Re: [RCAC] citizen/RCAC input for new recycling program?

Everyone, I heard about the rolling recycle carts some time ago and am looking forward to having one. A rolling cart will be much easier to get to the curb than lugging the bin full of papers, plastic bottles cans, etc. - at my age that is a challenge my back and I do not enjoy. Currently it is wasteful to have a recycle truck come every week if some people do little recycling. Once every two weeks to empty a bin makes more sense. As for the size of the recycle cart, there are options, just like those for our garbage carts. Remember, before the City started a recycling program, we had to take our recyclables to a few designated sites throughout the city - just as we do now with telephone books. At future SWCAC meetings and in our newsletter, I will be begging folks to recycle even more when they get their rolling carts.. My biggest frustration is that people do not recycle every item they can - that's what being "green" is about. I was lucky - my mother taught me to recycle as a child many, many, many years ago. If people had lived in Raleigh long enough, they would remember the City's challenge to find enough land to expand our "garbage mountain." The more stuff people can recycle, the less land Raleigh will have to buy for a garbage dump when the present dump is full or if they cannot find land, the garbage will have to be shipped somewhere away from here at a much greater expense. Do not forget some items that should be recycled are toxic to our water supplies. Recycling saves additional expenses of purifying our drinking water, too. Leaving to our children and other family members land that is as green as possible will be just as important as leaving them our home and money. Please make a positive adjustment to this bin-to-cart change. Thanks for reading my email. I do not want to step on people's toes, but I so strongly believe in recycling. Mary Belle Pate In a message dated 2/17/2010 12:40:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, linda(a)lindawatson.com writes: I was surprised and disappointed to see in the paper today that Raleigh will be using big new plastic recycling containers and decreasing the number of city employees (no layoffs, but a net loss of jobs). We had a presentation about recycling at a recent Glenwood CAC meeting, but I don't recall any mention of this new plan. I took a survey that a friend forwarded to me, but otherwise didn't know about the upcoming changes until seeing the article today. The survey mentioned a tax increase to pay for the new program, but the article today didn't mention one. Was the RCAC informed of this change? I know the people in the recycling department work hard and have great intentions, but I would have liked to have a more public discussion of the pros and cons of this program before seeing it approved, including RCAC notification. For example: * What is the environmental impact of throwing away the bins we already have and buying new ones? * Where will the new ones come from? A Raleigh firm would be good, a Chinese firm would be very bad. * Is it a good use of tax money to replace jobs with big plastic bins and fancy trucks? * Should we be striving to increase the volume of material recycled or to decrease the amount of overall waste? Sincerely yours, Linda Watson Glenwood CAC chair _______________________________________________ RCAC mailing list RCAC(a)eastraleigh.org http://www.eastraleigh.org/mailman/listinfo/rcac