A message from Somerville Climate Action

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Hi kids:

I got this message from a member of the Somerville Climate Action group. As it has to do with trash/recycling regulations, I thought y'all might like to know.

- Ananas

I just had a meeting with Vithal Despande from the DPW. With the economic downturn, the recycling industry is taking a hit like everyone else. The demand for recyclable materials at home and abroad has gone down significantly and recycle collection businesses are sitting on piles of material waiting for someone to buy.

Because of this, Casella Waste Systems is going to be enforcing the rules as to what can be accepted from our city pick-ups.

The biggest unacceptable thing that people put in is plastic bags. Plastic bags can not be used to contain recyclables, they can't be left on the outside of paper bags and they can't be put in on their own. Another thing is styrofoam. Even if it has a number on it- no styrofoam. Also, no pizza boxes. Paper and cardboard must be separate from co-mingled by tying up or placing in a paper bag.

Russell, the company that hauls the pick up will begin issuing rejections for people who don't follow the rules.

Comments

[mjperson.livejournal.com]

"Also, no pizza boxes."

Does that mean that pizza boxes are forbidden, or that they must be broken down and separated out with the other cardboard?

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I think it means they're forbidden (EVIL FORBIDDEN PIZZA BOX!), and I'm guessing it's b/c of food remnants, but I don't actually know. I can pass the question along.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I always wondered about the pizza box thing too. Enquiring minds want to know.

And I will have to try (again) to educate my roommates, who are both well-schooled people but unable to grasp that PAPER AND CARDBOARD MUST BE PLACED IN A SEPARATE BAG. They keep just putting it in the bin.

[ron_newman]

My apartment building has the big rolling gray bins, and as far as I know, we're supposed to put paper (newspaper, magazines, office paper, cardboard) in some of those bins. Am I wrong?

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I dunno, Ron. We have the standard blue bins and my handy-dandy City of Somerville recycling guide (which I posted on the wall by the bin, to no effect) says newpaper/cardboard go separate. But the school next door also has those grey bins like yours and I think you can co-mingle in those. Good question for 311.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

You probably have some of the big bins for paper and some for containers...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I wish pizza boxes could be recycled. I throw them in the regular garbage, but it doesn't feel good to do that.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Pizza boxes are forbidden because they contain too much grease and therefore attract rodents.

(If you cut them up into little pieces you can add them to my compost, though!)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I used to carefully sort between boxes which had any grease and boxes which didn't, and put the latter in with the newspapers. I bet I'm not supposed to do that any more.

[ron_newman]

I don't know how you'd get a pizza box without grease, unless it never held a pizza to begin with.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Some places put something like waxed paper between the pizza and the box, which seems to block all but the most greasy of pizzas.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Ok, to be completely honest, I rip my pizza box into two pieces -- the top and other bits that are completely grease free, and the greasy part.

I then cut or rip each part into small pieces and put the greasy bits into my compost (because I have not had problems with varmits in my bin) and put the absolutely not greasy bits hidden into my paper bags of recycling.

This is one of those "do as I say, not as I do" moments.

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

My brother's girlfriend's father (figure that one out) used to do something like that, and he got into a war of sorts with the recycling people in the town where he lives in Illinois. The town kept sending him letters being like, "Stop recycling pizza boxes!" and then "Stop recycling pizza boxes with the greasy parts cut out!" At that point he gave up and started throwing them out.

[turil.livejournal.com]

He should have decorated the clean cardbord parts so that they couldn't tell they were pizza boxes!

[djdreilinger.livejournal.com]

It's 2009. Shouldn't someone have built a better pizza box by now? One that can be easily broken down to fit into a standard kitchen garbage bin without tearing holes in the bag?

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

Also the grease adulterates whatever they try to make with the pulp, making it worthless.

[roosto.livejournal.com]

It's not just pizza boxes... It's any paper or cardboard that has food on it. So those chinese take out boxes and the bag you got from kick ass cupcakes which has a see through hole where the frosting rubbed up against it are both out too.

I'm not sure how feasible it would be, but I know that Whole Foods in Fresh Pond has composting cans in its cafe section. Maybe if one could not feel too embarrassed by it one could take such items there to compost them...

Surely it would be lovely if Somerville started a curbside organics/compostable pick up program like my native Berkeley (http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=5606#FOOD_SCRAPS).

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The Cambridge Recycling Center takes food scraps for compost, and they never ask for proof of residence.

I wouldn't be too happy about the environmental impact of yet another type of truck that had to stop at every house in the city. Maybe they could start accepting food scraps with yard waste (except in winter).

[turil.livejournal.com]

San Francisco started curbside compost pick-up last year, I believe...

[turil.livejournal.com]

And the trucks could be powered by biomass energy!

[roosto.livejournal.com]

The other thing is that when you don't have to p/u the food scraps with the trash there will be less trash to pick up; i.e. fewer garbage trucks. This is one of the keys that makes curbside recycling work. The more that gets recycled the less you have to pay for trash collection

[avjudge]

A while ago I read an article about Somerville recycling and in it the interviewee stated that they could never get the smell out of pizza boxes - and hence anything made with them. FWIW