The WTCI blog (which is looking quite sharp these days) tipped me off that Chattanooga residents can look forward to a run of new Recycle Right commercials in the coming days. The spot will feature Mayor Littlefield alongside everyone's favorite $100k budget item, Rocky the Recycling Raccoon. The TV spots were produced by WTCI, and will serve to remind residents to recycle this holiday season even though the City's recycling program is a clusterf&$# to navigate.
It's been a while since Chattanooga recycling received any attention—begging the question, Where in the World is Frank DePinto? And the timing of a TV spot on one of the mayor's more unpopular decisions so close to his re-election run is just a little bizarre.
Thoughts?
David Morton
Zack Littlefield on Dec. 16, 2008
Maybe I'm a little biased here, but I live in Denver - a city much larger then Chattanooga (nearly 5x the population). They pick up recycling twice a month in Denver. The reasoning behind only picking it up twice a month - it costs a lot more tax money to drive those trucks around than you think - also from a green perspective the less you send out a fleet of large trucks - the less you pollute the air with harmful emissions. People are fine with it and thankful for the service. It makes more since to pick up containers that are full than containers that have only one week's worth of recycling in them. I rarely fill mine up in a two week period and I am pretty serious about recycling things where I can. Education on how to properly recycle is key. Just because you put something in the container doesn't mean it will be recycled. Items need to be clean and fall within the guidelines (which in Denver's case are listed on the receptacle). Just a few thoughts to ponder. While it may appear irresponsible to cut curbside recycling pickup to once a month - there are actually many reasons to do so that make a difference for the environment when it comes to air quality and city spending. Just a thought.
Robert T. Nash on Dec. 16, 2008
The bulk of Chattanooga recycling ends up in the landfill and Frank DePinto is still on the North Chattanooga sofa-surfing circuit...
Sumit Khanna on Dec. 17, 2008
Monthly recycling isn't the problem. The problem is that one of the recycled items is no longer picked up: glass.
There is a local business, Scenic City Recycling, that has picked up the slack and offers to recycle everything: 1/2 Plastics, Paper, Cans, Glass Bottles, Books (good condition books go to thrift and used bookstores), computer parts (electronic waste) and all for $15 weekly pickup!
If a local business can do this for $15 per person and the city can not with the massive amounts of taxes they pull in, something is seriously wrong.
Personally I'd like to see Scenic City grow to the point where they city has to compete with them. Private services are almost always more efficient and have better customer service than public works.
Garrett B on Dec. 17, 2008
Everyone in my entire family are avid recyclers. My wife and I coordinate with my mother in Windstone and mother-in-law in Hixson to shuffle our recycling goodies between East Brainerd and Hixson every 2 weeks so that we don't have a huge stockpile of stuff to be recycled.
Overall, we're fairly happy with the recycling system. It'd be nice if it could accept glass again or more plastics. For most people, once a month is good enough. For us, two weeks is pushing it, though!
I will have to check out Scenic City Recycling (thanks Sumit Khanna!) for local recycling of computer parts. I have been using GreenDisk.com to recycle much of my old computer junk. They're good and cheap, but if I can save on shipping heavy boxes of computer parts, I'm for it!