the waste hauling trucks incorrectly place the empty bins back in the bikeways, and sometimes due to gravity. At the direction of Council, IWM has been working (and providing updates to BPAC) to identify and This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources.
address the issues, and also to pilot retro-reflective strips on carts to at least address that visibility issue. There is still more work to be done, and more funding and staff time are needed, but I appreciate all the work and attention that has so far been given to this set of issues. In particular, I'd like to thank Deputy Director Valerie Osmond, who has attended BPAC multiple times, taken note of a lot of community feedback, and provided progress updates.