At one of the workshops, residents who participated in the survey said they were willing to pay a little more for an environmental-friendly system. Seeing what people were putting in the recycle bags, status-quo meant everything was refused due to "contamination" and it all went to the landfill. (That was the problem with sending to China--they didn't want all that contamination either.) Now that few items are worth any money separating "recyclables" doesn't pay. With everything going to a facility that recycles it ALL to energy it's 100% recycled with only ash going to landfill. They will pull out metals for re-use. Fewer pick-ups and less travel distance (by about half) saves gas and emissions. So the whole single stream is more environmental friendly. If you want to improve on that, decrease the amount of plastics you use--who needs to buy water in single-use bottles? As someone suggested, buy in bulk and re-fill smaller containers. Even pro-recycle proponents agreed that single-stream, waste-to-energy is a better way to go.
As for bulk pick-ups, all of us were paying for a few to abuse the system. If you buy white goods and electronics you can either pay the retailer to take your old ones or pay far less for a pick-up from Jacobs. That seems more fair than possibly adding more to everyone's bill. It's the way most places deal with it. Maybe trolls will catch any culprits illegally dumping at postal stations, etc.
|