What is the deal? Recycling saves money. Recycled glass, paper and cardboard are worth money. So why is it that Cleveland doesn’t have citywide curbside recycling? I moved here from Oregon in 2000. It has been a struggle at times to overlook the use of Styrofoam cups and overuse of plastic shopping bags (see my previous post). While I am on our mayor’s side to make Cleveland one of the greenest cities in the nation, the biggest leap forward should come from a basic thing like recycling. When it was announced a while back that curbside recycling would begin this year, I was ecstatic! Still, the roll out has been slow, and not very methodical. One friend of mine gets his recycling picked up, while his neighbor does not. What the…?
While it is a pain in the neck to drag my recycling down the street and dump it in a recycling dumpster, this is not my biggest issue. While I don’t my stuffing bags of cardboard and glass jars in the trunk, my friends seem to. I know that having a couple of kids, full time jobs, work on the side, and a house to maintain can wear you out. Still, the recycle dumpsters are not that far away. I know that these friends of mine will never be enticed to recycle until we make it easier for them.
When we relocated to Cleveland, I was astonished at the waste. Nothing, it seemed, was being reused. New bed, throw the old one on the tree lawn. Stain on the couch, chuck it out. I have found windows, doors, tables, chairs, antiques….all laid out for the garbage man. Luckily there are entrepreneurs. If I have metal waste, I set it out near the curb, and somebody will stop by and pick it up. So if they can, why can’t the city? The curbside program that the city is SLOWLY implementing will limit garbage to one large can per household. I am excited to see how this might cut down on the overall waste around town. To top things off, the new cans all have attached lids, and maybe there will be less uncovered garbage on trash day, left to blow away in the wind. Cleveland could be a cleaner, greener city-what’s the hold up?
Tags: Cleveland neighborhoods, recycling
I COULD not agree with you more. We do not have curbside recycling in my neighborhood, (Katy, TX) nor the learning center. Every week I drag close to 100lbs of paper from the learning center about 30 miles to my office in downtown Houston to the recycling bins. It is such a pain, It is so sad seeing so much recyclable materials in landfills.