Tuesday, Nov. 15 has been declared “America Recycles Day” by President Joe Biden.
In the proclamation declaring Nov. 15 America Recycles Day, Biden states, “Too many Americans are uncertain about what materials can or should be recycled.”
That is certainly true in Greensboro. On July 1, 2019, the City of Greensboro stopped accepting glass in the brown residential recycling bins.
However, the city has a large number of glass recycling sites where glass bottles and jars can be placed in blue glass recycling containers to be recycled.
Three years later many residents are still confused by the change in the glass recycling policy, and many who attempt to comply with the new policy place plastic or paper bags full of bottles and jars in the recycling containers. Only glass bottles and jars should be placed in the glass recycling containers, not bags, boxes, tops or corks.
Plastic bags also should not be put in the brown residential recycling bins even if they are plastic bags full of materials that can be recycled.
According to the City of Greensboro RecycleRight website, “Recycling is as easy as 1-2-3. Only recycle 1) paper and cardboard, 2) metal food and drink cans, and 3) plastic bottles, tubs and jars.”
It also states, “Empty, clean, and dry. Make sure you give bottles and jars a quick rinse. It doesn’t have to sparkling clean, but we know you don’t want pests in recycling, and neither do we!” It sounds easy, but in practice a quick rinse of a peanut butter or mayonnaise jar doesn’t do much.
And anyone who tries to be a responsible recycler knows that there are many items that look like they should be recyclable but don’t exactly fit in any of those three categories. The GSO Collects App not only will remind you of your recycling week but has a “Waste Wizard” search feature that covers just about every item imaginable and lets you know whether it should in the recycling container or the garbage bin.
Seems like that ” Waste Wizard” should be viewed by city council. When was the last time Joey Biden took out the trash?
Recent news stories are telling us that plastic bottles are only recycled at best at 10% and that the entire plastic recycling labeling is a scam by the plastic’s industry. What is GSO doing with all that unrecyclable plastic soda bottle waste?
See my comment below. The city is interested in recycling “only” if it is not costing them (and us) anything.
In the proclamation declaring Nov. 15 America Recycles Day, Biden states, “Too many Americans are uncertain about what materials can or should be recycled.”
He says Americans are uncertain about what needs recycled…how about I am uncertain about GSO waste management picking up trash and recycle bins and dumping them into the same truck last Thursday. They must be uncertain about what materials to recycle as well.
The City should pick up glass with other recyclables. The City is not supposed to make a profit, as they provide a basic service funded by the taxpayer.
“Recycling is as easy as 1-2-3″
Well, it used to be that way. When the price of recycled glass went up a few years ago, the City decided to exclude glass because it was added weight and contributed to the costs of transporting the garbage to Montgomery County landfill. So. . . .they stopped accepting glass at convenience sites, and also put an end to a large number of trash bin collection sites. And remember, there were many more convenience sites around the city which made it easy to recycle.
But. . . .since the council didn’t want to spend money on glass, which meant they were not “serious” about recycling, we decided to stop recycling.