Grrr… I am so pissed, but instead of the pit, this belongs here because I am hoping you can help.
Trash guys just came through (late for the 3rd week in a row), and since I am off this week, I noticed them emptying the recyclables in with the trash, defeating the purpose of recycling in the first place.
My questions are this:
Are they breaking any laws (I’m still looking, but coming up empty so far)?
I called the company and they seemed interested, but not genuinely. Other than alerting the local media, what repurcussions might I have (I’m not looking for money by any means, but I would like to see them punished, perhaps paying the EPA)?
I, and our whole neighborhood, are getting ready to fire them from our area, but if they are continuing to do this, I’d like to see them punished… any other recommendations?
What recyclables? Did they throw aluminum in with the trash? Does the trash go to a facility where it is sorted for recycling? Some recycling (e.g., glass bottles that are melted down, not washed and refilled) actually wastes energy and resources; they are better off in the trash. Paper can often be recycled but its probably only worth it when market conditions are right and transportation costs low.
They gave us a standard trash can and one recycle bin. In the bin should go all aluminum, glass, paper, and some plastics.
In the past (distant past), when I was home, I saw one truck come through getting the trash. A few hours later, a second truck came through and the guy basically separated the recyclables into the various areas on his truck (he had a large area for each type).
THIS time, they just took everything all at once and dumped it into the trash truck.
In my town, there is a separate pickup for trash, newspaper, glass, and AL. However, back at the processing area, all the trucks are dumped together, where they are machine-separated into trash, AL, and I think glass (not sure about that one, though) by a state-of-the-art trash sorter.
Apparently the separate pickups are more for PR and politics! I could see some rationales for seemingly screwy things like that- maybe your town bought an automatic sorter (or are experimenting with one), or the trash is going to a different place this week, etc.
I’m in the city of Atlanta, I have a separate recycling bin, and I’ll be pissed if nothing’s being done with the glass, aluminum and newspapers I throw out in it.