Everything You Wanted To Know About Where To Take Your Recycling (And Weren’t Afraid to Ask)

More about recycling? It seems to be the Topic of the Week in the news right now, and that’s always encouraging so let’s roll with it. Up in Washington it seems that quite a few people have questions about where to take their own more dubious recyclables, and The Olympian is up to the task of getting those questions answered.

Question: Where can I recycle plastic compost bags that contained compost from Home Depot?

Answer: Any plastic film that you can stretch and poke your finger through, you can recycle, said Amber Wells, an education and outreach specialist with Thurston County Solid Waste. A bag that contained soil or compost should be turned inside out and hosed off or wiped on the grass.

Many stores accept plastic bags for recycling. Recycle bins often are located near the front door of supermarkets such as Albertsons, Safeway and Top Food & Drug. The bags are used to make more bags, as well as plastic lumber products such as Trex decking.

Q: Could you please let me know where I should take my old TV now that I’ve broken down and bought a new HD one?

A: Bring televisions and computer monitors to the Thurston County Waste an d Recovery Center to be recycled for a $15 fee. The center is at 2418 Hogum Bay Road N.E. in Lacey. It’s open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mon day through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

You also can take it to Community Recycle Days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Thurston County Fairgrounds, 3054 Carpenter Road, Lacey.

There’s more where that came from. I realize this article is really only specifically helpful for those of you up in our great northern state’s capital, but it does paint an excellent list of items you might not immediately assume to be recyclable, and as such it is inspiring me to compile a similar list for my own locale. Perhaps you shall see that published here soon!

Photo via Flickr!

Recycling Served Five Ways

We’re all about reduction and re-usage over here, but let’s face it — with all the product already floating around out there in the world, recycling is not just encouraged, but vital and crucial and necessary. Most people know to separate out their aluminum foil and plastic bottles from the rest of their trash, but at the Janesville Gazette in Wisconsin, reporter Kayla Bunge sounds off on five items that not everyone knows are recyclable and what steps you can take to make them so.

Computer printer cartridges

Alarming fact: Each year, more than 1 billion ink and toner cartridges are sold worldwide, and more than 500 million cartridges are used in the United States alone, according to the EPA. Only 5 percent of ink and toner cartridges are recycled; the rest end up in landfills, polluting the environment with plastic, metal and chemicals.

Where to recycle it: Some national retailers accept empty ink and toner cartridges, including:

– Staples, 2900 Deerfield Drive, Janesville. HP, Dell and Lexmark cartridges are accepted in exchange for $3 in Staples Rewards.

– Best Buy, 2850 Deerfield Drive, Janesville.

A number of Web sites pay cash for empty printer cartridges—an increasingly popular fundraising scheme—and recycle them. Check out Planet Green (www.planetgreenrecycle.com), which accepts both printer cartridges and cell phones and offers a fundraising program for both items.

Among the others mentioned are cell phones and, of course, the ubiquitous disposable plastic bag. (That one, dear reader, you should already know by now is recyclable! …To a degree, anyway.) Interested in doing your part beyond the blue bin? Check it out! You’ll never look at your house junk the same way again.

Photo via Flickr!

American Chemistry Council Promotes Beach Clean-Up

At this point, we should all be familiar with your friend and mine, the American Chemsitry Council. Famous for taking a stand in favor of the wonderful science of disposable plastic bags, they are one of the foremost and most formidable opponents in the quest to promote reusable bags. Oh, and now they are promoting and donating resources to Keep California Beautiful’s coastal clean-up efforts. Wait a minute, what exactly is going on here?

ACC fully supports efforts to keep our oceans clean by putting trash in the can and recyclables in the bin. Nearly one year ago, ACC entered into a successful partnership with KCB and California State Parks to increase the recycling of plastics, particularly on California beaches. Under the “Plastics. Too Valuable to Waste. Recycle.(TM)” campaign, new recycle bins are in place in various beach locations in Los Angeles, San Diego, Monterey and Santa Cruz.

“Plastic should not end up as litter on our beaches and in our waterways,” said ACC President and CEO Cal Dooley. “Our partnership and program works in concert with efforts like the International Coastal Clean Up to increase recycling and protect our environment for the future of California.”

Hmm, yes. Who can argue with them on this point? They’re right — plastic should not end up as litter on our beaches and in our waterways. If only it were that simple. If only littering were the problem. If only plastic bags, once properly disposed of, didn’t tend to find their way back irregardless.

ACC is also taking advantage of this publicity to promote an agenda heavy on plastics recycling — this, too, is a mixed bag. How can you argue with recycling? It is always, always better than plain old waste. That said, the recycling process itself can be a dirty and wasteful process, with most recyclable plastic products quickly being downcycled into new products that are in and of themselves non-recyclable.

So sure, of course it is imperative that we recycle what plastic we already have out there. But, when it comes to making new plastic as opposed to putting an emphasis on reusables, is it so hard to agree that prevention is the only viable long-term option? No, I suppose not.

Yet.

Photo via Flickr!

Friday Link Round-Up: 09/19/08

• Canada is still keen on banning the bags. [Surrey Leader]
• Glass recycling is coming back in vogue. [Guelph Mercury]
• Ontario needs your clean-up help on the 21st. [Timmins Press]
• Wow, Canada is actually all about the recycling today! [Evening Courier]
• They do get pretty miffed when you fudge the meaning of “eco-friendly,” though. [National Post]
• Meanwhile across the border, another store in Virginia goes plastic bag free. [SmartBrief]
• Free reusable bag giveaway in Mercer County, New Jersey! [Packet]
• Will the reusable bag market ever explode? We hope so! [Core 77]
• Three out of four Rutlanders agree: bag the bags! [Rutland and Stamford Mercury]

Photo via Flickr!

New Jersey Considers the Plastic Bag Debate

New Jersey’s Red Bank borough has brought the proposal of a ban on disposable plastic bags before city council this week, and on September 22 the issue is scheduled to be brought before a public hearing. It’s an issue that was first proposed by Councilman Michael DuPont and has since been on and off the table for almost a year, and now that it’s back it’s bringing out all the usual clashes and conflicts of interest that we’re so used to by now.

If approved, the ordinance would ban the use of plastic shopping bags, starting in July. The four Democrats on the council voted for the introduction of the ordinance and the two Republicans voted for the ordinance to be tabled.

“I find this bill to be very restraining to our business in particular, not only from a business perspective but from an environmental perspective,” said Philip Scaduto, vice president of administration and marketing of Food Circus Supermarkets, which operates Super Foodtown of Red Bank and nine other supermarkets.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: grocery store names on the East Coast are infinitely more exciting than on the West Coast. Let’s all go to Super Foodtown! But I digress — are we surprised that a grocery franchise operator is against a ban? Of course not.

Scaduto said recyclable bags have a second life after their initial use. “Compostable bags, which really only end up in the ground, they have no second life, no second benefit or anything that can be redeemed back into society, unlike recyclable bags, which have alternative uses,” he said.

Scaduto said plastic bags serve other purposes and can be used as garbage bags or to pick up pet waste.

“[Also], you can recycle the bag, and when you recycle the bag, we make other recyclable bags out of that or byproducts of that plastic,” he said. Scaduto said the borough might want to wait and get more information before passing the ordinance.

More than anything, I just want to say that if I have to hear the phrase “pet waste” as a major talking point in favor of disposable plastic bags one more time, I am going to scream until my voice gives out. But anyway, the debate rages on as usual, but if you happen to be in this area of New Jersey then you can make a difference: the 22nd at 7:30PM, at the municipal building at 90 Monmouth St. Be there or be square.

Plastic Bags a Focus at Reno Green Summit

Epic, mountainous, frontier wilderness landscapes like Reno often end up being studies in contradictions. At one end they attract the gun-totin’ tobacco-chompin’ Gamblin’-Men who dream of the old cowboy days (see: my grandparents), and at the other they attract tree-hugging eco-crusaders who fall in love with the city’s clean air and forests and relatively unadulterated mountain views (see: its college students and attendees of its annual Green Summit). Two years in the running now, the main focus of Reno’s Green Summit is to get its residents involved in dialogue regarding plans to reduce emissions, improve energy consumption and efficiency, improve sustainability, and develop other ideas for protecting the environment. This year, one of the major points on the board will be the ubiquitous plastic bag and what can be done about it.

Options ranging from encouraging recycling bins in stores to an eventual ban on the plastic bag will be presented to local residents at Reno’s second annual Green Summit on Saturday.

Jason Geddes, city energy administrator, said the bags, bike lanes and new Sierra building guidelines could drive attendance past the nearly 400 who attended the first summit last year. How residents view these issues will be presented to the City Council later for possible action.

The summit will also touch on hot-button issues like green building practices, expanding bike lanes, and ideas for programs getting high school youth involved in activism and conservation. The bag issue, however, is currently taking top billing and plans for discussion address many different options to bring before city council.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell got the debate going last winter when he put recycling or banning plastic bags on the agenda. The council formed a working group, including local business interests and residents, that recommends four alternatives:

# Encourage large stores to voluntarily recycle plastic bags with results reported annually to the city. This option has been considered or imposed in Annapolis, Md.; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles and Rhode Island.

# Require large stores to have plastic-bag collection sites. Annual reporting would be required, and tougher measures would be imposed in June 2010 if goals aren’t met. This has been considered or imposed in New York, Phoenix and California.

# Require large stores to offer a percentage of compostable plastic, recyclable paper or reusable bags. The percentage would increase each year for five years to 100 percent. Fines would be imposed on those who don’t comply. This has been considered or imposed in San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., and Fairfax, Calif.

# Reno resident Marie Gilbert proposed requiring large stores to provide a swap bin for clean, reusable bags.

Do you live in Reno (or the surrounding areas) and have something to say about the state of disposable plastic bags and how they can best be dealt with? Green Summit starts at 1PM this Saturday, the 20th, in the Joe Crowley Student Union at UNR. It’s so important (and so centrally located!) that there’s no good reason not to go, so get on down there!

That means you, grandma.

Photo via Flickr!

Sometimes Seattle Gets Stalled… Again

Alas, Seattle! They just want to get some anti-pollution initiatives passed, but it seems like new obstacles keep cropping up at every turn. Today’s particular obstacle is a big one, too: enough signatures have been collected to bring an injunction against the plastic bag tariff that was supposed to begin in January.

More than enough valid signatures have been collected by a group that opposes a new fee on paper and plastic bags in Seattle to keep the ordinance from going into effect in January as planned.

Instead, city voters will decide the fate of the disposable bag fee during an election next year.

The City Council passed an ordinance July 28 requiring a 20-cent green fee on plastic or paper bags at grocery and drug stores, setting off a range of reactions from cheers to outcry. The council also banned plastic foam food and drink containers. That rule isn’t affected by the referendum and will go into effect Jan. 1.

Sponsored in large part by the American Chemistry Council — surprise, I know! — the smoothly-titled Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax managed to raise 15,099 signatures from disgruntled grocers and customers alike in protest of the tariff. All they needed to stall the policy in its tracks were 14,374.

George Griffin, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop the Seattle Bag Tax, said the fee is “opposed by a broad spectrum of citizens and stakeholders as unnecessary, placing an unfair financial burden on Seattle’s working families.”

That many signatures “provides concrete evidence that the City Council was not representing the views of many of its constituents in imposing the bag tax,” Griffin said. “You can’t cast them as nonsupportive of the environment; they just think this is the wrong way to address the issue.”

The American Chemistry Council, which hired Griffin for the Seattle effort, is fighting similar proposals in California and Hawaii.

Sadly, a side effect of this very signature initiative may be the city council opting instead to ban plastic bags outright — an option that will likely anger even more people in the long run. Nobody wants to place taxes, but we’re trying to reach a compromise here. The fact of the matter is, for all the “we’ll do better, we swear!” rhetoric, people simply aren’t reusing and recycling of their own accord. So, I hope everyone knows what they’re doing here. This could become quite the battle.

Are Coffee Cups Next?

With the assault on disposable plastic bags in full effect, a common criticism is that we are unfairly picking on the plastic bag industry while other (arguably) bigger and badder bits of refuse get a free pass to landfill heaven. All in good time, my friends — we’re getting to them. The city of Toronto, for example, has now widened their sights to include not just plastic bags and take-out containers, but even the nefariously ubiquitous disposable coffee cup.

As part of Toronto’s plan to be diverting 70 per cent of its garbage from landfill by 2010, the city is examining ways to limit items that have a bad reputation for filling up landfills.

“They may not be very heavy, but they take up a lot of space,” said Geoff Rathbone, general manager of Toronto’s solid waste department.

The aim of all this is to increase the garbage diversion rate from the current 42 per cent – a move that would extend the life of the city’s Green Lane landfill, near London, Ont. Some regions, like Durham and York, are moving toward incineration as a solution to waste that can’t be recycled, but Toronto remains committed to landfills.

The proposals, being pushed by Toronto Councilor Howard Moscoe, include options for an outright ban, a tax or levy on the products in question, or even a deposit-return incentive program. Which will prevail? No one is sure yet, if any, but city waste managers are currently in meetings with successful policy setters from across North America to work on developing some new potential strategies. Whatever the outcome, don’t worry about plastic bag fighters “missing the big picture” by not going after other sources of trash overflow. We’re coming for them, too. All in good time.

Photo via Flickr!

Friday Link Round-Up: 09/12/08

• The rest of San Diego County may soon be following in Encinitas’ footsteps. [Sign On San Diego]
• Meanwhile, Gonzaga is following in the footsteps of all universities going green. [Gonzaga Bulletin]
• Concluding the Telluride/Aspen Plastic Bag Reduction Challenge: Telluride 1, Aspen 0. [Telluride Watch]
• North Carolina communities are making a heartfelt effort at replacing plastic bags. [The Appalachian]
• …and in South Carolina, a plastic bag factory is closing its doors. [Triangle Business Journal]
• Recycling is fashionable, and sometimes it IS fashion. [Ventura County Star]
• Florida’s Emerald Coast is all, “Paper or plastic? No, thank you!” [Emerald Coast]
• Japan is going to start recycling Nylon products. Hey, why not? [Trading Markets]
• Eugene-based Market of Choice is ditching the plastic. [NWCN]
• Plastic bags, served twenty-eight ways. [Green Eco Services]

Image via Flickr!

Congratulations, Encinitas!

Encinitas, California — official headquarters of your trusty reusable bag blog — has just become the first city in San Diego County to enact a ban on disposable plastic shopping bags.

Council members voted to approve the ban Wednesday night. The ban will be phased in over time, and supporters are happy to set the trend for other cities in the county.

Council members are expected to meet again to decide when the ban will take effect.

Following a not-long-enough line of trendsetters like San Francisco, and Manhattan Beach, and Malibu, Encinitas can now perhaps usher the rest of Southern-most California into a new golden age relatively free of plastics. As expected, the California Restaurant Association is kicking up a fuss that the ban violates health codes somehow, but these claims are questionable at best, as well as an argument for another time — when they meet to decide when the ban will take effect, one supposes.