INC NEWS - opposition to the use of plastic bags

[RW Pickle]

As plastic bag bans across the country continue to increase, we found out
at the last INC meeting that as customers of Solid Waste here in Durham,
we are required to bag our trash for pickup (as in bagged and then put
into our roll-out containers). This makes absolutely no sense.

With plastic bags being made from petroleum based products, and with
plastic bags being 100% recyclable, it would appear that Durham has
conflicting interests. There is also an ordinance that says we have to
recycle plastic. Yet we are required by another ordinance to not recycle
and throw away 100% recyclable materials. This just doesn't make sense.

It came out during a discussion about litter and how bagging our trash
cuts down on it. I'm sure most of the readers of this email can speak for
themselves, but all the time I have lived here and had City Solid Waste
service (and not wasted 100% plastic recyclable bags; yes, I break the law
every week), I have not had much of a mess from the dumping of my
containers (even though my 2 roll-out containers have holes on the bottoms
from years of use). And if I did, I'm sure (and like many of you) I picked
up what was left as I rolled my container back up to the house. It has
never been much of an issue as far as I can see. Even with shredded secure
waste, the collection team seems to pack each dumped container further
into the belly of the truck.

So why do we have an ordinance that directly contradicts another; recycle
plastic but waste it bagging trash?

We also learned that the extended hours for hazardous waste drop-off are
not likely to begin in July as promised. So I guess this means that we are
stuck dropping off some of the most noxious wastes in the stream to the
two day (and few hours) it has always been open. This doesn't make sense.
We should want to get this noxious hazardous waste into our waste stream
at every possible point in time it becomes available. The other options
for disposal (like dumping it) will one day come back to bite us in a big
way.

We also learned that a composting facility may be way off in the future as
the State wants Durham to treat the run-off water from the storage of it.
Knowing where this dump is and knowing that one of 2 waste water treatment
plants we have here is located next door, why is this an issue? Vicki
Westbrook (from Water Resources and Management) was also a guest speaker
that night. She said the capacity at that plant (for volume) was less than
50%. This idea looks (on the surface) like a no brainer. So for now, we
learned we'll continue hauling our yard waste to Virginia (along side of
our household waste and at the same price per ton). How can these types of
poor decisions keep finding themselves living within the framework of our
growing City? Why does the left hand not know what the right hand is
doing? It can't be that disconnected.

We also heard a question relating to doing something with the methane gas
that is flared from the closed landfill. You could use micro-turbines to
generate electricity and provide the treatment plant next door with free
power or you could take it and convert it to LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas)
and power the entire trash truck fleet with something other than diesel.
They're greener choices out there, we just have to move that direction.

RWP
27 Beverly