Watch Them Recycling Trucks
Ok. Today's the day, at least in my neighborhood.
Today is garbage pick- up day and should be the first day of curbside recycling pick up. I'm going to try and see how they do it but I can't be sure I'll be around at the right place and time. I want to see if, or how, they separate the paper from the plastic when they dump it in the truck.
They have two sections in the blue recycling containers so I'm guessing they'd have to have the hold of the truck that picks them up divided in two so the stuff could be dumped into separate sections. I'm also guessing it would be hard to make something like that work well as it would be difficult to get everything to fall into the proper section.
I won't be surprised if they actually dump the currently separated recyclables into the same place in the truck. Wouldn't that be funny? Keep an eye out and let me know how it works. I'll be working in the county today so might not get a chance to watch.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 7:35 AM
11 comments
11 Comments:
I'll be waiting with bated breath, Fred. Let us know how it all shakes out, buddy.
I am glad you are monitoring this situation. Around 18 years ago, I put out my recyled material as City Garbage told me to do. I was very unhappy to find out that they just threw my neatly-stacked and bound newspapers into the truck along with the garbage! They were only pretending to recycle!
So you see, I, too, think it is a wise thing for us all to keep our eyes open when that truck rolls by our homes.
By the way, I hope this system will really work. I am learning to enjoy the process of curbside recycling. I'll still gripe about certain aspects of it, but overall, it's good to reduce the amount of waste we generate.
I didn't get to see any of the recycling bins picked up. Shame. Maybe next time.
I did notice that when they emptied mine, there was the lid from a cottage cheese container left behind inside the bin. I want my money back!
Fred, I wrote at 12:41am yesterday. Here is my report on today's recycling activity.
City Garbage Company usually picks up my house trash at 9am. It is now 12:30pm. Neither the trash nor the recycling has been picked up from my curb.
However, it has been picked up from the neighbors around me. I saw their recycling bins being emptied by a clawlike device that grabs the bin, shakes the contents, and slings the bin over the truck, where the force of inertia pops the recycle material into the truck. The truck appears to have two hoppers into which the separate halves of the recycle bins are emptied. The container hopper can circulate the mass of plastic and other containers in a circular pattern, then tamp it down. That probably compacts the material, but that is only speculation on my part.
I hope to get a chance to see this process repeated with my own recycle bin. If I get that closer look, I will let you know.
But for now I can report that it appears as if City Garbage of Eureka has been telling the truth about how curbside recycling pickup will be handled.
I almost had a chance to see them today. I saw a couple of brand new City Garbage trucks so I'm guessing they were for recycling. They were following each other. I didn't get to see them pick the stuff up but got the impression that one truck would pick up paper and the other one containers. I just guessed that maybe one truck had a lift that held one part of the lid closed and the other truck held the other closed so they could separate the recyclables.
I guess not, if you saw them do something different. I couldn't see any other reason for the two trucks to be following each other around.
They came into my neighborhood by twos, also. But there is no doubt that the truck that picks up the recycling bin ejects both the containers and the fiber at the same exact time. The containers go into one section of the truck at the same time the fiber goes into a different section of the truck.
The trucks may have been traveling together so one of them could empty the recycle bins and the other truck could empty the regular garbage bins.
My eagle-eyed friend saw the process at our place. He said what happened when the truck emptied the recycle bin was exactly the same as what City Garbage Company showed on its TV ads.
It makes me cheerful to think that this new system may really work and make recycling a lot more effective than in the past.
Spoke with a guy I know, Mickey Ayala, that works for City Garbage yesterday. He's a driver but doesn't drive the recycling trucks. He told me the new trucks do indeed dump the paper and plastics in two separate containers in the truck.
He wasn't sure exactly how it worked but, as I expected, the bins have to be picked up in a certain position so they'll be lined up in the proper direction. There could be problems with it if people put the wrong materials in the wrong side of the bin but, otherwise, it supposedly works ok.
Fred, did you catch the hidden ID Theft problem with the new recycling program?
City Garbage is encouraging people to put their magazines and junk mail into the recycle carts -but they are not mentioning the importance of removing personal information first.
In the current environment, where ID thieves are a real hazard, smart recyclers will remember to remove their personal information first, before they put fiber into the recycling carts.
I've taken care of that on my own end for years. I always shred anything that might be considered sensitive information. I used to shred anything with my name and address on it. Then, it got to be just too big a hassle so now I just focus on anything from financial institutions, for the most part.
It really irks me when banks send out credit applications with your name and address already filled in. I realize it's easier said than done but you can't help but think someone might be able to slip a credit card application with your name on it through a bank and just change the address.
Banks hide the fact that some bank employees steal customer information and sell it to ID thieves. This involves a lot of customers.
We have separate trucks for recycling and household waste pickups.
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