Refuse Reflections

 For some reason, I find the NYC Sanitation Department absolutely fascinating. It is a model of conservation and waste all at the same time. For example, I remember going home to Ohio and hearing folks marvel at how quickly NYC would dig itself out of blizzards. When we first moved here, it seemed we were having 1.5 feet of snow every other weekend for a month or so, yet kids didn't miss a day of school. How could the City sustain the reputed fleet of more than a thousand snow plows? Easy - those snow plows are actually garbage trucks. Just strap chains to the tires and plows to the front - you've got guys to staff them already and their shifts are all worked out. Good to go. Sounds amazingly efficient, until the third snow storm blows through and you suddenly realize that trash hasn't been collected in several weeks because the trucks are otherwise engaged. I guess it was at least too cold for the rats to go to town too much in the growing heaps of refuse that lined every street.

I have always been impressed by their recycling system here. It seems like they can recycle just about everything. From orange juice cartons to metal hangers, just chuck it in a blue bin or a clear bag and you're good to go. The one big exception was plastic - NYC only recycled small mouthed plastic bottles. Though everyone in NYC claimed they knew exactly what could be recycled, I found very few people actually grasped this distinction. When I was working at the museum, we incorporated a recycling sorting game into our green school program. Every group that came in was tripped up by the yogurt or takeout containers that couldn't be recycled. Everyone was convinced that since their bins said "plastic," any kind of plastic could be chucked inside and recycled. When we walked to school on recycling day, it looked like most of our neighbors suffered the same misconception about the breadth of NYC's plastic recycling program. It made me sad because I remember that Dayton recycled many kinds of plastic, even though we had a pretty sad recycling program back when I lived there.

By the way, they're not kidding that you can just put a couch on the corner and they'll pick it up. It's absolutely mind-boggling to me what that truck will just pick up. We put our box spring out last weekend - finally gave up on freecycling it or otherwise finding it a use. It was bagged (as is required due to bed bug issues in NYC), so the sanitation guy just picked it up and chucked it in the back of the truck. He hit the lever and Paul, Penny and I watched it slowly get pulled into the truck and crushed. I've seen a truck pick up what looks like an entire eviction and squish it, then carry on with their route.

In any case, I was so excited to get the pictured notice in the mail, saying that NYC now recycles all kinds of plastics - from takeout to toys to yogurt containers. How awesome! No more confusion! I'm guessing the folks who were previously sorting the recycling will either get cutbacks in their hours because they can now take everything...or they will have lots more hours as they have to sort all the different kinds of plastic. The one thing that concerns me is that their choice of image for recycling plastic toys bears a striking resemblance to Paul's current favorite toy - a red and yellow dump truck.

The new guidelines have already led to a dramatic increase in what we can shift from trash to recycling. I'm excited. I don't know if I'll increase the breadth of what I collect on our walks for recycling, though. I usually pick up recyclables from the streets as I walk Penny to and from school. When the only recyclables were small mouth bottles, I had collected about one full trash can a week through our daily jaunts to school. It was usually about a grocery bag a day along our 1.2mi round trip walk. I usually overlooked all the coffee cups, ice cream lids, etc. since they previously were just trash. There's only so much I can carry on a stroller, after all. I do wonder how much additional litter can now be recycled each week.