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San Mateo County (Map, News) - With Styrofoam food containers permanently scrapped, San Mateo County supervisors on Tuesday turned their attention to their next environmental project: a “green collar” job training program for the county’s unemployed.
Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to ban polystyrene foam and other nonrecyclable plastics on county property — including jails, the San Mateo Medical Center and its clinics, government buildings and the San Mateo Event Center. The ban, which is considered a first step to possibly outlawing Styrofoam in all unincorporated areas, also applies to vendors.
Supervisors also unanimously approved a separate resolution convening a Green Works Summit — the first step to creating the job training and placement program. Business owners, county and environmental officials will attend the summit.
The program will place those who may have barriers to employment —such as a criminal record or a lack of English skills — into manual labor jobs at eco-friendly businesses, said Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson, who proposed the legislation.
“We want to get in on the ground floor of what will be an emerging job market. We don’t want those without business degrees and college educations left behind,” she said.
San Mateo County Human Services Agency Director Beverly Beasley Johnson said the county’s unemployment rate hovers at 4.2 percent, but it is much higher in the Peninsula’s pockets of poverty. In East Palo Alto, employment is 10.3 percent. In the North Fair Oaks neighborhood of unincorporated Redwood City, it stands at 10.3 percent, and it is just more than 5 percent in Half Moon Bay.
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Comments from Examiner Readers
11:58 PM MST on Thu., Jul. 3, 2008 re: "Styrofoam ban makes impact"
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2:22 PM MST on Mon., Jun. 16, 2008
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10:21 AM MST on Mon., Jun. 16, 2008
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Examiner Reader said:
It's such a delight to hear how successful the styrofoam ban has been going. It's unusual to find out that something that was so common was unhealthy to the environment. I grew to know the truth. Luckily, we have seen less and less of these containers. Hopefully SFE can reach out to all food chains, restaurants, grocery stores, and even liquor stores to discontinue the sale of styrofoam products. It would be beneficial for us all.
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Examiner Reader said:
Um, Styrofoam is recyclable. It's normally just cheaper not to recycle it and use new materials instead.
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Examiner Reader said:
Nice job, now how about working with the fast food establishments, particularly those in Western SOMA since a survey of the trash that we pick up in our neighborhood , while not styrofoam, seems to be McDonald's paper cups, paper bags, plastic cup lids and straws. While at it, how about getting the daily free newspaperd (all of them including the SF Bay Guardian which seems to do "no wrong") and somehow figure out a solution to the discarded paper By the way, I think its a real waste to publish the city dailies since the paper is seldom recycled. Yes yes, freedom of the press is very important but once paper is "on the street" no one ever picks it up to recycle it.
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