Californians Now Recycle Half of Their Trash: No new landfills in a decade

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Californians Now Recycle Half of Their Trash
A 16-year state campaign to divert more waste from dumps has hit its goal. As a result, no new landfills have opened in a decade.
By Amanda Covarrubias, Times Staff Writer
August 25, 2006

State officials announced Thursday that California has finally achieved its goal of reducing landfill waste by 50%, thanks to diligent recycling by residents and businesses.

The milestone culminates a 16-year campaign by the state to persuade people to separate recyclables out of the trash.

The state passed a landmark law in 1989 mandating that communities establish waste-management plans for residents and businesses that would ultimately divert at least 50% of all recyclable trash from landfills. California was supposed to reach the goal in 2000, but preliminary data released Thursday show that the goal wasn't reached until last year.

A total of 88 million tons of solid waste was recycled in 2005 for a 52% recycling rate, said Jon Myers, a spokesman for the state's Integrated Waste Management Board. In 2004, 76 million tons were recycled, or 48%....

***

Myers said the recycling push has achieved one of the intended effects: No new landfills have opened in California in a decade....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-recycle25aug25,0,6083342.story?track=mostemailedlink

[TomInTib]

1. Good for us. I haul a 33gallon container full of wine bottles up the

hill every Tuesday night.

I guess it is paying off.

[rumpel]

7. good for you

I am hauling mine down the hill every Monday :)

[gauguin57]

15. wow -- all those wine bottles ... i wanna come to YOUR house for a party!

I'll haul your recyclables in return!

:party: :party:
:toast: :toast:
:beer: :beer:

[TomInTib]

29. Come on out here!

A few pre-requisites:

You must meet at least one of the following criteria:

A conversationalist
Competent on a musical instrument on which you can accompany your own voice or another voice or instrument
Good around animals
Appreciate good food
Ditto with wine(s)
Not have any hang-ups about staying up late and sleeping thru most of the day
Or vice-versa
And not averse to waking every morning to one of the best views on the planet.

And I can order another recyclingable container.
If it makes the decision any simpler, the things are on wheels.

Tom

[OnionPatch]

18. We haul a trash can full of our beer cans

up the hill (to the end of the driveway) every Monday :D (yous guys is classier than us guys)

But also a lot of other stuff. We recycle everything; glass, plastic, cardboard, junk mail, etc.

Yay for California!!! :toast:

[BrotherBuzz]

23. It pays off doubly

A recycling outfit across the bay from you in Richmond (Encore) actually sorts those wine bottles by style, cleans and boxes them in new cartons, and sells them to wineries labeled California certified recycled glass (new wine bottles, by California law, contain 40% recycled glass, too). I buy the recycled wine bottles and am happy with the savings, and knowing energy isn't wasted melting glass for new bottles.

[roguevalley]

25. as usual, cally-forn-ya is showing the way!

[aquart]

2. Excellent news!

[longship]

3. We have three garbage bins.

1. Normal rubbish
2. Recyclables -- liberally defined. Includes most stuff. All goes in the same container.
3. Green -- All grass and plant matter (except thorny stuff)

Every week (on Tues for us) three different trucks pick it up at the curb.

[goclark]

14. My understanding is that Curtis Munson

a former LAPD Police Office invented the three trash can system that is used in the Los Angeles area.

He recently died and he was African American.

[NVMojo]

4. no new landfills because CA EXPORTS trash to places like Reno, NV

region ...

[DRoseDARs]

5. Yeah, that was my first thought. Not quite the accomplishment they wish...

...to sell it as. :shrug:

[gorbal]

10. If they recycle half their waste, thats still an accomplishment

Although I am ticked off for the poor people of Reno.

[Luminous Animal]

8. Evidence?

You made the accusation. So where is the evidence that we are diverting our trash.

[acmejack]

9. When I went to YOUR State site, I found this gem...

"Landfill Tonnage Reports:

Since the fee only applies to facilities in California, waste that is exported for disposal outside of California is not reported. ..."

http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/Landfills/tonnages/

Municlpal solid waste: 798,056 tons

http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:99-9Oxp41fIJ:www.actionpa.org/waste/crs2003.pdf+california+trash+exported+elsewhere&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=10&client=opera

[Sapphocrat]

6. Thumping chest!

Glad to know our efforts have really paid off (and glad we got a little recognition for a change!). And everybody thinks we're just a bunch of obsessive idiots. :P

I HATE the chore of recycling -- but you better believe, not a single can, bottle, scrap of paper, or shred of garden debris goes in the trash.

Sign Me,

Two Green Bins and Several Bags of Newspapers, Every Other Friday

I love you, Catalina - you are very dear to me,
I love you, Tamalpais, and I love Yosemite,
I love you, Land of Sunshine, half your beauties are untold,
I loved you in my childhood, and I'll love you when I'm old. ...

[Missy M]

11. We have been recycling in my town for more years than I can..

remember. It isn't just California doing it, it's everywhere.

[Tansy_Gold]

13. Sadly, it's not everywhere

I wish it were.

But news stories like this can serve as a springboard. I'm going to show it to some naysaying friends that people CAN change behavior if they're provided rational reasons, the ability to do so (having the trash picked up in a recyclable process), and some financial incentive (not having a new landfill forced down your neighborhood's throat to lower your property values).

Tansy Gold

[Missy M]

16. That is too bad it's not everywhere....

it has been so successful here. We were one of the first towns of our size (big) to start a recycling program and it caught on right away. It becomes second nature as soon as you start doing it.

[athena]

26. In Hawaii, we still don't have curb-side recycling.

The state supposedly did a small study that showed that curb-side recycling wouldn't be popular. Then, someone tried to establish curb-side recycling, but then people complained that they would have to pay something like $8/month for it. Until the bottle bill passed, recycling was virtually unheard of in Hawaii.

Even with the bottle bill, we still can't recycle #2 plastic, nor any #1 plastic containers that don't have a "HI5" sign on them. The only place I know of where one can recycle paper and newsprint is on the U.H. campus. The university doesn't even provide small recycling boxes in the libraries and computer rooms.

You would think people would care about the environment in a place like Hawaii.

[scarletlib]

12. my wonderful daughter lives in Los Angeles

She is a truly committed to this. she and her husband recycle anything and everything they can. she even tried to find a place to recycle styrofoam and she did. however, i am not sure they do recycle the styrofoam because the amount you would have to collect before the company would accept it was too much for any one individual to accumulate.

[lindisfarne]

17. The Bay area does a much better job than Southern CA. They recycle

*all* plastics & cardboard milk cartons whereas in Southern CA, there is absolutely nowhere that does (I tried to find somewhere to recycle these and couldn't anywhere within 2 hours of LA). In Southern CA, it's only #1 & #2 plastic bottles (other #1 & #2 items aren't recyclable), cans (aluminum/steel), glass, & mixed paper (but not freezer cartons which have either plastic or wax coatings).

[Barrett808]

19. Here in Seattle, it's a citable offense not to separate your recyclables

[cally]

20. At the time, noone thought it was possible

when this legislation was passed. Thanks California for proving environmentalists right!!

[kestrel91316]

21. Now if we could just convince the City of Los Angeles to do

municipal recycling with the blue bins for APARTMENT BUILDINGS and BUSINESSES, we would be taliking SERIOUS recycling and diversion from landfills.

But they can't be bothered.

Sigh.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

22. I can't imagine NOT recycling

and when I go somewhere were recycling bins are not provided, I am always annoyed.
Our reclycing bins (one for paper, one for plastics, cans, glass) are always full.

Fortunately, I think the next generation (my kids) are growing up thinking that recycling is just part of the deal.

[izzybeans]

24. Exporting garbage can do that.

Zero waste campaigns are laudable but we in the States have yet to really deal with the problem because we just push it off on others. Recycling programs cut waste but is it really enough?

http://www.consumersunion.org/other/zero-waste/

Waste exports grow alongside similar programs. This is an issue in other countries but oddly not in the states. Perhaps we are exporting overseas and don't know it.

It is very hard to find any info. on this subject. But it needs to be a topic for discussion.

[nolabels]

27. No Shit, just look who we got for Governor

Feinstein's campaign co-chair endorses Arnold, gets put "on notice!"
by Neutron
Fri Aug 11, 2006 at 11:16:29 AM PDT

I found this tidbit in the comments of our still brand spanking new people powered site GovernorPhil.com. It looks like Dianne Feinstein (who is up for re-election this year, and somehow managed to squeak by without getting Lamont-ed), has a problem. Namely that her campaign co-chair Angela Bradstreet, just mouthed off to the press about how she is not going to vote for Phil Angelides in the fall... and why? because she's sick of paying taxes! Ohhh... boo hoo...


"Quite frankly, I'm also sick and tired of paying taxes," she said. "And that's Angelides' solution -- raising taxes."

If I may quote the great and wise philosopher Plato: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Angela Bradstreet, you are officially "on notice".
(snip)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/11/141629/994



Note to Finegrind, if you and your arms merchant dealing husband would get off the dole, the TAXES could be just that much less :argh:

[LiberalFighter]

28. If I wasn't single I might have 50% recyclables

all the time.

Most of the time I do it 50% by leaving regular garbage out one week and recyclables the next week and rotate.

[Sherman A1]

30. Great!

We have a good recycling center here and cut our trash down better than 50% by using it. Just drop them off on the way to some other errand every week. Trash is usually one small bag, perhaps 2 small bags on a weekly basis.

[Jean Louise Finch]

31. Congratulations, Californians!

This is great news. Does anyone know what the national rates are for recycling and how far ahead California is from other places?

Where I'm living recycling doesn't really exist, though it's a bit of a cottage industry on the streets. I still separate things out, as I got in the habit in Boston and it's died hard.

Congratulations to all DUers who recycle all the time.