Thursday, August 13, 2009

New Haven's **NEW** Recycling Program

The New Haven Master Recyclers came into being because we saw a need. The City of New Haven is changing their residential curbside recycling program - and with budget cuts and staff layoffs - there's no one thinking about education and promotion.

So we've formed a volunteer group to help spread the word!

There are a lot of changes coming.

First, recycling will be easier! New Haven is switching how they collect recycling at the curb. Currently we have what is called 'dual stream' collection. We have two streams of recycling 1. mixed paper and 2. mixed bottles and cans (metal, plastic and glass). The new method is 'single stream' collection. We'll be able to put all our paper (newspaper, magazines, junk mail, and cereal boxes), and mixed bottles and cans (metal, plastic and glass) AND our cardboard together.

All Together Now!

How will it fit in that little bitty blue box? We won't have to. That big blue cart we currently use for trash will become our recycling cart! That's right, we'll have enough room for all our recycling - including the cardboard. We won't have to worry about our cardboard getting wet (which is happening a lot these days) or empty plastic bottles blowing out of the bin and down the street!

What about our trash? We'll get another cart, a smaller one, for our trash. We won't need such a big cart for trash anymore because recycling will be easier. And there are a lot of reasons why we should try and recycle more.

All Together Now!

So why is New Haven changing their program? Apparently New Haven has one of the worst recycling rates in the state! Yup. We only recover about 8% of our waste in New Haven. I think the State's recovery rate is currently around 30% and by 2024 Connecticut's goal is to recover 58% of our municipal solid waste. We have very far to go!

And disposal costs are rising.

Our taxes currently pay for solid waste management; including staff to pick up and haul our materials, the trucks and all the maintenance, the truck's fuel, and the tipping fee (about $80 per ton of trash). We also pay someone to pick up and haul our recyclables - but the big difference is there is no tip fee for recycling. That's right, for every ton of recyclabes we collect, we save the City $76.50. And did I mention we get paid for some of our recyclables? Yup. The City in some cases gets paid up to $28/ton for recyclables.

So why are we throwing away our money; our tax dollars?

Well, I'm not. In addition to saving resources by recycling, I can help my community save money. Money I'd like to see spent on our libraries, our schools and our parks!

Okay, so is saving our City money not enough?

New Haven is also partnering with a company called RecycleBank. RecycleBank provides incentive programs for communities seeking to increase recycling recovery rates. For every pound of materials we recycle in our household (house or apartment) we will generate points. The points will add up and we'll be able to redeem them for gift cards or certificate or other products from partnering businesses. I'm not sure who will be partnering with Recycle Bank in our area, but in other areas the partners are Target, Dick's Sporting Goods, CVS, RiteAid, Stonyfield Farms... you get the picture. We'll get free stuff if we recycle more.

So get ready, we should be seeing changes in late fall!

3 comments:

  1. Fantastic blog! Right on!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the work you are doing is great. This is why I come to you with this question. I have a good size collection (from many years) of nail polish and I'd like to know how to properly dispose of it. I called RWA they didn't have an answer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Recycling is a great alternative to save our planet or decrease the pollution. I think this problem still have a sollution, just depend of us. We need to think about our vehaviour and make a change and start to make the difference.

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    ReplyDelete