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Tuesday, September 29, 2009
News State-wide recycling reform laws take affect Thursday
Posted By Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 12:13 PM
The state's got new rules regarding recycling plastic bottles, but no one seems interested in enforcing them.
Public service announcements, fliers, and corporate-gift cards are all aimed at getting N.C. households to comply with a state law kicking in Thursday that bans plastic bottles from landfills.But don't look for the trash cops if soda bottles end up in your garbage cans.
"That's not the spirit of the law," said Scott Mouw, the state's recycling director. "Clearly, this is more of a law of spirit or intent, everyone recognizing the positive reasons to recycle."
Without enforcement efforts, though, North Carolina's embrace of recycling has been more of a half-hug.
It's important to know that Charlotte-Mecklenburg currently only accepts certain types of plastic. So, just because an item is plastic and a bottle doesn't necessarily mean they'll recycle it. And, they definitely don't recycle the lids. (Fortunately, however, Aveda -- yes, the skin and hair care company -- does. But, they do so through participating schools so you'll have to ask them where to drop yours off.)
What happens if you throw something into your red bin that Charlotte-Mecklenburg isn't recycling? It ends up in the trash anyway and wastes garbage collectors' time.
According to Charlotte.com, there are more recycling reforms on the way in and effort aimed at saving the state even more money:
Starting next July in Charlotte, recycling will be collected every other week, instead of weekly. The city is trading the red recycling bins for larger rolling containers similar to its trash cans. Workers will dump everything into trucks, and the plastic-metal-paper sorting will be at an automated facility.The move is part of a plan to save about $26 million over 10 years.
But, more bad news with a positive spin:
North Carolina missed a 10-year recycling goal it set back in 1991 for reducing trash disposal. In fact, more trash went to landfills, not less. Garbage disposal went from 1.01 tons per person in 1992 to 1.21 tons per person by June 2001.The state now has a new goal: Recycle 2 million tons of bottles, cans, and other materials each year by 2012. N.C. residents currently recycle about 1.3 million tons a year.
One of the state's new tactics to persuade people to keep plastic out of the trash is to focus on the empty bottles as a raw material for the state recycling industry. The state has plants that are a step in the manufacturing chain that turns used bottles into new bottles and other materials. The largest plastics recycling plant in the nation is to open in Fayetteville next year.
Why the push to recycle? The state is finding ways to make money -- and create jobs -- with recyclables, according to the Carolina Weekly Newspapers.
Plastic bottles can be repurposed for a variety of products, like filler for pillows and clothing.The Recycling Business Assistance Center estimates recycling programs have created 14,000 jobs in the state. Aluminum recycling programs create six times more jobs than a landfill alone, and recycling a can requires 95 percent less energy than producing a new one, the center said.
Here's the sad news, from the Carolina Weekly Newspapers:
Although Mecklenburg County boasts the largest population in the state, it came in 12th on the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources list of top recycling counties in the state with an average of 174.5 pounds of recycling recovered per person in 2007.Dare County topped the list with more than 900 pounds of recycling per person, according to the 2000 census. Fewer than 30,000 people reside there.
Orange County, which includes Hillsborough and Chapel Hill, recycled more plastic per person than any other county last year, according to state figures. Orange residents recycled about 29.5 pounds of plastic bottles per person in 2007-08.Pamlico County was the next closest with 14.8 pounds per person. The state average was 3.8 pounds per person.
"People across the county have a really high recycling ethic," said Blair Pollock, Orange County's solid waste planner.
Four counties didn't collect plastic for recycling. Some of the state's municipalities - Kannapolis being the largest - don't have curbside recycling, Mouw said.
WTF Kannapolis?!
Speaking of News, Recycling
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