Will Kaiser Permanente open in North State? Did Redding start food waste composting? Ask the R-S
Ask the Record Searchlight is a newsroom-wide initiative to connect with you, our readers. If you wondered about something happening in town or had questions on a North State issue, tell us about it. We'll do our best to answer.
Here are answers to the latest R-S reader questions, which have been edited for clarity, length and accuracy.
Scroll to the bottom of this story to find out how you can ask the Record Searchlight.
Will Kaiser open in the North State?
Q. Are there any plans to add a Kaiser hospital facility here in the North State? My husband and I retired here seven years ago and have yet to find and keep a doctor. It seems Kaiser would be more dependable.
A. The Oakland-based managed health care provider didn't give a yes or no answer when asked if it might be planning to locate in Shasta County.
"We often hear from people outside of our existing service areas who want us to make our services available to them," said a statement from the company. "We will continue to explore expansion opportunities but have no definite timing associated with expansion."
The not-for-profit now operates in 15 regions in California. Kaiser's closest location to Shasta County is Sacramento, according to information on the company's website.
Even if Kaiser established itself in Redding, that wouldn't solve the doctor shortage that has persisted in the region for years, according to one local health care expert.
The issue can't be addressed simply by establishing new facilities, run by Kaiser or others, said Dean Germano, CEO of Shasta Community Health Center in Redding.
He said the real issue is "a national and statewide shortage of health care workers and the shortage is worse in rural areas like ours." In 2018, Shasta County needed an estimated 25 and 30 additional physicians who practice family medicine or general internal medicine.
Now, Germano said, one state health care workforce group has predicted a shortage of 4,103 full-time primary care clinicians in 2030.
And the pandemic has only exacerbated the situation, Germano said, "with some estimating that nearly one in five health care workers left the profession due to burnout and fatigue" while others retired sooner than planned.
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Where does Redding's household composting plan stand?
Q. Has any more feedback from the Redding waste department been received regarding how households are to comply with the new law mandating food scrap composting?
A. Efforts to collect food scraps from households and businesses in Redding were to start in January 2022 when provisions of Senate Bill 1383 began to kick in.
The collection program still hasn't happened yet.
The new law aims to get organic items out of landfills, where they decompose and create harmful greenhouse gasses.
"We've had a little bit of a hiccup when it comes to what we can do with it. So we're still making progress and moving in that direction, it's just taken a little longer than we anticipated," Redding Solid Waste Utility Director Paul Clemens said, speaking of the new plans on what to do with banana peels, chicken bones or vegetables that have gone bad.
Plans are to start the service "in probably the next couple of weeks" with commercial businesses, mainly restaurants and groceries, he said. They'll first have to get special plastic collection carts for the food scrap waste and be told how the collection process will work.
There isn't a time set yet for when people living in houses and apartments will be expected to start separating out their food scraps.
The city is also working on arranging getting another location that accepts food scraps. Starting out, food waste generated by businesses will be hauled nearly 100 miles to North State Bioenergy LLC, a facility in Oroville, where the city has a contract.
Before that kicks off, he said, Redding will have to provide information so business owners know what to do with their food scraps under the new program. Hiring for that outreach and education position has been a challenge.
Businesses must place food waste in separate brown containers. The city has a few hundred of those bins, but they still need to be delivered, said Clemens.
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Coming up with other facilities for the food scraps to be taken and processed is another hurdle. Efforts are underway to get approvals to have food waste taken to two closer landfills.
"It's just a matter of getting all the places that can handle it set up and in line and in order before we start bringing it in," he said.
When the program does get up and running, residents will be able to add food waste to their existing green waste carts that city trucks pick up weekly.
For now, though, homeowners can't mix food waste with green waste, and should still put it out with their weekly trash, said Clemens.
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Until the weekly food waste collection day, Clemens said residents could keep their scraps wrapped up in the refrigerator and put it out the night before it'll be collected. "Or you freeze it .... so then you don't have that odor" or draw animals or bugs to collection bins, he said.
The new law also calls for surplus, unopened food from groceries that remains good and edible to be rescued and directed "to avenues where it could be used in a safe fashion" instead of heading to the compost heap, said Public Works Supervisor Mike Deedon during an interview earlier this year.
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To learn more about the state mandate and Redding's plans, listen to the city of Redding's podcast “Let’s Talk (Organic) Trash” at bit.ly/3PziqEW.
Recycling in Redding 101
Q. I've always wondered why the only items made from #1 & #2 plastic that the city of Redding accepts are bottles. Many other containers come in #1 and #2, and I hate to toss them in the trash.
A. Most #1 and #2 plastics are beverage containers — think bottled water and soft drinks with openings at the top that are smaller than the rest of the bottle, said Redding Solid Waste Utility Director Paul Clemens.
Other plastic containers, which often hold detergent and shampoo, are made from #2 plastics. Those can also be recycled in Redding, Clemens said.
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"When you start going with different plastics, or different numbers, it starts representing different types of plastic," he said. "Some of those are things we don't have a market for or a way to sort and separate. The #1 and #2's we can do."
Among the plastic items not accepted for recycling in Redding are reusable plastic shopping bags, peanut butter jars and ice cream cups made of plastic without a #1 or #2 designation.
Here's more information on what's recyclable in Redding.
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Michele Chandler covers criminal justice issues for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Follow her on Twitter at @MChandler_RS, call her at 530-338-7753 or email her at michele.chandler@redding.com. Please support our entire newsroom's commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Ask the Record Searchlight: Will Kaiser Permanente come to Northern California?
