With a recycling push coming to New Haven’s neighborhoods members of the WEB (Whalley, Edgewood, Beaver Hill) management team had lots of questions. Master recycler Julie Braun (pictured) had answers
Braun (pictured with her show-and-tell bag of recyclables behind her) is a member of the WEB management team. She’s also a member of an ad hoc volunteer group that’s helping to spearhead the new recycling program in town, the Master Recyclers (patterned after Master Gardeners). They’ve taken on the role as educating residents about the ins and outs of the new plan, which will be rolled out in stages through various neighborhoods starting in April 2010. Click here and here for the background story.
Braun showed up at Tuesday night’s WEB meeting at the Whalley Avenue police substation to field questions about the new program, which aims to resuscitate the city’s anemic recycling level. (It has dropped to 8 percent.)
The new plan won unanimous approval by the Board of Aldermen on Nov. 5.
The highlights are that the new system including “single stream recycling,” meaning all recyclable items can be tossed together in one bin. And residents can earn points for recycling (determined by weight) in exchange for coupons good for discounts at a number of businesses, like restaurants.
Following are some of the questions posed by the more than two dozen WEBbers at Tuesday night’s meeting, along with summaries of Braun’s answers.
Q: Can we put our recyclables in plastic bags?
A: No, just throw them in the bin. In order for workers to record the radio tag on your bin (for recording the weight of your recyclables), the whole bin must be picked up; if they’re in plastic bags, a worker might just lift the bag out of the bin.
Q: Will everyone be participating?
A: The city is starting with residential units, because we think that’s where the city can get the biggest bang for the buck. In the future we’ll bring in businesses and big apartment buildings, as well as include other items like electronic waste and organic waste.
Q: What about rental units in two- and three-family houses? How do we know whose recyclables are whose?
A: Each unit in a multi-unit house should get its own bins with separate identification tags so you can tell which toters belong to which unit.
Q: What about businesses?
A: Businesses and multi-unit residences (like big apartment buildings) will be brought into the program down the road.
Q: Are you doing a big media blitz, including local radio and TV?
A: The city is sending out press releases and will see who picks them up. The city will advertise on the inside and outside of buses and do other kinds of publicity.
Q: Have young people been involved in formulating the program? They can educate their peers and their parents.
A: Some high school and college students are involved.
Q: What about middle school?
A: No one has volunteered from middle school.
Q: Are you going into the schools?
A: Organizers are looking for more people to do presentations and more places to do them. Email Braun with suggestions here.
Q: With all the job cuts in the Public Works Department, how is this new system even going to get off the ground?
A: The new system won’t create any additional work for city employees, because Recycle Bank (which is paying the city for recyclables and keeping track of residents’ contributions) will take care of the additional steps.
Q: If people don’t recycle, will there be penalties?
A: This plan is focusing more on rewards than punishments. Organizers want to educate and encourage people to do the right thing, so they’ll be doing more coaching and counseling than penalizing.
Q: Can we get a tax credit for recycling?
A: That’s not the way it’s set up now, although it’s been mentioned in other cities.
Braun ended her presentation with a suggestion, not an answer: She’d love to apply her recycling earnings to pay her parking tickets.
No word yet on how the city would feel about that.