Sorting recycling is important and sexy — but only for one more month.
Ooh, Next thing you know were in the bathroom brushing our teeth.
That’s all part of it. That’s foreplay.
Then you go sort out the recycling, that’s not part of it but it’s still very important.
Starting March 30th, Seattle’s recycling rules are changing. For a lazy piece of poo like me, this is excellent news. Why write about it now? Some of you — like me, maybe — might have been willfully ignorant about the start date just so you didn’t have to sort the beer bottles from the milk cartons in your nasty recycling bins. Stop it. You can’t just pour it in willy nilly until after March 30. After that, it’s business time.
On our street the recycling person takes the bottles, dumps them in the paper/cans bin and dumps the whole thing in the truck… so much for separating…
Yeah, I noticed they dump it into the same space at my apartment too. I called the garbage people to ask about it, they acknowledged my observations so I stopped sorting a year ago.
Let’s talk about food waste. Does anyone sort food scraps? Where do you keep it? What about fruit flies???
This is retarded! Passing off the sorting to the city only means that it will cost them more money to sort and fund their recycling program. Of course, it will be less efficient (and a negative benefit) but who cares. This is Seattle. Opportunity costs, energy use from recycling, and the pollution from melting down aluminum, glass, etc. makes recycling equivalent to wiping your ass right before you shower. Bam.
Haven’t you heard of single-stream recycling? Machines can sort way faster than you or I, with hardly any added cost. Sheesh.
We bought a rubbermaid container (the kind people use for dry food, like cereal, with a pour spout?) from Value Village for one whole freaking dollar 2 years ago. I put produce stickers on it. You can see it here: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3135/2935579799_7a7f910ae0.jp
Because it’s sealed, we have no issues with rotten food scents, and it’s not large enough to really build up. We empty it about twice a week directly into the yard waste bin. Also, because it’s narrow, it fits between our regular recyclables wastebasket and our regular trash can under the sink.
We don’t eat a lot of meat, so not much of those scraps go in the trash, but I cannot wait til we can sort all food scraps and perhaps get rid of our trash container altogether.
I would love to see some cost/benefit analysis on who should sort and where… but for now I’ll trust that the city has it figured out that this will be a net plus for citizens and the environment. If anyone has data that says it isn’t, I’d be interested to read it.
On a personal level, I’m stoked that I won’t have to keep Glass and Other separate anymore…
We bought one of these little guys:
http://www.planetnatural.com/cgi-bin/planetnatural/compost-c
I tried a Tupperware container for a few weeks, but the smell and flies were so bad that I refused to open it. The new composter comes with a handy little filter and there’s never been a odor problem. It’s not particularly cute (ok, it’s ugly) but it definitely improves your street cred in Seattle.
To begin with, the solid waste changes coming March 30th go far beyond how materials are sorted. A shortened list:
*more paper, plastic and metal articles will be accepted for recycling
*about 60% or residents will get a new collection day
*collection of food and yard waste will move to weekly service
*bulky items and electronics can now be collected at the curb with new dial up service.
The is only a partial summary, watch your mailbox for notices.
Is there a cost/benefit to all these changes?
Let’s begin with the costs from a high altitude level. Nearly six times a week a mile long train leaves Seattle hauling our garbage to an eastern Oregon landfill. A large abstract volume to wrap your mind around, right? There is of course a corresponding large abstract expense to shipping and dumping all those trainloads.
Collectively we should be able to agree that the best way to reduce that expense is to reduce the volume of garbage. The Mayor set a goal of diverting 60% of all city waste through recycling, composting and waste prevention by 2012.
March 30th marks the start of the new service contract period with the city’s solid waste collection vendors. The last contract was 10 years ago, and since every nuance of cost and service is wrapped into the contact its the city’s one good chance to make sweeping changes to improve efficiency.
The bad news is rates will increase. For the contractors, theirs is a business largely driven by fuel and labor expenses (think $4/gallon diesel & 35% annual health care increases). The good news is that many of us will be able to select a smaller garbage unit (more sizes) and since more kitchen scraps are eligible for yard waste… we could actually pay less. The incentive is based on a “pay as you throw” concept. So rates may increase, but individuals *may* be able to avoid an added expense if they are able to choose smaller garbage and yard waste receptacles.
As with any public servcie change there’ll be bumps in the road: the ick factor of storing food scraps for yard waste collection; the initial confusion of how to sort and what’s my new collection day; and apt. managers who don’t get on board by providing new containers or informing their tenants.