Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 12:41:11 -0600 From: Stanfield.Lucy@no.address
Story from the 12/16/03 Seattle Post-Intelligencer: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/152676_recycle16.html
We'll all recycle or else, City Council decides By 2005, we have to sort our rubbish from the reusables
By KATHY MULADY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Seattle, you're slacking off.
In the early 1990s, you were the nation's recycling leader. In some neighborhoods, eight out of 10 households recycled. Congress lauded your efforts.
But that was then.
Since 1995, you've been increasingly sloppy in separating aluminum, glass and garbage.
Yesterday, the City Council decided to get tough.
Starting in January 2005, residents and businesses will have to change their wasteful ways. Recycling will be mandatory.
And by 2006, homeowners who don't recycle won't have their garbage picked up until the trash is sorted.
Commercial customers -- the worst offenders -- face fines of up to $50 per collection. (Note: The fine amount was misstated when this article was originally published.)
That means no more soda cans, glass jars, newspapers or cardboard mixed in with the regular garbage.
"Oh, wow," said Sara Hardy, amid the recycling bins in front of her Ballard apartment on Northwest 58th Street.
"I may have thrown a can or bottle in the garbage," she said. "I'd hate to have my garbage not picked up."
Sound extreme?
Perhaps.
But hey, Seattle, your reputation as one of the country's most environmentally savvy cities is at stake.
And no, the city isn't hiring a fleet of garbage inspectors to hunt through cans for illegal pickle jars.
But it will be giving customers a lot more information on how and why to recycle.
"Everyone is envisioning gremlins crawling in the garbage can and weighing how much paper is there," said Councilwoman Margaret Pageler.
"You don't have to be a committed environmentalist to do this. I think once people know what the rules are, 95 percent will act responsibly."
The ambitious recycling program was proposed earlier this year by Mayor Greg Nickels, and introduced in council by Pageler.
The city will spend about $748,000 on education programs and service improvements.
If more trash is recycled, the city figures it could save as much as $2 million in landfill costs.
Recycling here began in earnest in 1988, when the city was running out of landfill space. So it talked about building an incinerator in southeast Seattle.
Neighbors rebelled.
Then, city garbage officials suggested aggressive recycling could be the answer.
Charles Royer, the mayor at the time, set a goal of recycling 60 percent of the city's garbage.
We never came close.
In 1995, recycling peaked at 44 percent. Since then, that figure has been steadily declining.
At the same time, Seattle has emerged as a national leader in water conservation.
We use less water per capita than almost any other city.
"For a city that has shown such commitment to water conservation," said Susan Stoltzfus, a spokeswoman for Seattle Public Utilities, "we could be a lot better on recycling."
Although cities use different ways of calculating, some boast of a 50 percent recycling rate.
But all of this is lost on Hardy, the Ballard resident.
She grew up in Texas, where, she says, recycling isn't as popular as in Seattle. So it's taken her a while to get used to recycling aluminum, paper and glass. She likes the ideas of gentle reminders.
Around the corner, on 26th Avenue Northwest, Todd Waffner liked the idea, though he wondered how it would be enforced.
"As long as it's clear it's coming and there are some warnings, then it's fine," he said. "I can see it more as a threat. But I can't see people picking through garbage."
P-I reporter Kathy Mulady can be reached at 206-448-8029 or kathymulady@no.address P-I reporter Brad Wong contributed to this report ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lucy Stanfield US EPA Region 5 Waste Management Branch 77 W. Jackson Blvd. DW-8J Chicago, IL 60604 tel 312.886.1121 fax 312.353.4788 stanfield.lucy@no.address http://www.epa.gov/region5/solidwaste
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