Comments on: Council Banks on Single-Stream Recycling

By: LiberalNIMBY

LiberalNIMBY — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 01:40:22 +0000

I would be absolutely thrilled to see a 200% increase in volume, but let’s see a report semi-annually on this, please, not just a few years from now. And if things aren’t looking up quickly, let’s off-load these fancy trucks on one of RecycleBank’s next suckers.

“Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear
to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow
it on somebody.”

–Calvin Coolidge (you know, from back when “they” had ideas)

By: John Floyd

John Floyd — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 04:44:12 +0000

I am uncomfortable with the idea that city hall – or some corporate entity – “would know exactly which households were not participating in the program.” I do not want this intrusion into my privacy, in my home.

Did anyone mention the effect that single-stream mixing of materials has on the recycle-ability of the materials collected?

By: glenn thompson

glenn thompson — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:12:56 +0000

I think it will be difficult to get an accurate comparison of cities. Assigning a value judgment to any comparison is even more difficult.

The first question is whether the weight of materials is just from residential collection, or all collection divided by total number of households. Including some or all of the commercial materials would certainly increase the amount per household in all categories but probably result in a lower percentage of recycled material.

The demographics will also have a significant effect. In an apartment building the average number of occupants in a household is likely to be less than in a suburban region. I don’t see any reason to say a 4 person suburban household that discards and recycles twice as much as 2 person urban one is better or worse.

I agree with the many comments that it is unfortunate that the City Council continues to waste money on unnecessary and undesirable pet projects like single stream recycling and especially the Recyclebank program. It simply seems that the majority of council do not believe that the city has any financial problems.

By: Pete Richards

Pete Richards — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:00:27 +0000

Sounds like the city has some newfangled gizmos the people aren’t sure they want.

Will Rogers used to say:

“Just be thankful you’re not getting all the government you’re paying for.”

By: mr dairy

mr dairy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:26:06 +0000

I suggest that everyone cut out the RFI tags and send them to Sue McCormick. The cost of the “rewards” program is wasted tax dollars on top of an unnecessary new program at a time we can’t afford to fix a bridge.

Of course we’ve already paid for it and took the consultants at their word without actually thinking through it’s long term effects or dissecting the one sided information that was presented to council.

By: Donna Estabrook

Donna Estabrook — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:46:42 +0000

We also do not put out out recycle bins every week. If they are not full we wait until next week and save the truck from having to stop this week. So, sometimes we would be “non-participating”. I’m skeptical about the incentive program. I am unclear what the “rewards” are. There was a mention of coupons. Coupons for what? What is the Greenschools program?

By: Pete

Pete — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:31:42 +0000

I don’t take out my recycling bins when there’s only one or two containers in there (and we recycle everything we can – some weeks there just isn’t that much – an even BETTER result for the environment). Are they telling me I’m going to get a slap on the wrist for waiting until the bin is full?

Clearly the intention here is to spend money, rather than to spend money wisely.

Maybe I’ll cut out my RFI tag and tape it to one of my more wasteful neighbors’ bins.

By: mr dairy

mr dairy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:25:46 +0000

I would bet that in my neighborhood, OWS, the amounts of recyclables sent to the MRF is less per household than other parts of the city. So by my reckoning, participation would be high and the total truck weights less from my own and similar neighborhoods.

Other neighborhoods where residents are not as enthusiastic about the three R’s could have lower participation, sending less to the MRF while continuing to send more potentially recyclable trash to the landfill.

It seem strange to have a system that has the potential to reward those who strive to consume and send less to the MRF and equally reward those who consume more stuff and send it to the landfill and the MRF.

Because of the rewards system, I suspect there will be a lot of empty or mostly empty carts being picked up every week in the neighborhoods where people take the three R’s seriously.

The neighborhoods and individuals who are not as serious will most likely continue to be non participants and continue to consume and send to the landfill and the MRF more of the stuff that we’re trying to keep from going there.

By: Joe Hood

Joe Hood — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:28:25 +0000

Why is it they can take the unrecyclable plastics (all the way up to #7) with single stream? When did there get to be a use for the stuff?

By: John Hritz

John Hritz — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:02:44 +0000

I guess the other way to view poundage per household is that the goal is to buy less stuff that you have to then recycle.

Do they weigh recycling AND landfill-bound waste? This would give us a handle on how much waste and what percentage is recycled.

And I still think the incentive system is dumb.

The main win I see is that they’ll take #5 plastic. The implication in this article is that they will accept #6, e.g. polystyrene.