Friday, June 20, 2008
WP: Call for Composting
The Post recently carried this worthwhile opinion piece arguing that the District should adopt a citywide composting program similar to the one in San Francisco. Maybe while we're at it we should enlarge our plastic recycling program so it can handle plastics beyond types 1 and 2.
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8 comments:
Here, here! We're tired of having to throw out #4 and #5.
we're planning on starting composting at our new digs but we aren't quite ready yet.
BUT, if you have never been to the Fort Totten Trash Transfer Station, I don't think you can really understand the city's waste stream, as well as the tremendous opportunities there are for separating out reusable waste.
Mt. Rainier and probably other jurisdictions have separate days for bulk and organic waste--but tree branches and stuff, not the stuff that would normally be composted.
I don't know what they do with the tree branches. Do they get mulched, etc.? I don't know.
I have been thinking about this given my recent trip to Ft. Totten Waste Station, and seeing branches tossed in the "yard" pile (by regular people, not DPW) and as I was leaving, seeing a huge DPW truck coming in with tree trunks and wood. I wonder where that was going.
I went out today to borrow a car, and the owner is a ceramicist with a wood kiln. She has a wood splitter machine. Wouldn't it be cool if we had some of these, and we could go around and split and use the wood that is produced by storms downing trees?
Anyway, there is lots of opportunity for rethinking the waste stream.
I had an idea a year or two ago about community compost bins that you could put one at every residential intersection, i.e., 6th and I NW or 6th and A SE, 5th and A SE, etc. People could put the stuff in, and there could be "park ranger" equivalents who go to each bin and tend it, as well as train people on use. Etc.
We had some branches come down in our yard but I threw them into a pile (in the public space) that had been created in clearing a downed tree from the street. It took awhile, but DPW came around again and chipped the branches and removed the logs created from the removal process. (The stump is still there though.)
A house a block away, unfortunately for them, their yard tree fell, so since it wasn't a "street tree" they are fully responsible for removal.
Any idea what actually happens to recycling waste? Knowing how restrictive the rules are (no uncorrugated cardboard, no glossy paper, no plastic other than #1 and #2), I would imagine the bins get full of non-compliant stuff. Does DC sort it? Do they just dump it all?
I hope they are least better than my office janitorial staff, which justs tosses trash and recycling in the same bin.
And re composting -- I thought the reason DC doesn't do it had to do with rodent and insect abatement?
Ok, so I looked through the series of tubes and answered some of my own questions.
DPW's list of recyclables is actually expanded from last time I checked. Includes uncorrugated cardboard and does not seem to be limited strictly to types #1 and #2 plastic.
And there is a description (and video!!!) of DPW's recycling facility.
I'm tired of having to throw out perfectly good composting items.
Would anyone accept contributions to their composter on a regular basis?
yl, thanks for posting the recycle list.
Unfortunately there is not much of a market for plastics other than 1, 2, and sometimes 6. My DC recycling brochure doesn't specify the types by number, but rather gives descriptions of the types of containers they do not take (e.g. wide opening like yogurt containers = polypropylene = #5). Recycled plastics usually only get one more use, often made into composite materials which don’t get recycled again themselves, but this still this saves a significant amount of resources.
Cities that are less restrictive in what they take often spend more on processing facilities to remove the unwanted materials. Any program has to do this, but the idea is that by being more restrictive you’ll eliminate some of the unwanted materials. The unwanted materials are still land filled. BTW, never ever drop #3 (PVC) into the bin, it can ruin a whole palate of useable plastics. For now, until either market develops for the other plastics, or biobased plastics become more widespread, the best we can do is try to reduce our use of non-recyclable plastics.
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