Recycling - There's Always Room for Improvement

Beautiful still morning with a hot air balloon on the horizon coming towards me.


"But I recycle", "My recycling bin is full", and "I recycle everything". Sound familiar? Myself included - there's always room for improvement.

I had the luxury of a gourmet birthday dinner last night with a friend who is on the fringe of recycling. The City of Concord is switching to "Pay as You Throw" and many are kicking and screaming to the curb, including my friend. After P&Ming about having to pay for "those purple bags", I assured her that there was indeed room for improvement and I would prove it to her when I came over for dinner. Not only would I show her how to recycle more, it would also mean she would save money.

So after fig and goat cheese bruschetta, layered Mediterranean salad, marinated/grilled natural chicken with asparagus and whole wheat gnocchi, I went trash can diving before dessert.

What I didn't expect was all the plastic in the trash can. It turns out she had no idea what the triangle meant, never mind what the numbers mean. Easy for her, Concord accepts 1-7. So out comes 4 plastic bottles from the small kitchen trash can. In her favor, she had saved the plastic containers the fruit came in to ask me; they had the number 1 on them, which I had to point out.(yes extremely small so get the glasses out) Kudos for her effort.

What I also found in the trash can of my friend who says she recycles everything, was paper, lots of it, from envelopes, junk mail and toilet paper rolls. "What's this?" I said. "Oh, I usually only do the big stuff." And "Here's a baggie you can rinse out and reuse, looks perfectly good."

Since she was being a pretty good sport thus far, I decided to go for the kill...the refrigerator. Opening the door revealed what is probably pretty typical in many households. Lots of containers, many plastic, covered with a clingy kind of plastic wrap or aluminum foil. I gently (I knew I was beginning to over do it) pointed out that containers with their own lids will save on waste (plastic wrap) or recycling (aluminum) and her lots of money. I also mentioned that the only thing that probably could not be recycled from the fridge were the cartons, but she had to check because they actually might even take those. (which means I'll have to check)

I really was shocked that there seemed to be no knowledge of the triangle number rating on the plastic. Now these are educated folks, activists, old fringe hippies. This is a great example of why "Pay as You Throw" is a good idea. There is still too much going to the landfills or incinerators and we need to "encourage" folks to recycle more. My friend, bless her cotton pickin soul, is a prime example.

Seventh Generation has a great posting on the plastic numbers and what they mean and some tips for plastic use safety. This just takes things one step further. And, yes, I did send it to my friend.

And after all that, we sat down to fresh black raspberries, red raspberries and blue berries, drizzled with smooth ricotta and almond, and a chocolate covered biscotti for dipping. I think she forgave me.

Tips for Getting the Public to Use Recycle Containers

Cloudy day waiting for some rain to spin through.


Getting the public to use recycling containers may sound like a boring or futile subject but it definitely has some merit. I was at the Shaker Village in Canterbury yesterday, all day in one of their glorious barns. I had saturated a napkin with strawberry juice and headed to the trash can to dispose of it. I saw lots of recyclable items in the trash and I wondered why the Shaker village didn't recycle. My goodness, of all cultures, the Shakers would have been leading the recycling movement, had they not believed in celibacy.

I asked one of the volunteers if the Shaker Village recycled and she didn't know. (So far, this wasn't going very well with lots of room for improvement.) I asked the person in charge of the event, and she didn't know either nor had she planned for it even with the outdoor food offerings. I asked if Canterbury had "Pay as You Throw" and the answer was "yes". So what's wrong with this picture so far? Shaker Village doesn't appear to recycle and they have to pay for their trash based on weight. So much room for improvement.

On my way out, I stopped in the Museum Shop (beautiful shaker items) and asked if they recycled. "Oh yes, we have 2 bins at the front of the property." That's it? (I said that to myself) A couple of acres of property, over 10 buildings to stroll through, a museum, a restaurant, a shop and they have only 2 recycle bins? Then she went on to say that it wasn't very successful because people throw their trash in it and the staff has to sort through it. I asked if there was a trash can next to it, and the answer was no. There in lies the problem.

Last summer the City of Concord had 20 recycle containers at their annual Market Days event for the first time. They were randomly placed by the waste management team and the results were interesting, and important. When ever the recycle containers were buddied with a trash container, people did the right thing and there was almost zero contamination in the recycling bin and very little recyclables made it in the trash. However, when the containers were only 6 feet apart, people didn't bother to look around, they trashed what ever they had, recycling bin or not.

Back to Shaker Village... and this is true for any new place, when all you see is a trash can, most people assume that the facility does not recycle. Some people might look around for a recycling container, and only fanatics would hold on to their recyclable items for proper recycling. The take home message is, the lone trash can sends the message that there is no recycling.

So here are some tips for getting people to use recycling containers.

1 - Always buddy your recycling container with a trash can to prevent contamination.
2 - Clearly display what is considered acceptable recycled items...glass? plastic? metal? paper?
3 - If only a trash can, have a sign directing people to a recycling container. (for folks who want to do the right thing)
4 - Never have a recycling container alone - it will definitely be used for trash.
5 - If you do not have single stream, have a bin for each category clearly marked with words and graphics. (little kids can recycle but might not be able to read)
5 - Thank people for helping to keep waste to minimum.

If you adopt these tips, I predict you will have a very successful recycling program.