I missed the notice in the newspaper (and can’t find it anywhere on the Oak Ridger website), but it’s household trash pickup time in Oak Ridge — a once-a-year event.
According to the city website, pickup started yesterday on the west side of town. My street is on the schedule for tomorrow, which explains the junk that’s been appearing at curbside.
The trash pickup is scheduled to continue until about April 18. Brush pickup will follow, beginning April 28, 2008.
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Closely related to the subject of trash is recycling. There’s good news on the Oak Ridge recycling front — all types of recyclable plastic (numbers 1 through 7) are now being collected for recycling at the Waste Connections convenience center on the east side of town. Curbside recycling plastic collection is still limited to #1 and #2, though. Prepare for Earth Day (April 12th at the Civic Center) by expanding your household’s recycling effort!
Ellen, this is great news. I am convinced of the amnount of savings by a recycler. But I do have a question. Is the city slow to progress this kind of effort because of the uncertainties of the Bottle Bill?
I hope our city can expand the recycle center to a satellite center on the west end?
The bottle bill had nothing to do with the timing of the recycling change. The additional types of plastic were added not long after city officials learned about the existence of a local market for these plastics.
People frequently ask about an additional drop-off center on the west side of town (where I live). I don’t think a full-scale convenience center is in the cards — operation of the center is part of the city’s garbage collection contract with Waste Connections, and a second center would add a lot of cost to that contract. There might be a possibility of a site just for collecting recyclables, but the easiest recyclables to collect at a satellite center (such as aluminum cans) are already being collected at curbside.
For me, a retail post office on the west side (for that matter, it would be nice even to have a post office in the center of town again) is higher on the wish list…
I agree with you about the post office, but with more and more people looking at a home based office, more and more recyclables tend to be earmarked for the landfill and not the distant recycle center we have here. I believe the two are main issues for people who work at home and care for their environment.
I can say I have reduced my landfill products by five garbage bags a month by using the center. Gas prices and summer work will leave me little time to go to the center this year. I believe a satellite recycle center, like you said recycle only with truck containers to be picked up can show us home entrepreneurs that Oak Ridge does care what you throw away, about 5 reams of paper, and a couple large pick-up truckloads of cardboard a year, and also that dreaded junk mail that continues with any small business. Many communities are finding the satellite centers to break even. As you say the market in E. Tenn. for recyclables is improving, and maybe a post office with a recyclable drive through parking pad can be worked out. Imagine those who use the post office can just drive through and put the junk mail in its place.
Also, it is very dangerous the way the recyclable center is designed now, and gridlock is common. I feel something needs to change the design of our city to attract people to come back and take another look.
In addition, I feel cardboard and many plastics not collected curbside are not making it to the current center. With a bottle bill, current curbside pick-up of drink cans and bottles would not be collected at curbside anymore, rather at deposit exchange centers at stores. Maybe truck space can be expanded to include some of what is not collected at curbside now but are at the recycle center?
I do feel it is important for our city to strongly consider expanding the recycle center to West Oak Ridge. Thanks for the exchange Ellen; this is probably one of my favorite topics, recycling, other than Nuclear produced electricity, both of which I am for.
Interesting to think about how a bottle bill would affect curbside collection of recyclables. Thanks for pointing out the possibilities.
For now, in the absence of a bottle bill, I’m told that the truck cannot handle “extra” plastics because the #1 and #2 plastics take up a lot of space already. I suppose if more people crushed their plastic bottles before putting them in the recycle bin, maybe the truck could hold more types of plastic, but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen.
I’m familiar with the bottle bill. If you look at the drink cans and bottles now, they have deposit information stamped on them. Those states have a bottle law. This law prevents a large amount of bottles from ending up on the roads or in landfills. The majority of these soda, juice, water, and beer bottles will no longer be put into the curbside recycle box. That will relieve space in the collection truck. I found myself using that deposit money to work with the students and continue environmental clean up. Also, the deposit exchange machines will crush the bottle and give you a receipt to be cashed in at the store’s cashier. The bottle bill helps communities with recycling to collect more at curbside.
All in one bucket? This is a great start, but expansion is necessary to continue the collection of waste as a resource. Maybe the waste company can study collecting plastics and glass on one day and paper and metals on another. I wonder if this would have a break-even effect. It is interesting to hear that our recycle program is filling trucks to capacity. Great Work Oak Ridge!
I’ve noticed a pick up truck with a man collecting the metals at curbside in Oak Ridge. With the new business Noble Metals here in Oak Ridge, I see recycling is picking up and pays. I’ve always thought of all the aluminum cans sitting roadside in those blue bins. At 65 cents a pound for drink can aluminum, I wonder if this man is filling his truck up with those cans. This is just another case to further the bottle bill and to re-address our recycling efforts. We can do more with the Bottle Bill and broaden our pick up curbside. If the bottle bill is passed, will our city see city staff turning in these bottles for the deposit then sell the product for the recycled material? At a nickel, 100,000 bottles and cans will return $5000 plus its recycle rate. With a Bottle Bill, I cannot see a city afford to NOT recycle.
I wonder, just how green is our city government. How much recycled paper is used and paper collected to recycle? Where do all those pallets of bottled water go? Is our city council fighting the Bottle Bill because of our dependence on bottle and can drinks? I have reused my cups and bottles for years now. And if I want soda, I find a fountain to refill my cup. The more I look at our city government; the only part that is green about us is a few buildings. That is sad.
Do you know how much our government uses recycled goods and how much is collected from our city government to recycle? Then of course, what is the tonnage of what is put into the landfill from our city government?