by Louise Mann, Promoting Honest Recycling Since 1989.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that it is legal to collect recycling curbside, throw it in a landfill, while deceiving residents and charging them for recycling. The trick or legal technicality is to charge for recycling and garbage collection as one fee. This and other significant issues are not addressed in the Fayetteville resolution to switch to single stream. Expect City Council to vote to switch to single stream this coming Tues., July 15. Attend and object if you believe residents should be informed about this big switch.
Single stream is the collection method whereby the recycle TRUCK has a single compartment in which different type recyclables are mixed together. Lots and lots of energy is expended to try to un-mix the mess. Which communities using single stream have a recycling transparency/accountability ordinance? How much are communities being paid for the recyclables being collected via single stream? Exactly how is data collected to report contamination percentages of each type recyclable? Where are the recyclables going after they leave the curb? What is the final destination of recyclables? How much space in the Tontitown landfill has been taken up with recyclables collected via single stream?
Single stream was thrust upon communities by mega size garbage hauling companies attempting to regain volumes lost to those pesky environmental groups that had begun pulling items from the garbage stream and selling them. The environmentalists were collecting recycling in such a way that glass, aluminum, newspaper, junk mail were marketable. How marketable are recyclables that have been mixed with unlike materials?
Certainly we all want recycling employees to be safe on the street and inside a recycling facility. We also want the materials collected to actually get recycled. That means they get made into something new and returned to the market place. We also want Fayetteville to be a leader in transparency. Fayetteville has a recycling transparency/accountability resolution that I initiated while serving on the Environment Action Committee with Dr. Sarah Lewis and John Coleman. But it’s stale and must be updated before a vote to switch to single stream is taken. Many communities have been caught trashing recycling that was collected via single stream. See collage on OMNI bulletin board.
Why is the staff rushing a vote and avoiding a serious community conversation? URGENT!! Contact your alderman and tell them not to rush a vote on switching to single stream. There are many, many questions that need to be asked and answered in a community conversation, not at a sanitized staff presentation where public concern is squelched.
To learn about single stream please visit www.WasteReductionResources.com I am retired so the website is outdated, but the Single Stream section is a great primer for those who need to know the whole story behind single stream.
If the collected recyclable isn’t turned into new item and returned to the market place then your recycling program is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
NOTE: Next city council (Tuesday July 15, 5:30 pm at city hall) there are two Trash and Recycle items on the agenda related to this – a study and a rate increase adoption proposal. Please attend the city council meeting and make comment on these proposals if you are able!