At Monday evening’s work session on recycling, the full Council heard about plans to start single-stream recycling on October 1, 2008. Yes, Virginia, we can put all of our recyclables at curbside starting October 1: not just alumninum and steel cans, #1 and #2 plastic bottles, glass bottles, and newspaper, but also mixed paper (office paper, junk mail, magazines, cardboard, phone books, etc.), plastic #1 through #7, and all kinds of plastic bags.
City Manager Jim O’Connor said that he expected to present a proposal for a contract for the Recycle Bank incentive program (see this earlier blog post) at the October 18 City Council meeting (not September 22 as projected earlier). After 3 weeks of cramming all of our recyclables into the current bins (or seeing a wide variety of containers left at curbside to handle the overflow — note that plastic bags or cardboard boxes can used, but both the content and container will be considered as recyclable), I expect that many people will be excited about the idea of a large recycling cart with a cover on it. However, City Council needs to decide whether that cart plus the RecycleBank’s recycling incentives (which are said to average about $20 per month of value for a household) justify charging every household an additional $2 per month. I expect that some households will have difficulty managing the carts — finding a place to keep the cart, getting it to the curb, preventing theft, etc.
The RecycleBank incentive program would come with a 5-year extension to the City’s contract with Waste Connections. The contract already extends to 2016, but the proposal would extend it to 2021 — a whopping 13 years in the future. Back-door garbage collection would continue for the term of the contract. The current cost of $11.22 per household (of which $5 is paid by fees and $6.22 is paid by taxes) and the $2 extra for the incentive program would be adusted upward for increases in the Consumer Price Index, but would not be renegotiated.
Added (Sept 11, 2008): Ray made some worthwhile comments, which I’m addressing here in addition to commenting on his comment.
R: Is handing out coupons an incentive? I was afraid of this, once again, a good effort to increase recycling participation in Oak Ridge comes with a price tag of $2.73 a month per household to increase retail in Oak Ridge. People, we can recycle more and not incur the cost …
E: For the record, the proposed price is $2 per month, not $2.73. The company says that people can expect to receive promotional coupons worth an average of $20 per month per household. I share your concern that the coupons might not be as worthwhile as advertised, but at the same time I figure that as long as their perceived value is more than $2 per month, people will feel like we’re ahead of the game. (Also, part of that $2 fee is needed to pay off the investment in the recycling carts, which I figure are worth somewhere near $100 each at retail.) Also, note that households will not be issued coupons directly, but will be given points that can be redeemed toward various “deals.” If even some of the coupons are good for “$10 off on a purchase of any size” at businesses where we actually buy stuff, I think we’ll feel that they are worthwhile. The Recycle Bank spokespeople told EQAB that the most popular rewards are for grocery stores and drug stores.
R: I have coupons in my mail, newspaper, credit cards, store cards, and online. Everyone I spoke with says they want to be able to spend these coupons on the $2.73 cents charge Recycle Bank sends us and to use these coupons on the $5 waste charge on our utility bills. This will increase participation.
E: It would be nice if we could get actual cash (or a reduction in the bill) as a reward for recycling, but the sad fact is that the market value of our recyclables is not high enough to provide a meaningful payback. The purpose of the promotional incentive is to encourages more people to recycle more stuff, so we send less stuff to the landfill, waste less energy and water in production of new virgin materials, and boost the recycling economy — the more we recycle, the more markets there will be for recycled materials.
R: Have you used PriceLine Groceries when it was a start up business like Recycle Bank? They are out of business now Ellen. I do not believe this company will make it till 2021, what happens then?
E: I never used PriceLine Groceries, but you have an excellent point regarding the possible longevity of the company. The City will need to make sure that any contract we sign lets us get off the hook if the Recycle Bank service stops being available — or if the quality and value of the promotional incentives declines significantly.
R: Do we get to keep the big plastic cart with an information tracker that allows them to sell my information to advertisers and spammers? Does this company provide a privacy policy for its customers?
E: Data privacy is definitely a concern. The RecycleBank has a privacy policy that says (in part): “We do not rent, sell or share your personal information or program activity to anyone without your express consent. We may share information with municipalities and haulers about the frequency with which you recycle and the weight or volume of the material you recycle but not about the content of this material. We may also share information with others about the aggregate volume or weight of material recycled by many households, including yours.”
Is handing out coupons an incentive? I was afraid of this, once again, a good effort to increase recycling participation in Oak Ridge comes with a price tag of $2.73 a month per household to increase retail in Oak Ridge. People, we can recycle more and not incur the cost that Recycle Bank wants to collect from Oak Ridgers and send to New Jersey by just denying Recycle Bank’s money grab.
I have coupons in my mail, newspaper, credit cards, store cards, and online. Everyone I spoke with says they want to be able to spend these coupons on the $2.73 cents charge Recycle Bank sends us and to use these coupons on the $5 waste charge on our utility bills. This will increase participation.
Have you used PriceLine Groceries when it was a start up business like Recycle Bank? They are out of business now Ellen. I do not believe this company will make it till 2021, what happens then? Do we get to keep the big plastic cart with an information tracker that allows them to sell my information to advertisers and spammers? Does this company provide a privacy policy for its customers?
The way the night went, at the end all we did was talk to Garbage men. Ellen, I plan to address a comment by the garbage men that implied if a citizen doesn’t comply with the rules of the program or if a household is not recycling, Guido would be sent out to their house. Is this some kind of New Jersey joke or is our city business office planning to hire a Guido?
I’m going to respond to some of these comments in the text of the blog post.
As for Guido, the Waste Connections spokesperson was joking when he said that. (That is, it was a New Jersey joke.) From experience, I know that Mafia-related black humor is common in the waste management business. (Everybody has heard those jokes, so they tell them, too.)
Thanks for the feedback Ellen. Since you feel coupons are worthwhile, why must I recycle the way you recycle?
I recycle where I can get cash back. I recycle where other organizations can use my recyclables for cash back. The idea that Recycle Bank cannot give us cash back is what they tell you, but I tell you they get cash from their recycle efforts.
With the expanding collection of recyclables at a 0 cost (ZERO), their will be other organizations wanting those items. Are you just wanting more people to recycle that is why you support an added tax on our utility bills? I would like to opt out of your coupons for garbage campaign so I can help worthwhile organizations that will keep our community together. Why does every news source think it will only cost the participating citizen $2? That is unfounded, or is it that city council has already a plan to strong arm citizens and extend a contract to 2021 for this added tax? This is taxation without representation. Is this how local authorities send out the message to citizens who do not know or do not recycle now? Hidden rules and regulations is what the stories from our newspapers have gathered for information. I should have a choice where I put my recyclables, not only the way you recycle. Anyone who does recycle knows the added cost of water to wash those items. It will be $2.73 on our utility just for recycling to receive coupons upon coupons I already have. This is not new, that is why I dropped the Oak Ridger subscription. I got the same news with the same coupons as in the KNS.
And the Guido answer is an acceptable answer to our city council to what happens if those issues are put the test? Ellen, I do not want a tagged garbage can so the company can give the information to you. I was there. I heard them, the average citizen couldn’t, but you a councilperson could. Remember, they could give the exact address of who isn’t doing their effort; as far as a garbage man sees, how can he be so sure I’m NOT RECYCLING? I found the question to be sincere and important, yet the whole city council just laughed at the response. Did I miss something? Was a joke answer asked for? I do not want Guido or Guido’s junk mail sent to my house because the mafia garbage men think I’m not recycling. All they need to look at is the local organizations who hold RECYCLE DRIVES as to why I do not participate with a man with coupons.
This isn’t about whether I personally think coupons are worthwhile. The objective of the coupons is to induce people who aren’t recycling to get into the recycling habit. My household recycles anyway (as does yours), so the Recycle Bank program wouldn’t change our behavior.
I would not support this program if I thought the only benefit to Oak Ridgers would be promotional coupons. However, I see other benefits. These include (1) greater efficiency of curbside collection when more people participate, (2) the environmental benefits (including reduced energy and water consumption and less demand on landfill space) of recovering materials that people are now throwing away, and (3) over the long term, the more people recycle, the more valuable our recyclables will be — because as a larger volume of recycled material becomes available, it becomes more attractive for businesses to invest in technology to process and utilize this material. I wish that recycled material was worth enough to pay for the cost of this incentive program, but (although neither Waste Connections nor Recycle Bank has shown us their balance sheets) I know that the value of the most of the stuff that households recycle is not very high. Charities do make money from collection of aluminum cans, newspaper, and other specific materials, but they don’t have to account for the expenses incurred by the volunteers who deliver those materials.
City Council will need to decide whether the benefits to the individual and the public from the Recycle Bank will justify the $2/month fee. You clearly think they will not, and I appreciate hearing your reaction to this. I am sure there are other folks who will agree with you once they hear the details, and we will need to weigh your concerns against the expected benefits.
People who do not use coupons do not recycle. Asking these people to spend more time and money to collect a few dollars above what they had before is no incentive. What people who do not clip coupons or recycle do recognize is the $5 waste collection fee on our utility bills. If that were able to be removed by recycling, that may incite people to try to join a club online, pre-wash the material which means a higher water bill, enjoy a large blue plastic bin that is not as Earth and Oak Ridge friendly as would a recyclable plastic bag be, and then pay the $2 every month.
Ellen, I’m not saying that recycling is being pushed onto people. we want it. But we do not want the extra cost to be paid out in cash. That is acceptable to say when our back door trash pick up is soon to be on the chopping block or pay up another fee for waste collection. Besides, we Recycle Bank is not going to stop us from recycling, so why punish the people who recycle now.
I would like an option to not participate in Recycle Bank but continue to recycle. That should be a right available to every citizen when approached by a garbage man with coupons.
Hi, Ellen. I agree with Ray. I recycle now and I welcome the opportunity to recycle more material that would otherwise just become part of the waste stream. I don’t use coupons, so if there’s to be a charge connected with the coupons, I’d really rather opt out of that part of it. I don’t need an incentive, and I don’t want more charges to be allowed to do something I already want to do.
Ellen, recycling is catching on as the price of recyclables goes up. The way this city recycles, I expect thieves to come in from surrounding areas to collect our items which will be used to offset our back door service one day.
Please don’t forget about recycling, but think about how much it saves. Please read this article to see what NYC has done to stop curbside recycle thieves.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03072008/news/regionalnews/scrappy_city_takes_on_recycle_thieves_100815.htm
I hear it is already happening here, but I have been watching mine. I do have community groups come and collect some of it, buy I have informed them that I will call them when the items are ready to be picked up. This city is loaded with recyclable material, and one day it will be stripped from all the homes.
Wow — I wasn’t aware that theft from recycle bins was becoming a problem. It does seem to be occurring in New York (the article you mentioned) and San Francisco (based on this article that I found).
I haven’t heard of that here, and I have a strong hunch that East Tennessee isn’t a very good market for sellers of recyclables. If aluminum cans are a valuable commodity around here, why do I see so many of them littered along the roadside?
It musn’t be convenient, even in recycling convenience rules, but it is coming here. More and more recycle centers are coming online. Did you notice how those cities relied on the recycling efforts to cut costs on garbage pick up all together? In New York City, while I lived there, garbage pick up was twice a week and large house trash and yard debris was alternating monthly. New York is a hard pusher of recycling, and the 3 bag household trash limit with no garbage left outside forced the citizens to recycle. They could put as much as the wanted out on recycle day. They do not need to work at it for coupons. Their recycling was a necessity.
Which road was that Ellen. Seems like someone should adopt that road. I’ll go pick them up. I have done 7 sections of roads so far this year.