Columbus City Council Putting the Brakes on City-Wide Recycling Program?

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Columbus City Council Putting the Brakes on City-Wide Recycling Program?

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Started 7 months ago by News
Latest reply from Walker

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News
Columbus Underground
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Columbus council rethinks residential recycling
By Doug Caruso
The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday October 9, 2011

City Council President Andrew J. Ginther is having second thoughts about a curbside recycling service that Mayor Michael B. Coleman has been promising for nearly two years.

Starting a program might not be prudent, Ginther said last week, with state budget cuts looming and a tight economy that shows no sign of releasing its grip.

“If this is the new normal,” he said, “we need to be very careful to not start something we cannot sustain.”

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/10/09/council-rethinks-recycling-pickup.html

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Previous News:

• Columbus Curbside Recycling Program Unveiled
• Rumpke Opens Newly Renovated Recycling Facility

Posted 7 months ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
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If recycling were truly a priority in Central Ohio, we would be recycling by now. There are creative and affordable solutions to recycling yet we maintain one of the lowest recycling rates in the country.

SWACO's biggest customer is the City of Columbus. SWACO executives' salaries (including former Council President Mike Mentel and before that, Mentel's father) come from tipping fees. Where is the incentive to stop shoving everything into the landfill?

City of Columbus Public Service Director Mark Kelsey serves on the SWACO Board.

Why aren't are city's leaders mandating change? Why do we continue to shove everything and anything right into the landfill? Why did SWACO prevent emerging new recycling companies (like Eartha Limited) from recycling until a law was changed (finally) in March 2011?

Tipping fees. SWACO loves their tipping fees and the City leaders seem to want to continue to pay them. Job security?

Posted 7 months ago #
byJody
Rural NW Columbus
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The city (plus county) seems to have no concerns about buying the Nationwide arena which was a money losing investment for their private landlords. Now suddenly the city IS worried it can't keep the commitment to the curbside recycling program that has been promised for two years. Why can't the city designate the Casino taxes to underwrite the recycling commitment? This is not OK.

Posted 7 months ago #
0Angle
A brewery or my kitchen or my bicycle.
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A source close to the mayor tells me that city council can't stop this program. Budgets are tight, but he seems willing to choose this battle, and I hope he does.

Posted 7 months ago #
rus

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0Angle said:
A source close to the mayor tells me that city council can't stop this program. Budgets are tight, but he seems willing to choose this battle, and I hope he does.

If it is a budget matter, what would you like to see get cut to provide funding for recycling?

Posted 7 months ago #
brothermarcus
West Siiiide
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rus said:
If it is a budget matter, what would you like to see get cut to provide funding for recycling?

cut buying a hockey arena, as stated astutely in byJody's post.

Posted 7 months ago #
rus

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brothermarcus said:
cut buying a hockey arena, as stated astutely in byJody's post.

Not that I'm against that, but I thought she was calling for casino taxes to pay for recycling.

Posted 7 months ago #
byJody
Rural NW Columbus
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rus said:
Not that I'm against that, but I thought she was calling for casino taxes to pay for recycling.

Right, that is what I am saying. The city and county are being loaned the money to buy the Arena from the current owners Nationwide Realty Partners. Then when the Casino taxes start coming in next year they will use 25% of it to make loan payments to NRP. So yes, if the Casino taxes can be allocated to paying NRP for the loan to buy Nationwide Arena, couldn't that slice be used to pay for the recycling program?

Posted 7 months ago #
byJody
Rural NW Columbus
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From Business First:
Nationwide will loan $43.3 million to the Convention Facilities Authority to finance the purchase and related expenses.
In return, Nationwide would receive an estimated $88 million in principal and interest payments over the projected 27-year term of the loan, avoid a higher property tax bill when a tax abatement on Nationwide Arena expires in 2015 and get out from under much of the long-term expense of maintaining the facility.

Convention Facilities Authority = City and County

Posted 7 months ago #
0Angle
A brewery or my kitchen or my bicycle.
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rus said:
If it is a budget matter, what would you like to see get cut to provide funding for recycling?

Instead of cuts, I would like to see additional taxes-on freedom and guns.. Maybe bacon, too.

Posted 7 months ago #
bman
New Albany
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0Angle said:
Instead of cuts, I would like to see additional taxes-on freedom and guns.. Maybe bacon, too.

I second this motion!

Posted 7 months ago #
0Angle
A brewery or my kitchen or my bicycle.
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Beverage tax?
http://www.yaleruddcenter.org/sodatax.aspx

Posted 7 months ago #
joev
Merion Village
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Well....The city could start charging for garbage pickup and make recycling free. That seems like a pretty easy start.

Posted 7 months ago #
0Angle
A brewery or my kitchen or my bicycle.
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I believe that the mayor has stated that the city won't charge for trash pick-up. I see both sides of that one. I know an Upper Arlington resident who hauls his trash to Columbus to save money. Littering/illegal dumping would be worse...

Posted 7 months ago #
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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Education and enforcement are the two key points to making any recycling program work. There are *many* different programs across the country that work - that have been working for more than a decade. SWACO has no interest in losing that revenue & can't seem to move forward in a changing industry. The incestuous relationship between them & the city is pretty ridiculous - nearly mob-like.

Posted 7 months ago #
M.O.
Columbus
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Am I the only one who thinks curbside recycling is an expensive, messy, ungreen exercise in enviro-posturing? There are plenty of recycling dumpsters all over the city. Easy to collect up a recyclable trash bag of recycling each week and take it to the collection site on your way to work, etc. Mission accomplished.

Curbside recycling means a network of huge gas-swilling trucks driving all over the city picking up paltry little piddles of whatever recycling *didn't* blow out of the open plastic trays overnight. The people who are paying for this service instead of just integrating recycling with their weekly mobility routine ain't helping the environment.

Posted 7 months ago #
Snarf
Dystopia
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M.O. said:
Am I the only one who thinks curbside recycling is an expensive, messy, ungreen exercise in enviro-posturing? There are plenty of recycling dumpsters all over the city. Easy to collect up a recyclable trash bag of recycling each week and take it to the collection site on your way to work, etc. Mission accomplished.

Curbside recycling means a network of huge gas-swilling trucks driving all over the city picking up paltry little piddles of whatever recycling *didn't* blow out of the open plastic trays overnight. The people who are paying for this service instead of just integrating recycling with their weekly mobility routine ain't helping the environment.

My thoughts exactly.

Posted 7 months ago #
Tenzo
Chicago Lakeshore
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Twixlen said:
Education and enforcement are the two key points to making any recycling program work. There are *many* different programs across the country that work - that have been working for more than a decade. SWACO has no interest in losing that revenue & can't seem to move forward in a changing industry. The incestuous relationship between them & the city is pretty ridiculous - nearly mob-like.

The mob involved in Waste Managment!
I am shicked, SHOCKED

Posted 7 months ago #
Anne
King Lincoln
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I'm also happy with the current dumpsters. They are conveniently located for me and I take care of it when I need to.

Posted 7 months ago #
Twixlen
Westgate, Columbus
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M.O. said:
Am I the only one who thinks curbside recycling is an expensive, messy, ungreen exercise in enviro-posturing? There are plenty of recycling dumpsters all over the city. Easy to collect up a recyclable trash bag of recycling each week and take it to the collection site on your way to work, etc. Mission accomplished.

Curbside recycling means a network of huge gas-swilling trucks driving all over the city picking up paltry little piddles of whatever recycling *didn't* blow out of the open plastic trays overnight. The people who are paying for this service instead of just integrating recycling with their weekly mobility routine ain't helping the environment.

This makes no sense to me. It's more environmentally friendly to have enormous, gas-swilling trucks pick up and haul thousands of tons of garbage to a landfill?

The problem with the current way Columbus isn't managing recycling is the percentage of garbage that is & isn't recycled.

Posted 7 months ago #