Recycling Pick Up Starts This Week
Good idea to let people know that Eureka's forced recycling program starts this week as the Times- Standard did. I saw a number of the recycling containers set out on the sidewalk on garbage day last week. A lot of people apparently didn't read the flier the city mailed out explaining how it works.
What gets me is how some, including city councilcritter Jeff Leonard, are trying to sound like they've done us a favor and they're actually saving us money. Forced recycling will only increase the glut of recyclables and will likely cost more and more over time as more items are added to the stream.
As I predicted, it looks like some are trying to force recycling on the outlying areas of the county, too. Sure, nobody in that T-S article on the closing of the recycling drop off spots in Eureka is specifically saying they want to force garbage service on the county, but the conversation is heading the same way it did for Eureka back before they started mandatory garbage service.
Some in the county want pick up service of their recycleables, but City Garbage will say they can't do that unless everybody subscribes to garbage pick up. That's how it will go. Then, we'll have the usual suspects saying there's too much trash laying around so we should require everyone to have trash pick up along with the hysterical cry for more recycling ( and that's coming from me, a recycling fanatic). Eventually, it will happen just as it did in Eureka.
Think I'm crazy? Maybe so, since I can't imagine the current Board of Supervisors supporting something like that. Then again, two members of the Eureka City Council, Jeff Leonard and Virginia Bass- both ardent supporters of the Eureka recycling program- are running for Board of Supes next time around. Sometimes all it takes is for one person to push a hysterical idea and everybody else follows. The Eureka City Council voted unanimously for the program, if memory serves me correct.
Those living in the outlying areas usually come to town for one thing or another on occasion. Just be sure and add a trip to the recycling center to your agenda. You can save yourself the cost (and some say added hassle) of being force to pay for pick up of your recycleables.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 9:12 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Hooray for Jeff Leonard and Virginia Bass!
I'm wondering if Bonnie Neely might be able to use this issue against them during the campaign. I wouldn't bet money on it but it wouldn't surprise me if most people in the county would be opposed to having garbage service forced on them.
I do think curbside recycling saves money. Consider:
Eureka ratepayers are charged $110 per ton to truck their garbage to landfills in either Anderson or Southern Oregon. Before the market downturn, ACRC was paying $10 per ton for recycling. Currently, they accept recycling for free. Worst case scenario, the recycling center will implement a tip fee this year between $30 and $50 per ton.
Even at the highest recycling tip fee, ratepayers still save $60 for every ton diverted from garbage to recycling.
Ratepayers are starting to see the savings on their bill, too. Before universal pickup, a lot of customers were getting 30, 45, or 90 gallon garbage bins. These customers can all save money by converting to a 20 gallon garbage cart – and using their 90 gallon recycling cart.
As you know, a lot of people were self-hauling, and they paid the $10 minimum charge to dump garbage at the transfer station. If they followed the law and dumped their garbage every two weeks, they paid $260 per year. 20 gallon service costs $218.00 per year, and it includes weekly garbage and recycling pickup and two free bulky item pickups per year.
Fred – if you did less than 22 trips per year, then I guess you’re right. Universal pickup is costing you more money. Unless you factor in you’re time, fuel, wear and tear on your vehicle…
A lot of people didn't RECEIVE the mailer with the appropriate start date. I called City Garbage to inquire and they said many people were missed with the mailing.
I did less than 22 trips to city garbage in a year when I self hauled. My garbage bill will be over $70 for 3 months next time (maybe more than that. I'll have to look at it again). It used to only be $45.00 every 3 months which, as I've said here before, I considered a bargain.
Of course, $9.00 of my current bill is for the green waste can which actually has saved me some money recently.
What I find appalling, although not unexpected, is that a city councilman is so cavalier about telling other people that he knows best how they should spend their own money. Unfortunately, Jeff Leonard isn't the only one.
Oh, I will confess that the big blue recycling bin is more convenient for me, cost aside. I go to City Garbage regularly, so it's not an issue of transportation, but organizing all the recyclables and fitting them into the cab of my truck could be a real hassle sometimes.
Human society sometimes institutes rules intended for the highest good of the greatest number of people. I think it's just grand that people aren't allowed to piss on the street, for example.
I know that sometimes things get out of hand and we have to have some vigilance (see my letter to the Eka City Council at www.humboldthash.blogspot.com). But really, it's recycling. This is GOOD, and I'm delighted.
Fred, like you, we did not "follow the law" (which, to be honest, I didn't know existed) and self hauled a single can every SIX weeks because we generate so little. So, the mandatory service is costing a bunch more. Convenient? No doubt. But Mr. Leonard never has addressed the issue of forcing us to do business with a private company. I wonder how many people (like a friend I was talking to the other day) presume City Garbage is a municipal concern? When I told her it was a private company NAMED City Garbage, she was none too happy. Very deceptive and I still want to know whose getting the kickback for this deal? Will other companies be allowed to come in and woo my business away?
For now, I'm dealing with my 20-gallon can that is seldom full. I will let City Garbage haul my non-CRV - If I'm PAYING them to haul it, they're not getting my CRV stuff for free. So, Mr. Leonard, I'm still driving to the facility to cash in my recycling. Meantime, my neighbor managed to opt-out. The reason he has so little garbage? He sneaks down the alley and puts it in OTHER people's cans. Grrrrr!
yeah, except that the mailed flier merely said that recycling would start "by the week of the 24th", not "the week of the 24th", leaving the pretty valid interpretation that whenever they passed out the bins the pick up would start.
Wait! NewBaku applauds forced recycling, but opposes forcing landlords to clean up their slum properties? (See Humboldt Herald.) How strangely inconsistent.
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