Dare I say it again? This month (yes, in March) in your water bill, you should receive information about the subscription recycling program.
Of course, the plot has thickened a bit. You will notice I didn’t call the program “citywide”. The word from City officials now is that only five areas of Dallas will be targeted for curbside pickup.
A response card will be included in water bills which, when returned by a (hopefully) large number of residents, will indicate citizen interest. (City recycling officials won’t reveal the five areas targeted for the program.)
A City Council briefing is scheduled for early March, focusing on the contract to be offered to CMC, the company tapped to collect and haul away recyclables. Next month, I hope to have more details on the program. (In a quest for more information this month, I called various City departments. By the end of the day, the term “bureaucratic red tape” had new meaning.)
In the interim, however, consider these topics regarding recycling and the program:
• Are there safeguards in the contract to ensure CMC actually recycles items collected from curbs?
• Further clarification is needed to determine which neighborhoods are chosen for the program. Do we need to pester neighbors to subscribe?
• The City landfill accepts 6,000 tons of garbage daily and is filling faster than anticipated. We are running out of space for new landfills. This, in itself, is the reason to recycle.
• According to the City’s Recycling Office, three-fourths of the landfill garbage is commercial. The vendors of our City seem to be throwing out a lot of trash. Make a phone call. Write a letter. This is an issue that needs addressing.
• Another tidbit from the Recycling Office: The average American household tosses almost four pounds of garbage daily. In Dallas, this figure is doubled: We are throwing out twice as much trash as the average American.
• When you take recyclables to City igloos, follow the rules. If enough of the wrong color glass is placed in an igloo, the entire contents become trash – rather than recyclables. When contaminated igloos top off trucks full of clean glass, a lot of good recycling effort is wasted. Thousands of tons are taken from igloos to the landfill annually, due to contamination.
• Newspapers don’t belong at the igloos or near plastic/paper bins at grocery stores. You aren’t recycling when you wrongly dump newspaper; you’re merely working harder to dispose of trash. Take your newspaper to one of the private paper-recycling facilities.
• Buy recycled products when possible to create a market for them. If your grocery store doesn’t carry what you want, talk with the manager. It’s that simple.
If you have questions or concerns about the City’s recycling program, call City Hall. We are the “checks and balances” of this system, and the City needs to hear from us.
Among the City employees working on this program are Carlos Rovelo, recycling coordinator, 670-4475; Andreas Campos-Kreutzer, solid waste operations manager, 670-4502; William McDonald, assistant director of sanitation operations, 670-4954; and Levi Davis, assistant city manager, 670-3390.
Check your water bill, and return the response card quickly so the City can continue implementing the subscription program.
