This afternoon the Tucson Mayor and City Council gave direction to the City Manager to meet with ByFusion and finalize deal points for scaling up the plastic diversion program. We expect a final deal to be in front of us for a vote in February. 

ByFusion and the Ward 6 staff are hosting a community meeting on Wednesday, January 25th at the Ward 6 office located at 3202 E 1st St, Tucson, AZ 85716 to share with the public our expectations about where this program is headed. We will have the CEO and one more ByFusion staffer to share about the program, and to take questions from the public. Vice Mayor Kozachik will also be on hand to describe the program and to respond to questions from the public about the plastic diversion program. 

Since August 1st when we began the pilot program partnership with ByFusion the community has contributed over 43 tons of non-recyclable plastic. That's over 86,000 pounds of plastic that has been diverted from the landfill. The City of Tucson and ByFusion will now expand the program, showing other cities and towns what thinking globally and acting locally looks like. 

The public meeting will begin at 5:30pm. Please come and be a part of this exciting discussion. We will have some light refreshments, and masks will be made available for anyone who is more comfortable with that added layer of protection. 

I am grateful to my colleagues on the M&C for supporting the work we’ve been doing. It shows support for the entire community and your interest in finding a solution to the massive plastic pollution problem the entire world is grappling with.