INC NEWS - solidly wasted money

[RW Pickle]

Thanks for the timely reply.

Since there currently is really no need for a second crew of people or a 
second series of large solid waste trucks running across the City picking
up yard waste separately, and since you think continuing this wasteful
practice is a good idea, perhaps you can tell us how much we are wasting
(in $$) a week on manpower and transportation fees while we sort through
what may be a multi-year problem of getting back to the recycling yard
waste? I'm not sure what sort of educational campaign you are thinking it
will take to get everyone back on the same page (if it were to change),
but if the past has been any reflection of what it amounts to being, I
would think just one day of not running all the unnecessary trucks would
pay for it. Educating the public, what with list servers, INC, PAC's, the
City TV channel, newspapers and the typical methods used in the past (a
flyer on our trash cans or a note in our water bill) really has very
little expense. The newspapers will be glad to help get the message out.
But running duplicate waste pickup services costs us twice as much to do
the same job. That's easy to see. No other expenses are added if
everything to do with the current yard waste program is terminated today.
You begin saving money on day one. And as taxpayers, we appreciate that
sort of thought process. Six, eight, ten million a year; it's a real
savings that can be used elsewhere. The old ball park renovation will cost
5 million. The cost over-run on the downtown work was more than 3 million.
So any savings will just add to the pot from where all money comes. And
maybe our taxes will flatten out...

As far as I can remember, the transition from a single colored cart system
to the the current 2 colored cart system wasn't painful. And since, as a
City, we already know this routine, I can't see how there would be much of
an educational curve for anyone to learn. Short term solutions are what we
are experiencing now (and have been since ???). And if we're wasting
dollars on short term thinking, doesn't it make sense to save some money
while we sort this out (it may take years and that is even short term in
the scope of long range planning; 20 years is not considered long range
anymore)? I think it's great that the entire City will all be on the same
program (when it is implemented over time), but that hardly addresses the
waste of two different systems doing the same thing right now (green cart
pickup and brown cart pickup both being combined at the transfer station).
The cost of educating the public seems to pale in comparison to the
manpower and equipment costs (initial cost of equipment, maintenance,
fuel, depreciation, etc; not to mention disposal fees). If education were
that expensive, we'd really be on hard times.

I have paid a great deal of attention to the issue of plastic wrapped
trash vs. loose trash since this issue was brought up at the INC meeting.
As you recalled, there was a concern mentioned about the trash from not
bagging your trash in plastic. It was one person as I recall. Hardly an
outpouring of concern. If it causes litter, then that is hard to see.
Eventually our Litter Index should give us a better grasp of how we're
doing on litter. But until then, it's just smoke and mirrors that says
we're littering all this trash when we empty cans in trucks. I can't
believe that our neighborhood (or our collection crew) is any different
than those doing the same thing in other neighborhoods. The waste pickup
crews seem to be cognizant of any waste that didn't make it into the truck
and pick it up. I have even seen them with a broom and shovel (in the
past) getting the spilled waste up. So it's hard to believe that all the
litter we see on the shoulders of the road comes from trash flying out of
our solid waste trucks when emptying carts. If the solid waste crews are
as alert as the ones I've noticed over here in the last couple of weeks,
it's not your crews or loose trash that is causing the problem. In fact,
if that were the case, Hwy. 58 from I-85 to Lawrenceville, VA (where our
trash is transported to for disposal) would not look as bad as it does.
That road is lined with trash and the trucks that leave Durham are
enclosed units. So the idea that a lot of the trash we see on the roads
come from your crews dumping cans just doesn't hold water. There would be
a citizen outcry every time trash were picked up if that was the case. And
I just do not believe that happens. It's people littering; throwing it out
of their windows when they're riding down the road. It all not coming from
the cart-to-the-truck syndrome. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, just
that it is not as common as you would like us to believe. If the cart lid
is left closed until the cart (on the mechanized piece of equipment that
picks it up and dumps it) reaches its tipping point, there is very little
room for anything to escape the truck or the cart. Generally I have seen
the newly emptied waste compacted to the inside of the truck as soon as it
is emptied. So there is nothing blowing out when the truck moves.

If plastic bags had been around when Jesus Christ were crucified, we'd
still be digging them up today looking the same as they did 2000 years
ago. Recent digs into 70 year old landfills gave us a clear picture;
newspapers you could still read like the day they were printed and hot
dogs like they were just made at the Dog House. What kind of sense does
that make? This "put it in plastic, hide what you throw away" mentality
has to change before any sort of recycling enforcement can take place. A
sticker on one of my green cans says that recycling laws are enforced.
That's why I started recycling. At one time there was a big push by the
City to start charging $50 for that violation. I couldn't see paying that
much for doing something so simple. But as far as I know, no one has ever
been fined for not recycling even though regulations are in place to do
so. Plastic bagged trash just hides whatever one wants to discard. I'd
like to see (and I'm willing to help) just what an accurate trash survey
(just what trash we find in any one given load) would tell us. It might
say we're not recycling (which in turn costs us in disposal; both in fees
and volumes transported). It might say we're throwing away a great deal of
hazardous materials. Regardless of what we found, it would be an accurate
picture of what we throw away without having to guess.

If I put three gallons of oil paint in plastic trash bags, the guys who
empty the cart would never see it. But it's illegal to dispose of oil
paint in this manner. I'd guess the landfill in Virginia is not permitted
to dispose of hazardous waste in the manner they would be doing so. But
who knows what is thrown away if it is concealed in black plastic... 
Computer printer inks, batteries, paints, motor oil, antifreeze, grease,
pesticides, fertilizers and weed killers; you name it. Wrap it in a black
plastic trash bag and who knows what your crews are picking up. We may be
hauling hazardous waste to Virginia every day in plastic bags and just
don't know it. I believe the law says ignorance is no excuse... What
happens if we get caught one time? It seems that our US Government is all
of a sudden on an "enforcement and fine" spree especially when it comes to
waste and pollution. One time caught doing this and it could change the
face of how we deal with waste in our City forever (not to mention the
fines...). Just look what a simple fire has caused... With us having to
put our trash in plastic bags (to conceal recyclables and other hazardous
wastes that are often thrown away), it's hard to believe that one could
even determine such because every bag would have to be opened. Seeing
violations just becomes that much harder (as if that law is even
enforced). Sometimes things make sense. When they don't, it's time to
recognize that and change the way we do business. Wasting petroleum
products in plastic bags or as fuel in duplicate waste service trucks is
just what it is, a waste.

As far as the enforcement person Solid Waste hired, it was not to be an
educational resource person as you suggest. It was to give out fines and
change behaviors. Where anyone got the idea that the position was to be
anything else was never part of the conversations that led to that
position. If Solid Waste decided that the position was to be as an
educational resource person, then they decided this without hearing the
wishes of the citizens who made up the group that requested such a person
be hired. We wanted an enforcer. That's why the rules were rewritten. The
fines do not go to the schools or the General Fund as other sources of
City income currently does. It all comes back to Solid Waste. We as
citizens wanted action. We wanted fines. We wanted to change the way our
community dealt with our solid waste problems. We didn't want someone to
go around and educate folks like a resource person. We wanted action
because we were tired of not having the rules to be able to enforce what
I'll call "community standards".  We wanted the carts off the curbs. We
wanted the grocery cart owners fined. We wanted the illegal dumpers
tracked down and arrested. We wanted folks fined for not recycling. We
wanted action, not education. I say we because a group of citizens
including myself met for more than a year working to fix our solid waste
problems. We never saw that position as an educator. That position was to
be the teeth behind the rewritten ordinances. It was to be an enforcer.

So if Solid Waste knows how many citations (and what infractions they were
for) have been written, and the amount of the fines levied in the almost
one year since we've had an "enforcer", could you pass along those number
of infractions given out and that $ figure (both collected and charged) to
us so we can asses if it was worth our efforts to even have an enforcer in
the first place? Solid Waste did not seek to get an enforcer, citizens
did. And it may be that Solid Waste is using the person we wanted hired
for enforcement to do something that we as citizens were not really
concerned about. We wanted change and we saw enforcement as the answer. We
even called that position the "Trash Police". We likened it to the
enforcement that we had seen by Planning and Zoning Dept. on roadside
signs and parking in yards. It didn't take long for the public to get the
message that those behaviors would not be tolerated. That message came
loud and clear by the means of fines. You hit folks wallets, the word gets
out, and behaviors change. It's not much of an educational curve to learn.
The newspapers will be glad to get some good news that we're getting tough
on waste here in Durham. I think the citizenry will also respond in a very
positive manner seeing that these issues are being dealt with. That, after
all, is why we wanted an enforcer.

I ask these questions and continue this dialogue because we as citizens
need better answers. It's hard for us to understand how the waste of our
tax dollars can be justified (like in having duplicate services). Just the
off-list emails I get tells me folks are concerned. It's our tax dollars
that pay for it all (and they're getting ready to go up again). I guess
we're tired of "a million here and a million there" attitude of waste and
cost over-runs. You add it up across the board and it's no small figure.

Whew....

Thanks again for responding.

RWP
27 Beverly


> These aren't really tough questions. First of all, we are going to
> expand the hours at the hazardous waste drop-off site, but we are under
> contract for a certain amount of days and we are negotiating with our
> contractor for a good price for expanding the days and hours. It will
> happen soon.
>
> Secondly, as I explained at the INC meeting, we are going to continue to
> pick up yard waste as we always have simply because what we are doing
> now is for the short term. I don't want to go to the single truck option
> and then we get permitted and have to educate everyone to switch back.
> It would be too time consuming and expensive. I don't see the savings in
> going to one truck when I would have to turn around and spend the money
> to re-educate when we return to the two truck system. Keep in mind, the
> Council has given us the go ahead for a comprehensive program so
> everyone will receive the same services and it will all be tax based. We
> are looking beyond our contract with the Virginia landfill for disposal
> options. We will find a cheaper way to go that is environmentally
> friendly. But for now, we are under contract. Just yesterday we had a
> very fruitful meeting with DENR regarding the City getting the permit
> back for yard waste recycling and I think we are well on the way.
> However, there are some heavy duty compliance issues that must be done
> in the way of engineering that take time and funding so we are moving
> forward as time and funding allows us. I will not rush forward and
> repeat past mistakes. We will get it right. NO MORE FIRES AND NO MORE
> FINES!!!
>
> Thirdly, I have looked all over the solid waste industry since you
> brought it up at the INC meeting and I do not see any solutions on the
> horizon that would eliminate the need to utilize plastic bags for
> disposal. Not using the bags would cause a tremendous litter problem.
> There were folks at the meeting that night complaining about the litter
> generated from folks who don't bag their garbage and when we empty the
> carts it flies all over. So far in the industry the only thing I have
> seen is in-home compaction of trash and those home compactors are not
> cheap.
>
> Lastly, as Mike Simpson, our Codes Enforcer has stressed, we did not
> create that position to collect fines. It's more of a position to
> educate. He writes citations with fines attached only when all else
> fails. He does have a records keeping system and he can tell you how
> many citations he has issued and how much he has collected. I think at
> the meeting he was saying that he did not have that information in his
> head at that moment.
> Please feel free to keep asking the questions. Thanks.
>