Beyond the Blue Bin

We leave a trail of waste that recycling alone cannot erase.

by Bruce Schimmel

I have a recurring nightmare about all the crap I leave behind. My personal trash stream, so to speak.

I imagine a trail of rusted cars, busted furniture, my old Schwinn bike. Piles of garbage, oily clouds. All the excreta that I and, well, everyone leaves in their wake.

So I actually got goose bumps when I recently heard how much progress is being made. I was at a Recycling Advisory Committee (RAC) meeting, where a score of recycling experts — led by Jack Embick, Maurice Sampson and Christine Knapp — offered ideas to a trio from the office of Deputy Mayor of Transportation and Utilities Rina Cutler.

At last, Philadelphia is doing what the RAC — the city's official nongovernment experts — have long asked for. And what the Recycling Alliance — a coalition of advocacy groups, armed with 10,000 signatures — has demanded.

Well, the city is doing almost everything it's been asked. And this is good, because some folks are now considering the unintended consequences of too much success. Will recycling alone narrow our stream of waste? Could recycling, done badly, make it worse?

First, the good news: What we now or will soon have are the first, basic steps to sustainability:

• Single-stream recycling — where everything goes into a single bin — is now available everywhere. As single-stream arrived in neighborhood after neighborhood, recycling rates have risen. Last year, we diverted some 6 percent of our residential garbage. Today, the average is over 8 percent, with some sections hitting 18 percent.

• The city itself started recycling — seriously. Some municipal buildings are now recycling more than half of what comes in the door.

• By January, residential recycling will be picked up weekly.

• Finally, the administration is upgrading ordinances so that every office, high-rise and business has a recycling plan.

But the Nutter administration recently shocked some recycling advocates by eliminating one of their darling projects: a we-pay-you recycling program in Chestnut Hill and Oak Lane run by RecycleBank. There, households got paid by the pound with coupons for their recyclables.

Despite the misgivings of some, I think that shutting down RecycleBank was the right move.

To their credit, RecycleBank, with their credo of "Recycle, Record and Reward," did get people to sign up. The company says it's gotten 90 percent of households in pilot areas to participate.

Elsewhere in the city, where participation isn't counted, recycling guru Sampson estimates that fewer than 30 percent of Philadelphians participate.

That said, I've yet to hear a cogent argument from anyone, including RecycleBank, that the classic mantra "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" won't ultimately make for a cleaner city. It's hard to imagine that encouraging more consumption, even of recyclables, will make for less waste. (And, besides, says the city, RecycleBank's program is simply too pricey.)

The Nutter people also blind-sided recycling advocates recently by floating a "Pay as You Throw" scheme where people would be fined if they tossed out too much trash.

Community leaders countered that "Pay as You Throw" may work in squeaky-clean Seattle. But, here in Philadelphia, communities that are already blighted by trash would probably be dumped on more.

Still, these and other ideas that look beyond the blue bin should be aired.

It's hard to say what Philadelphia is ready for, or what should happen next. Which is why the Recycling Alliance will soon be hosting a special session for its member organizations, to which the public is not invited.

These recycling advocates surely need to rethink their vision of the future. We all do. Because we leave a trail of waste that recycling alone cannot erase.

(bruce@schimmel.com)