City's Public Recycle Bins Cause Confusion
Decatur Metro | September 22, 2008altmod writes in with concerns about the city’s public recycling cans…
The last three times we’ve been up to the Square we’ve had items we wanted to recycle (glass bottles from grabbing a drink at CVS, plastics, etc.). We noticed that some of the garbage cans have “recycling” on them now. We were very excited. However, since they look exactly like the other garbage cans except a small “recycling” sign (no logo or anything), we noticed they were full of garbage and also hard for us to distinguish when we were looking for them.
I think the city would find the recycling program is more effective if the garbage cans that are now recycling cans were either a different color or had more noticeable signage (really both). Ideally they would also have small signs that explain what people can recycle because we heard people fighting over whether they were just for cans or if they were for all the same items that Decatur collects curbside. People want to recycle and they are willing to do it. But if they don’t know what the “right” thing to do is, they quickly give up. When we don’t “do it right” we impede our own efforts.
Anyone got some blue spraypaint?
This is unfortunately another Mayberry-like situation in my book. The official response is that the containers ARE a different color (you didn’t notice? Yeah, you and the rest of the world). If they were a different size or style and/or were placed adjacent to trash cans (rather than *in place of*), I believe it would really help as well. I watched on Saturday night as a BSP server dumped food scraps into the one near them (hey, it does say recycle!). I’ve even seen people do a double-take when about to throw something in; then they see all of the trash inside and shrug their shoulders (and toss more in). Meanwhile, there’s nothing to guide, say, the SBUX patron to tell them to put that plastic container in a recycle bin one door down instead of the trash can on the corner. If they were at least adjacent, it would help solve the problem.
I’m certainly grateful that we have containers and that the City is making an attempt to do the right thing. I just wish that more thought and input had gone into this process and that they would’ve stopped and acknowledged the problem when the containers actually arrived rather than just smiling and suggesting that people will figure it out. They haven’t, and I don’t think they ever will. I’ve also heard stories about (but not witnessed) Sanitation employees manually sorting through the recycling in slow motion as they are emptying the cans. We need a functional public recycling system instead.
Who’s the official response from Carl? The Solid Waste and Street Cleaning division?