Posted on 09/01/2002 3:40:22 AM PDT by sarcasm
Sunday, September 01, 2002 - A movement against recycling is growing across the country, and there's a chance the trend could soon hit Denver and other Colorado communities.
The downturn in recycling has sparked debate throughout the West and in Washington, D.C., where lawmakers are debating legislation that would provide economic incentives to keep people recycling their cans and bottles.
Recycling advocates admit they're afraid of what the future may bring.
"We have a fight on our hands," said Marjorie Griek, who heads the Colorado Association for Recycling.
The problem is twofold: The public's interest in separating bottles, cans and newspapers from trash is declining, while the prices that companies are willing to pay for items also are plummeting.
One recent study found that 13 percent of consumers are less likely to recycle cans than they were a few years ago. Indeed, aluminum-can recycling across the nation is at its lowest levels since 1987, according to another survey.
Even a city councilman in green-friendly Denver has proposed charging residents for curbside collection of recyclables, a move that many fear could mean the end of curbside recycling in the city.
When Denver launched curbside recycling in 1991, about 73,000 households - almost half the homes in the city - participated. While the program continues to grow each year, recycling advocates fear a fee would cause the number to drop.
"I'm outraged at Denver for even posing the question to charge for recycling," said Christine Potter, who has been leading the charge for her Jefferson Park neighbors to recycle.
The reason many cities and towns are considering abolishing their curbside recycling programs has much to do with green - cash.
The idea of charging residents to recycle in Denver was introduced as a cost-saving effort. In cities big and small - such as Dallas and Polk County, Iowa - recycling programs are on the chopping block or have been scaled back to save money.
In Slidell, La., city officials in May dumped that city's decade-old recycling program to pay for $10 million in sewer-system upgrades.
The most talked-about example is New York, where Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said recycling "does nothing to help the environment." He said he wants to suspend recycling of metal, glass and plastics to help chip away at a $5 billion budget shortfall.
Here in Colorado over the past year, Weld County eliminated its recycling coordinator, although its program remains. Archuleta County is charging $2 for each tire residents want to throw away, up from $1, according to the Colorado Association for Recycling.
"Unfortunately, that seems to be a trend right now, rather than 10 years ago, when people were saying, 'This is important, this should be mandatory, we need to do this,"' association chief Griek said.
Denver Mayor Wellington Webb said he's opposed to the idea of charging a $10 monthly fee for curbside recycling.
But Councilman Ted Hackworth, who proposed the idea, said he will announce this week that he will continue to fight for the fee to help close the city's $15 million budget gap.
It costs the city about $1.7 million annually for its recycling program, officials say. Some of those costs are offset by money the city collects from private companies for the recycled material it sells to them.
Last year, the city took in $650,000. The year before, it got $1.2 million.
"That's nothing to sneeze at," said Julie Klein, Denver's recycling coordinator. "Recycling can work."
Hackworth, though, said he'd rather see taxes pay for children's programs rather than subsidizing a recycling plan.
"I'm sorry, I'm not going to suffer very much if they throw (cans and bottles) in the trash," he said.
Hackworth has a lot of company.Many people aren't recycling like they used to be .
A study sponsored by the Container Recycling Institute shows that 100 billion cans sold in the United States in 2001 were not recycled, and last year's aluminum-can recycling rate dropped to 49 percent, the lowest level in 15 years.
"The problem is that many officials think of recycling as optional, that it's not a necessity, like providing water or electricity," said Jennifer Gitlitz, author of a report called "Trashed Cans."
Much of the drop-off in recycling stems from people eating on the run more, experts such as Gitlitz said. People aren't eating at home as much. They grab a bite in the car, at work or at the mall and toss their refuse in a trash can, rather than separating paper, cans and glass as they might at home.
"More cans and bottles are ending up in the trash," Gitlitz said.
Add to that the fact that many nonprofit pro-recycling groups are having a tough time getting free public-service announcements on TV, such as the famous "crying Indian" anti-pollution ad starring the late Iron Eyes Cody that first aired in 1971.
"It's harder. There's a lack of interest," said Robin King with the Washington, D.C.-based National Aluminum Association.
There are groups out there, though, trying to turn that lack of interest around - and to their advantage.
For example, in places such as Sumter, S.C., Fernandina Beach, Fla., Fort Wayne, Ind., and San Bernardino, Calif., Habitat for Humanity organizations have been collecting aluminum cans to help pay for the homes they build.
That's also happening in Mesa County on Colorado's Western Slope, where Habitat for Humanity is collecting cans to buy the materials to build a home.
On a warm, sunny day two weeks ago, Mesa's Habitat volunteers set up cardboard bins at the annual peach festival in Palisade.
As those visiting the festival washed down peach pies with soft drinks, the aluminum cans that normally would have gone into the trash were tossed in Habitat's bins.
Habitat cashed in 300 cans for about $8, executive director John Farmer said.
"But that's fine," he said. "People are thinking about recycling, (and) they are helping a little bit to build a house."
And certainly there are many recycling success stories, even in the face of budget cuts. Experts laud programs in San Francisco, Seattle and Boulder.
Still, as city officials think about ditching recycling programs, and as many city residents don't think about it at all, some, such as Jefferson Park's Potter, will continue their struggle to get people to separate paper, glass and cans.
In Ohio, Dayton residents rose up earlier this year after city officials announced they were going to cancel the curbside recycling program. The outcry was so loud officials quickly backed off.
That's exactly what's needed in Denver, Potter said.
"Denver residents need to put pressure on our politicians to be responsible," she said.
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