Editorial, 08/13/2007 - Let’s pick up pace of recycling

Little by little, our community is returning to recycling — and that might, for our future’s sake, be the best news coming out of City Hall in quite a while.

When 2007 began, new machinery was being installed out at the landfill west of town. And during the past few months, the city gained a couple of retrofitted recycling trucks.

So now, instead of shipping recyclable solid waste to Albuquerque, where — for a fee — it was sorted out and sent on to factories capable of turning trash into new consumer goods, the processing is done here in our town full of good environmental citizens, and those we hope will join them soon in the effort.

The machinery sorts and bundles recyclable material — but the process still is labor-intensive. For the system to work, it’ll take help from home, and that involves a bit of hoop-jumping:

Three refuse containers are needed: one for garbage, two for reusables; glass in one, all the rest in the other.

In the glass bin should be just the jar or bottle — no lids, no lead collars or corks. No broken glass, no ceramics, no Pyrex, window panes, drinking glasses or lightbulbs.
“Tin” cans, which are mostly steel, should be rinsed out and crushed — necessitating strong hands, deft stomping on a bent can, a sledge hammer or whatever kind of mechanism you can think up.
Plastic, for now, anyway, is limited to bottles — those with a recycling symbol and a number “1” or “2.” No margarine tubs, no plastic bags.
Aluminum products include cans, pie plates and foil. Rinse ’em out — and don’t put anything in the cans, which should be crushed.
Recyclable cardboard is the kind with the wavy layer in the middle, not the flat cereal-box or six-pack stuff.
Newspapers, including the slick inserts, are ideal recycling material; see, we’re good for more than wrapping fish! Put ’em in paper bags alongside the bins.

That’s a lot to get used to — but it’s better than wasting so much that can be re-used, and consuming many more natural resources.

And, for now, there’s another catch: The city’s recycling pickup is only every other week. Call 955-2200 for your neighborhood’s schedule.

But Bill DeGrande, director of Santa Fe’s Solid Waste Division, is campaigning for once-a-week recycling — starting early next year, he hopes.

If we do get to weekly recycling pickup, what are chances the system can pay its own way, or maybe even make some money?

Don’t hold your breath; we’re so far from major industrial centers that transportation costs will eat up the profits; perhaps when every Santa Fean sets aside everything recyclable ...

Outside of town, meanwhile, there’s also a recycling effort going on: The county landfills will take recyclables from garbage-permit holders. For more information about county recycling, the number to call is 992-3017.

This is work in progress: In the early 1990s, our community made an energetic start at recycling, but we were up against change-of-attitude challenges as well as being out in the boonies without our own sorting and packing plant. Enthusiasm waned.

Now we’ve got our own Material Recovery Facility, as it’s called, Conservation-minded Santa Feans — and who isn’t? — will find increasing opportunities to ease the burden on the city dump, while making the most of our resources.