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

Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion

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

[80 posts] [26 contributors]

Topic Rating:

(Total Ratings: )
Rate this topic:

Started 1 year ago by News
Latest reply from Walker

Tags:

« Previous 1…34

bob.os
Columbus *not* Cbus
Login to Send PM

Walker said:
As Joev said earlier, charges could be applied for trash pickup and that could cover the cost of recycling. Properly funding allocation could also provide for the enforcement/cleanup of the small percentage of illegal dumping that could occur.

Alternatively, tipping fees at the city landfill could be increased, which would increase costs for any person or company dumping trash, incentivizing recycling as well as allocating additional funds for recycling programs.

This would be a good way to go about things, but free trash pickup is enshrined in the City Charter. A charter amendment is no easy feat.

A usage charge (like UA's per-bag sticker program) would be one way to go about things, but would also amount to a regressive tax on lower-income residents.

Perhaps next time we bail out a professional sports team or find ourselves with casino taxes the city should earmark them to something like a comprehensive recycling program.

Posted 1 year ago #
poligirl
Downtown
Login to Send PM

Stephen43215 said:
I wish downtown would put recycling bins downtown next to the trash cans..it would help make downtown be alot more green.

+1

The building I live in can't seem to figure out how to have recycling for residents (despite "looking into it" for over a year), so I have to lug my recycling around. Not particularly convenient when you don't have a car.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
Login to Send PM

bob.os said:
This would be a good way to go about things, but free trash pickup is enshrined in the City Charter. A charter amendment is no easy feat.

Why's that?

Posted 1 year ago #
bob.os
Columbus *not* Cbus
Login to Send PM

Per the Charter, you'd have to get at least 2/3 of City Council to sign on to start. Our current council is pretty invincible, but I don't think you'd get 2/3 of them to sign on to something that would be portrayed as a tax increase for what was previously free city service.

Posted 1 year ago #
FireEngine
Blacklick or Driving Park
Login to Send PM

bob.os said:
This would be a good way to go about things, but free trash pickup is enshrined in the City Charter. A charter amendment is no easy feat.

Trash pickup isn't mentioned anywhere in the City Charter. A "city official" allegedly promised the city wouldn't charge decades ago. Dispatch editorial that mentions this.

Isn't it great that you have to pay for a city medic to pick you up, but a city trash truck will pick up as much trash as you want for free?

Posted 1 year ago #
ericville
5xNW
Login to Send PM

bob.os said:
Per the Charter, you'd have to get at least 2/3 of City Council to sign on to start. Our current council is pretty invincible, but I don't think you'd get 2/3 of them to sign on to something that would be portrayed as a tax increase for what was previously free city service.

The current council is a single unanimous unit... when haven't they over 2/3 of council on any piece of legislation?

Posted 1 year ago #
ericville
5xNW
Login to Send PM

FireEngine
Isn't it great that you have to pay for a city medic to pick you up, but a city trash truck will pick up as much trash as you want for free?

We just raised our city income taxes in fear of ...cutting crucial city services of police and fire.

What's the next thing I see? Another park and an overkill "Scioto Mile" park/develop/uncategorized. The current administration (council + mayor, since they are a single unit) have displaced priorities. Call them out on it, it's election time. The Scioto Mile is great, just biked there last night but when you compare that to a needed recycling program and an aging and failing sewer system, it's a simple choice.

I am surprised we do not have a curbside recycling program. I'm from a small rural town that has had a curbside recycling program in place since I was a kid. And this is a typically backwards community. As progressive as Columbus is/wants to be, you think a curbside recycling program would be a priority. I barely recycle now but I would 100% recycle if I had curbside pickup. I'm lazy and busy.

Now if only we had some decent candidates for city offices...

Posted 1 year ago #
bman
New Albany
Login to Send PM

Walker said:
Nope. Trash is "free".

I disagree ... the city has X number of expenses and Y of revenue ... the cost of your trash pick up is covered by your taxes it just might be buried in your city imcome tax or in your real estate taxes.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
Login to Send PM

bman said:
I disagree ... the city has X number of expenses and Y of revenue ... the cost of your trash pick up is covered by your taxes it just might be buried in your city imcome tax or in your real estate taxes.

Yes. That's why "free" was in quotation marks. ;) You just don't get a bill for it.

Posted 1 year ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
Login to Send PM

FireEngine said:
Trash pickup isn't mentioned anywhere in the City Charter. A "city official" allegedly promised the city wouldn't charge decades ago. Dispatch editorial that mentions this.

Heh.

Even if it was in the charter, why would it be a Herculean effort for Council to listen to a public roar mandating change?

Posted 1 year ago #
FireEngine
Blacklick or Driving Park
Login to Send PM

lizless said:
Heh.

Even if it was in the charter, why would it be a Herculean effort for Council to listen to a public roar mandating change?

I've never contended that. I wish Council would be responsive to the citizen's wishes instead of just a rubber stamp for the mayor. But that's a Sisyphean effort with the current environment of get appointed to an open seat / depend on the mayor's money to get elected / move on to something else that we currently have. (Woo, a double shot of pre-breakfast classics to get the brain moving.)

Curb-side recycling was a cornerstone of both the income tax increase effort and the mayor's last re-election campaign. People should be questioning whether that was just an empty promise.

Posted 1 year ago #
cheap
Westgate
Login to Send PM

if the city of Columbus started a recycling program,wouldn't that kill Rumpke's recycling trucks?

Posted 1 year ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
Login to Send PM

bob.os said:
This would be a good way to go about things, but free trash pickup is enshrined in the City Charter. A charter amendment is no easy feat.

Enshrined in City Charter? This is a lie. Can you cite chapter and verse or would you prefer to perpetuate a dangerous and irresponsible urban legend instead? Cite where this is 'enshrined in City Charter' please.

Posted 1 year ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
Login to Send PM

FireEngine said:
I wish Council would be responsive to the citizen's wishes instead of just a rubber stamp for the mayor. But that's a Sisyphean effort with the current environment of get appointed to an open seat / depend on the mayor's money to get elected / move on to something else that we currently have. (Woo, a double shot of pre-breakfast classics to get the brain moving.)

Curb-side recycling was a cornerstone of both the income tax increase effort and the mayor's last re-election campaign. People should be questioning whether that was just an empty promise.

+1

Posted 1 year ago #
Twixlen
The Weston District
Login to Send PM

M.O. said:
The reason I mention trucks everywhere is that's what this thread started out about: Tabling Columbus plans to run two trucks everywhere. You continue to argue as if Columbus has a better plan on the table, but it doesn't.

I realize you're not trying to be snarky, but while you continue to point out the better options employed by other cities you appear to be ignoring the fact that if we commit to the two-truck/two-route system now we won't likely be seeing any of those better systems implemented anytime soon.

I was never intimating that the City had another plan, but pointing out that they *should.* Specifically since so many have gone down this road before us.

Also, I'm a big proponent of starting somewhere.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
Login to Send PM

cheap said:
if the city of Columbus started a recycling program,wouldn't that kill Rumpke's recycling trucks?

No. The current opt-in curb-side recycling is contracted out to Rumpke, and a mandatory curb-side recycling program would most likely follow suit.

Rumpke would most likely stand to benefit from this type of program, create more jobs, and put to work their nice new recycling center:

http://www.columbusunderground.com/rumpke-opens-renovated-recycling-facility

Posted 1 year ago #
bob.os
Columbus *not* Cbus
Login to Send PM

lizless said:
Enshrined in City Charter? This is a lie. Can you cite chapter and verse or would you prefer to perpetuate a dangerous and irresponsible urban legend instead? Cite where this is 'enshrined in City Charter' please.

Sheesh! I'll cop to 'urban legend' if it will make you happy.

Posted 1 year ago #
lizless
Columbus/Hocking Hills
Login to Send PM

It's this 'urban legend' that past Council Members have clung to for at least 30 years to avoid dealing with the issue. It's high time this falsehood is laid to rest and the City finds the most creative minds to solve this problem once and for all.

Posted 1 year ago #
News
Columbus Underground
Login to Send PM

Open the discussion
Wednesday October 19, 2011 5:44 AM

Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Council President Andrew J. Ginther have different opinions about the short-term future of recycling in Columbus. That’s certainly OK, and both have good points to consider.

What they should do next is let the public in on the matter, with an open discussion of whether the city should proceed with curbside recycling in 2012, as the mayor prefers, or wait and look for a less-expensive option, as Ginther has suggested.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2011/10/19/open-the-discussion.html

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
Login to Send PM

Stop by tonight and voice your opinions directly to City Council:

Press Release:
Columbus City Council Holds Hearing On Proposed Recycling Plan

WHO:
Councilmember Eileen Y. Paley
Columbus City Councilmembers
Representatives of Mayor Michael B. Coleman

WHEN:
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
5:00 pm

WHERE:
City Council Chambers
Columbus City Hall
90 West Broad Street

WHAT:
Councilmember Eileen Y. Paley, chair of the Public Service and Transportation Committee, will hold a public hearing on a proposal to begin a City supported curb side recycling program. Public testimony will be accepted and the meeting that will be broadcast live on CTV, Columbus’ government television channel 3 on local cable systems. Speaker slips are available at Columbus City Hall beginning at 8 am the morning of the hearing and will be accepted until 5:15 pm in Council Chambers. General rules of speaking before Council will apply.

Posted 1 year ago #