Huge Recycling Changes
August 6, 2008 | 8:55 amOK…I completely admit that I’m a full month late on this.
I totally missed this when I read through the July/August Focus online a month ago. And I give complete credit to my wife for uncovering this big change in our recycling program.
Actually, I’m not sure why the city sort of buried this announcement. Someone could run for city commission purely based on making this change! So what the heck am I talking about? (Well…those of you that carefully read your Focus [which JUST showed up in hard copy yesterday - only a month late!] will already know)
Under the headline that we’ve got a new sanitation company handling our recycling, we find this HUGE change in little print…
- The program will now accept plastics numbered “1″ through “7″ as well as plastic bags
Whhaaa! That’s right! So start throwing (almost) all your plastics in the bin! No more swearing at huge “5″ and “6″ bottles and then attempting to cram them into an already bursting yellow Decatur garbage bag! And no more hauling your plastic bags to Publix for “recycling”.
…And before someone else says it, especially regarding plastic bags…its better not to use them at all. (There are unanswered questions about whether many of them are actually recycled – perhaps a question for our new sanitation company?) Its better to use reusable bags, which are already much more popular than they were six months ago.
I am so excited about this!
Those plastic bags are easily reused as, ahem, “doggie bags”.
Off topic, but the Focus(or, PAT OURSELVES ON THE BACK MONTHLY) is a double issue for July and AUgust, so arriving now is just about right…
hmm….most double issues of my magazines come at the beginning of the period. Plus the July/August issue was online at the beginning of July.
Before we get too excited about this, take a look at these sites:
http://www4.uwm.edu/shwec/publications/cabinet/recycling/Single%20Stream%205-24a.pdf
http://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/news.asp?ID=2370
Shipping plastic to China and then back to us doesn’t seem like a very economical or energy-wise to go.
Thanks for this reminder. I only glanced at the article in Focus, but I’ll share this with my neighbors to make sure they know.
I’m glad a different company is handling recycling. I don’t want to tell you how many times I saw the guys from Dream San dumping my building’s recyclables into the green bins with our bagged garbage, then dumping all of that into the back of the trash truck.
Maybe there should be a container at the Decatur Dog Parks where people who don’t have dogs can “recycle” their plastic bags so that the people who take their dogs to the park can use them!
Hey, Doc. I don’t know if you’re joking or not, but this is a freakin’ genius idea. Typical problem one: Too many bags at home. Typical problem two: Never enough at the dog park.
Damn. Wish I thought of it.
install something like these at the parks!
http://www.organize-it-online.com/itm_bagdispenser.html
Hi,
I watched this article a while back about recycling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC3CZBDz7Wg
or search for “Penn and Teller recycling on You Tube”.
That’s so cool to hear, removing the speed bumps to greater recycling. I have next to me a cool reuse of some of those recycled bottles: an Act2GreenSmart messenger bag. Aside from the zipper and shoulder strap, it’s all recycled PET. i hear that even the strap will be swapped out soon too.
This is no eco compromise, it’s a sweet bag, with lots of nifty details, and magnetic clips to open and close it quick. And my favorite part? Inside is a sticker that tells you how many bottles were used to make it, how much energy that saved, and how many hours powering your average laptop that equates to. How cool is that? Check them out at http://www.act2greensmart.com