You don't have to live on land to recycle!
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Trash Managers Dispel Myths About Recycling
November Sees Push to Change Minds, Habits
Key West Citizen
November 4, 2007 |
KEY WEST — Key West businessman Chris Belland walked out of Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” and joined the growing legions of Americans pushing the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle.
“It made me think about everything I do,” said the 60-year-old Belland. “I’m not going to pay the price for our environmental sins, but my grandchildren are. I think we need to take some responsibility for our environmental legacy.”
Belland, who is spearheading the Key West Chamber of Commerce’s Love Your Island effort, has been delivering his message to individuals and businesses for months. During this designated Recycling Month, the focus for Belland and the group Green Living and Energy Education (GLEE) intensifies as they try to boost Key West’s and Monroe County’s dismal 6 percent recycle rate, compared with a national average
of 30 percent.
The first plan of attack: Eliminate the widespread belief that cans, bottles and newspapers that Waste Management picks up from curbside recycle bins are not recycled.
“It really has to be a consistent effort,” said Jody Smith-Williams of GLEE, adding that educating children also should be a primary focus. “People have to realize it is getting
recycled.” |
Waste Management employee Moses Fleitas gathers recyclables in the Meadows
Thursday morning with the company’s yellow truck, denoting
that it is for recyclables. The green trucks are to pick up garbage/trash.
These containers are made from corn and completely biodegradable. The substance has been recommended as a replacement for Styrofoam. |
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Perception vs. reality
Newly painted yellow trucks are driving around Key West, just in time for this month’s festivities recognizing Recycle Month, aimed at educating residents and businesses about the environmental and financial benefits of recycling.
“One of the complaints we always hear is that they’re throwing recyclables into the garbage truck,” Annalise Mannix, deputy assistant city manager, said of the company’s
all-green trucks. “So we asked Waste Management to change the color of the [recycling] trucks to help promote recycling.”
The trucks have two compartments, one for newspapers and boxes and one for cans, plastic and glass bottles. They replaced older trucks into which Waste Management crews sorted each type of recyclable into separate compartments.
The change to trucks with two compartments has not affected what gets recycled, but has lessened the amount of time the truck has to sit idle on some of Key West’s narrow streets while drivers sort the items, said Greg Sullivan, district manager for Waste Management.
Everything that is taken from curbside is sent to the mainland to be recycled, he said, adding that the only things not being recycled are those the drivers leave behind in recycle bins.
“Their job is to put the right material in there,” Sullivan said. “Once the driver picks it up, it starts in the process.” The belief that recycling is combined with regular garbage after it’s taken away may be fueling the Florida Keys’ low recycling rate.
“We did a study in 2004 and found one in 10 houses participate
in the recycling program,” said R.B. Havens, manager of Key West’s Public Works Department. “That number has not changed. It’s always between 5.6 and 6.1 percent.”
TIME IT TAKES FOR TRASH TO DEGRADE
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Paper:
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two to four weeks |
| Banana peel: |
three to five weeks |
| Hard plastic container: |
20 to 30 years |
| Aluminum can: |
200 to 400 years |
| Plastic six-pack holder: |
450 years |
| Styrofoam cup: |
500 years |
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At least 10 percent of Key West’s 60,000 tons of garbage collected annually must be recycled before the city will realize a cost benefit, Havens said. The city has budgeted $377,340 for its recycling pickup this year and $1.92 million for residential and city trash pickup. In addition, it will cost almost $4 million to haul and dispose of the garbage, Havens said.
Sullivan’s estimate for the amount that is recycled in Key West and throughout unincorporated Monroe County is higher, at about 10 percent, because grocery stores and some large companies, such as The Citizen, recycle through other companies. He also includes appliances and other metals in his calculations.
Commerical Challage
Key West businesses produce 42.7 percent of the city’s garbage, but recycling participation is extremely low. Four lodging facilities in Key West and one on Big Pine Key, however, have been recognized as “Green Lodges” by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, in part for their recycling efforts.
Businesses, particularly Old Town bars and restaurants, pose a challenge for recycling efforts primarily due to a lack of staff and space to sort and store the many cans, bottles and plastics for pickup, said Alison Higgins, president of GLEE.
Business owners also believe it costs more to recycle, but in reality it can save them money, said Waste Management’s Sullivan. For example, a 96-gallon trash can of recyclables costs $31 per pickup, while the same size can of garbage costs $73.25 per pickup. The theory is that removing recycling from the garbage should allow for fewer garbage pickups or smaller cans.
“If you can divert things that have been going into your trash can, into recycling, it makes a lot of economic sense,” Smith- Williams said.
At Hog’s Breath Saloon, where bar backs have been sorting bottles by color and placing them in recycle bins since 1992, General Manager Charlie Bauer said savings are not obvious, but recycling is just the right thing to do.
“My goal is hopefully someday it will save money down the line, if everyone gets on board with it,” he said. “We’re doing what we can without it costing a whole lot of money.”
Waste Management picks up recyclable bottles from Hog’s Breath five days a week, but members of the staff take cardboard to the Waste Management facility on Rockland Key, Bauer said.
Other businesses, such as the restaurant Croissants de France, also drive their recyclables to Rockland Key, an option that is available to anyone, Mannix said.
The city may consider installing a central recycling location downtown that would provide a dropoff spot for businesses that can’t wait for pickups, Mannix said.
“There are all these reasons why it could be a problem, but we’re looking at what could be the solution,” she said.
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Changes Coming
A more imminent change in Key West is the addition of 1,000 recycle bins that are on order, some of which will be placed throughout the city during festivals and other events that draw large numbers of people.
Recycling bins also will be stored at the city’s Public Works building so people will not have to drive to Waste Management on Rockland Key to pick them up. Waste Management will deliver the bins, but it can take up to five days, Mannix said.
“Things like that will help with consistency in getting the message out that it is important,”
Smith-Williams said.
One idea for new bins is to put some near the cruise ship ports, another is to put them at sports fields.
“We need to get people used to something we’ve never had before,” Mannix said.
Recently, the city placed recycle cans at the soccer field, but later found them full of trash
such as diapers and cake. Those bins were replaced with the familiar green bins used by residents for their recycling at home, which worked better, she said.
Another possibility is enacting mandatory recycling laws for cans and bottles, in which garbage would actually be checked to make sure no cans or bottles are present, Mannix said.
Outside Key West, the city of Marathon recently placed recycle bins around its parks and
athletic fields, and Islamorada plans to establish recycling goals and develop incentives for participation. Belland, who is pushing for the elimination of Styrofoam throughout the Florida Keys, including in school cafeterias, said he is sending to every restaurant samples of biodegradable take-out containers and bags. The containers feel like plastic
but are made of corn polymers that quickly disintegrate when they are thrown away with regular garbage. The Trellis Earth products cost about the same as Styrofoam, Belland said.
“People get into habits of doing things and we just need to change our mind-set,” he said. “Plastic bags and Styrofoam cups, all these have a life cycle in a landfill of 500 years, and that’s just a wild guess by people that it will break down by then.”
Sullivan of Waste Management said recycling is one way to help the environment, but reminds people of the other two Rs in the “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” slogan. For example, parents might buy larger bottles of juice and use cups that can be washed, and people can buy products in larger volumes to reduce the amount of plastic packaging they need.
At a minimum, people should take responsibility for properly rinsing and disposing of their recyclable items, he said. “You kind of have to start looking around at your own house and see what you can do,” he said. “That’s why I start my commercials with, ‘It all starts with you.’ ”
Becky Iannotta
Key West Citizen |
KEY WEST TRASH*
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Residential:
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16,984 tons |
(28.4 percent) |
| Government: |
13,068 tons |
(21.9 percent) |
| Other haulers: |
2,204 tons |
(3.7 percent) |
| Commercial: |
25,499 tons |
(42.7 percent) |
Navy:
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1,971 tons |
(3.3 percent) |
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WHAT'S IN KEY WEST TRASH**
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Wood/yard waste:
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two to four weeks |
| Paper: |
three to five weeks |
| Plastics: |
20 to 30 years |
| Glass: |
200 to 400 years |
| Metals: |
450 years |
| Other (constructions debris, furniture, appliances, etc): |
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| Miscellaneous: |
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| Clothes/textiles: |
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| Consumer goods: |
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WHERE MONROE COUNTY'S
TRASH GOES***
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Landfilled:
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212,470 tons |
(94 percent) |
| Recyled: |
12,469 tons |
(6 percent) |
* City of Key West figures for July 2006 to June 2007
** City of Key West figures for fiscal year 2003
*** Florida Department of Environmental Protection figures for January 2005 through Decemer 2005
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