The city recently did this in Toronto too. Apparently they now have a plant where the sorting is done, so we no longer need to sort paper (blue bin) from plastic and glass (grey bin). There is still the separate green bin for ‘organics’ (food waste); that goes to a municipal composting facility. And yard clippings go in a large paper bag.
But we are still sending a hundred garbage trucks a day to Michigan. Down from 120 or 130, though.
IMHO, we really need to get moving on European-style packaging restriction, manufacturer packaging takeback, and/or product life-cycle management. Better to not produce waste than to have to pay to handle it.
I’ve been thinking about this, though… waste handling should be as local as possible (consistent with safety). We should be encouraging home or neighbourhood composting of organics and yard waste, with centralised composting as a backup.
Same with sewage: why not install commercial composting toilets in new construction and have the municipal sewers as a backup? Part of the problem with using municipal sewage as compost is that the usable organics in it are mixed with industrial waste and non-organic chemicals.
And water supply: why not capture rainwater on a building or neighbourhood basis, or at least let it soak into the ground, instead of routing it to storm sewers?
Recent California law requires municipalities to divert at least 50% of their waste away from landfills. So, to answer the OP’s question, cities here in CA now have a legal and financial reason to care about what gets put into their recycling bins, because they will face a $10,000 a day fine from the state for every day they are out of compliance with the 50% diversion law. If citizens are making this more difficult by not correctly sorting stuff out, then the city will make the citizens pay more to ensure they stay in compliance with the law.
In response, many cities have changed their trash collection procedures. Up to a year ago, I put all trash and green waste into one large bin which was taken to the local prison where inmates sorted out the recyclables. It sure was nice not having to worry about what was recyclable and what wasn’t. Unfortunately, this was deemed too inefficient to meet the 50% goal, so now I have a 3-bin collection: one for trash, a second for recycleables and a third for green waste and I get to pay $5 more per month for the opportunity to sort my own trash :rolleyes:
Oddly, one of the few success stories about reduced packaging was forced by Walmart (at least that’s how they tell it). At one point they realized that damage to cardboard deodorant boxes was reducing their profit margin on that entire category. The bottles were round, the boxes had major cutouts in them, and the result was that the flimsy boxes would always distort when a package was dropped, making it unsalable. To this, they calculated the cost of packaging and shipping and leaned on all the manufacturers to remove the boxes. If they all gave it up at once, no single brand would worry about customer rejection of the change. (At least that’s how they tell it.)
I think a pro-active word from someone important, like the next president, could have wonderful results in the US. American companies are highly resistant to restrictions, but highly susceptible to public scrutiny and especially when the change will actually save them money if every manufacturer does it.
I’ve always suspected that, at least here in Dirty Jersey, it all just goes in to the dump. “Family-run,” particularly in the context of waste management, has a pretty well-earned reputation 'round here.
actually recycling in terms of things like paper is kinda dumb. Paper is 100% renewable, and probaly takes more energy to recycle then it’s worth. however things like plastic bottles and tin cans and things like that are useful to recycle.I mean without recycling plastic , we wouldn’t have Polarfleece.Also there’s no way that plastic can be broken down…why not reuse it? why not make it into something long lasting and useful? I do have a question thou…are squashed bottles and cans acceptable to put into the recycling bin? sometimes i’m out riding my bike on recycling day, and i see all these squashed plastic bottles or soda cans that could be recycled.
Well, yes, the proper order is “reduce, reuse, recycle”. Not having the packaging at all (and not having to deal with it) is cheaper than reusing it (as in washing bottles and plates, etc), which in turn is cheaper than recycling it (reforming it through some industrial or composting process).
Wow! Some people never get the word. You really have to retake ecology 101. They chop trees every day, and the world’s rainforests are being depleted. And you just guess that none of this goes into paper production? That all paper is from “farmed” trees? Unbelieveable. Also that wood is easier to turn into paper than scrap paper? Where do you think most cardboard comes from? Not new lumber.
Down from 120 or 130, though.