Peek at Northlanders’ trash reveals a troubling surprise
November 28, 2011 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Bottles and cans lead a lengthy list of items we’re forgetting to recycle, which amounts to more than $700,000 per year in lost value of recyclable material. Continue Reading
It’s just so much easier to just throw things away. Too many people are just lazy, stupid, and apathetic.
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The disturbing thing is Duluth has the best tap water in the world and people still spend $2 to buy water in a bottle from New Jersey.
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Bottled water companies scare consumers by saying that tap water is dirty and contaminated, while they themselves simply bottle tap water. Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coke’s Dasani are two of the many brands that are really filtered tap water.
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Make recycling convenient for the consumer. Government, quit behaving like you’re doing us a favor to have recycle centers. Survey consumers — see what they want, not what you want.
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While I think the deposit idea would be a great way to convince people to recycle, it seems as though it would have a downside for those of us that already do.
Now, I buy a soda and get the can for ‘free’. Then, I recycle it and make a few pennies.
If I pay a deposit and then receive a refund for returning it, I only break even.
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We have the recycle bins in Superior, but I think they undersized them. We fill ours with recyclable plastic, metal and glass in as little as a week — but they only tip and take the bin’s contents twice a month. Over here, they need to have a little bigger bin or take the recycling every week.
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Recycling is already convenient for the consumer – you simply throw it in the bin labeled “recycling” rather than the one labeled “garbage”. What more can they do to make it more convenient? It’s more stupid than lazy.
And, for once I agree with David Anderson! The government (socialist) water in Duluth is far less expensive and of higher quality than that offered by the private sector. ; ) You have to be nuts to actually buy water in a bottle.
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I would like to see a deposit. If you do any walking or look along the roadside the amount of these containers is disgusting. It would encourage people to throw less. It would also provide a small income to the needy or others to pick them up.
However let the merchants decide whether or not they want to accept the returns and on what terms, example: We accept up to 6 with a purchase. There can always be a large drop off for the collectors or others using them as a savings account who have pickup loads of them.
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You break even in Iowa if you return your bottles and cans to a recycling center. If you don’t, you lose your 5-cent deposit per item. So the deposit does encourage recycling because no one wants to “throw away” money. But in Iowa, they charge you to curbside recycle at your home, so many people don’t do that. There are plenty of people with shopping carts piled with garbage bags around Iowa towns who do a pretty good job cleaning up discarded cans and bottles in trash bins and along roadways–90% recycle rate and climbing!
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It’s unfortunate that so many Iowans are forced to make a living that way.
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Yep, deposit is the way to go. Money is the only thing that talks with most, unfortunately.
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We don’t recycle because we have to pay out the a** to have it picked up.. and then the city gets the money for the items! (I am not in Duluth) It IS too much hassle to have to drive it somewhere myself when the garbage can is picked up weekly and I can just put it in there and not have to pay anything extra.
We do have a compost bin and a garden and compost all of our compostables.. but that’s because it’s easy. I just have to dump it in the bin outside and leave it till next year and I have beautiful new dirt.
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lazy
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Hey Bink,You could save up those cans and bottles and use the proceeds to buy seeds! Just sayin : )
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Hey Dead I hope your are eating those fish. You might want to look into the mercury content, though : )
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I see complaints that people don’t recycle because they don’t have any benefits from doing so. Here’s a couple thoughts. Sorting those items gives people jobs, which may use that money to buy something from your business. Also, it keeps the costs of producing products down. I remember a few years back there was a shortage of the plastic to make pop bottles…and the price of 6packs went up (I worked at a pop company). Guess what. If people had recycled the bottles, they wouldn’t have had a shortage and could have kept the prices the same. Most of the time its not seeing money back, but its more if not having to pay more. If trash companies have to charge you more because its more expensive to landfill stuff instead of recycling, aren’t you actually seeing the benefits if they *don’t* have to raise rates?
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I agree. In fact – if WLSSD has it’s estimated values right – sounds like jobs to me. To quote the article “In all, the estimated value of recycled material being trashed is more than $721,000 annually, just in the Duluth area.” The revenue generated by recycling those items could pay a nice livable wage ($45k annually plus benefits) to probably 10 people or so. It’s a dirty job, but it would be self sustaining, and be considered a green job – which would qualify for tax breaks from the Feds. Problem is, not enough people are willing to do these “dirty jobs” for a living anymore. Maybe we need to get Mike Rowe in here to give it some attention. You know what they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
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You got that right. My recycle bin is always full…and I put my trash out like once a month. The bin is in the garage, while the garbage is outside…most things go straight from the kitchen into the recycle bin. As for one mans trash…I make tens of thousands of dollars a year buying things from garage sales for almost nothing and selling them online…Thats another reason I have so little trash…I sell most of my junk.
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Wow, the level of ignorance on this topic it deplorable!
For one thing, the ‘not enough people want to do this job’ line. Many counties in MN have hired the handicapped to do this kind of work, and they’re more than happy with it. But I suppose that there’s no programs like that available in the Duluth area.
For another, a lot of areas have donation programs set up that give the proceeds of recycled product to local sports teams, etc.
And, if you’re all that worried about ‘someone else’ getting the proceeds from your recycled stuff, just look in the yellow pages for the nearest reclaimation center.
Since nothing else is available in my area, I crush all my aluminum, (a crusher can be had for under ten bucks), and take it to an area metal reclaimation center. (what used to be called a junkyard) Nine kitchen sized bags netted me $27. Down from six months ago, but still worth the four mile drive.
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Here, this might help you out….
http://www.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Recycling+Centers/S-MN/T-Duluth/
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If there was a tax on lazy and uneducated, we’d have the finest schools and roads in the world here in Duluth.
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encourage companies to make things in more environmentally friendly packaging. Ban the plastic bottle. Make beverages in Aluminium containers, which are readily recycled, compared to plastic (and take the pressure off oil) But, it makes too much sence.
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Sounds like a lot of government regulation, Reagannation!
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To bac and Fakey: thumbs up! In the 80s I crushed my alum cans and took them to a reclamation center. In the 80s, I drove all my recycling (newspapers, bottles, cans, plastic containers) to the reclamation center and so did many townspeople because it was an excellent facility. Today, our household trash to recycling ratio is about 1:8. Our peddle bin in the kitchen is about two gallons in volume and our rubbish for two people is two of those a week. Our recycling is a giant bag and we produce two of those a week. So garbage/rubbish accounts for a mere fraction of our household waste. You can buy bulk (Whole Foods Coop) and stop buying bottled water by getting yourself a Brita filter.
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Correction: In the 90s, I drove all my recycling …..
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And it’s not all that hard to cut down on the plastic bottles.
You can still get beverages in 12 oz aluminum cans, unless you REALLY need that 20 oz soda. And anyone who actually buys water in a bottle should have their head examined. A good water filter produces the same thing.
Just about everyone pays for trash pickup these days, and the larger the container, the higher the cost. If you need one of those big 60+gallon containers a week and are throwing out uncrushed cans and/or plastic bottles, you’re spending a LOT of money for them to haul what amounts to air.
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I got an idea! Stop drinking pop or soda and just drink Duluth’s delicious tap water out of a reusable stainless steel container! Pop is crap anyway
Beer, though, is the opposite of crap and can be purchased in recyclable glass bottles or reusable glass growlers. I would then properly decant it into a pint glass! Or if you want it to go just use that reusable stainless steel bottle I mentioned before.
BEER!
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You’re forgetting the aluminum cans, racer.
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Yeah, I guess if your drinking Pabst!
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Didn’t know PBR even came in cans, although everything around this area does.
Anyway, back to the haulers….
I’ve been having WM do my hauling for a few years now, and noticed that the last three quarterly bills have been going up nearly ten bucks a quarter. Did a little research, made a call or two, and found a new outfit that is just a bit over half the price, and provides recycling bins to boot!
I don’t know what the situation is in the Duluth area, but I found out I have access to at least four, possibly five different companies here. Might pay to look into it?
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Almost forgot…
If you know what WM is, and are stuck with them, check out their website. They’re based in CANADA!
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I’ve known many people over the years that all agree there’s garbage seperation of recycables, at some factory I suppose, so they throw away their garbage. Some companies examine people’s urine, add garbage to the list!
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