[GreenYes] Why Dallas' recycling program is a $17 million joke

[Philip Fredericks <philfredericks@pgtc.com>]

                    On January 4 at Community Waste
                    Disposal's recycling center off
                    Northwest Highway, driver Israel
                    Esparza pulled his truck onto the scales,
                    fresh from his route in the Walnut Hill
                    area with a load of bottles, cans and
                    newspapers retrieved from the city's
                    loyal recyclers. He used a keypad linked
                    to a computer and the scales to punch in
                    his truck number and route.

                    The computer spit out a ticket. It said his
                    load weighed 2,580 pounds. It also
                    showed the time, 5:32 p.m.

                    Two minutes later, at 5:34 p.m., Esparza
                    and his truck were back on the scales
                    with another load. This time, the
                    computer's scale ticket showed that his
                    truck contained 2,440 pounds of
                    materials.

                    That's pretty fast work for a city
                    contractor, or anyone else for that
                    matter. Not counting any curbside stops
                    for the second load, and being generous
                    with the roughly 10-mile round trip to
                    Walnut Hill, his truck would have had to
                    travel at 300 mph just to get to the border
                    of his route and back.

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY GO TO:
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2002-05-16/feature.html/1/index.html

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