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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Green gotchas

The city hopes its One Cart Recycling program will increase the percentage of the population that recycles from 34 to at least 60:

The mayor explained the benefits of recycling, including using less landfill space and being eco-friendly. He also swung the biggest hammer available in tough financial times: The city's new contract with National Serv-All means Fort Wayne gets 50 percent of profits from sales of recycled material.

I'm not sure how this will work. The current bins, though requiring the sorting of recyclables, are small enough to keep indoors. The one for plastics and other culinary detritus can be tucked discreetly in a corner of the kitchen. I keep the one for paper behind the couch, so I can just plop the newspaper right in when I'm done reading it, How many people are going to want to keep a 48- or 96-gallon bin in the house? Having the bin outside will mean a zillion extra trips to fill it up.

Oh, well -- just a small bump on the road to perfection, I'm sure. Elsewhere in the green revolution:

They dangle from the arms of many New Yorkers, a nearly ubiquitous emblem of empathy with the environment: synthetic, reusable grocery bags, another must-have accessory for the socially conscious.

But the bags, hot items at upscale markets, may be on the verge of a glacier-size public relations problem: similar bags outside the city have been found to contain lead.

“They say plastic bags are bad; now they say these are bad. What's worse?” asked Jen Bluestein, who was walking out of Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side with a reusable bag under her arm on Sunday.

All the "experts" say there is no immediate health threat from the lead. Of course, those greenie bags do tend to collect all kinds of nasty bacteria, so be kind to Mother Earth at your own peril.

Comments

Bob G.
Tue, 11/16/2010 - 2:27pm

Leo:
I'm not ashamed to say I've been recycling for over a decade, and I have NO desire to hug a tree or place flowers in gun barrels...lol!
It's no skin off my nose, and doesn't take me from other things, once you get the system down (that a 3rd grader could figure out).

It just makes good sense...something (very) often LACKING on the SE side of town.

If you want to see how much ANY educational "campaigns" directed to instruct people (in MY part of town) are being paid attention to, just drive through my neighborhood most ANY day of the week...!

People consistently leave these bins AT THE CURB (sometimes encroaching on a street or alley) even AFTER they received information demonstrating HOW to properly place the can, as well as WHERE and WHEN to return it from the pickup area.

Not to mention, rentals tend to mysteriously "grow" more bins from a solitary receptacle...now THAT should save a ton of replacement money for these bins (if they weren't in actuality MISAPPROPRIATED from OTHER houses nearby).

Locals in my area like to use the old bins for "auxiliary seating" when inviting over too many people for another soire' that invariably leads to (you guessed it) MORE trash along the streets.

Some people simply choose NOT to be educated in any way, shape or form.
Good luck with this project.

(maybe they could PAY people to recycle...that would amend the booze and drug coffers nicely for these morons.)

But hey, that's just what I see around here.
Facts ARE facts.
Darn shame the CITY leaders can't (or won't) see it as well.

You might be able to lead that "horse" to water, but you can't make it drink (anything but cheap-ass beer).
Therein lies the lesson for today, kids.

Happy recycling.

:)

Kevin Knuth
Tue, 11/16/2010 - 2:59pm

I thought about the bin problem too- we keep our in our enclosed back porch- and will continue to do so- I will just dump them in the bigger one when it is convenient.

Leo Morris
Tue, 11/16/2010 - 3:37pm

Ah, fill the smaller, then into the big 'un. Clever.

littlejohn
Tue, 11/16/2010 - 4:58pm

I'm lucky enough to have a connected garage off my kitchen, so tossing recyclables into a bin or whatever is no problem.
If somebody is willing to sell my garbage and share with the city, it's no problem for me, and less crap in landfills.
And no, I don't drive a Volvo. Why is trying not to clutter the planet considered a silly liberal conceit? Consider the alternative.
Teddy Roosevelt would approve.

tim zank
Tue, 11/16/2010 - 10:37pm

By all means lift and seperate, scrub and rinse, hell, bump and grind too. It won't have any effect on the planet but if it'll make ya feel better, have at it.

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