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“Outstanding service. They were extremely careful delivering the extra large container into our driveway.” -- A. L. GARNER
Working her way up from customer service to her present position, Jamie is now responsible for educating residents on how to reduce waste and recycle properly, as well as determining to which companies Recology can profitably sell the resources it has collected from its customers.That is no simple task. Haulers pick up the contents of our curbside bins and bring them to the “transfer” station on North Valley View Road. From there, non-recyclables are sent to a landfill site in Eagle Point, while glass is trucked up to a company in Portland, where it is crushed, melted and repurposed. As of June, certain plastic bags are being sent to Virginia-based, Trex, which will turn them into decking materials (see below). Paper and hard plastics are sold to manufacturers both in this country and abroad. Jamie explains, “the destination just depends on where the highest demand is, or where the best price can be found.” Much of the manufacturing of plastics is located in China and other Asian countries, so container ships returning to their point of origin are filled with our mixed recycling.That said, Jamie encourages consumers to contemplate the meaning of the slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and emphasize the first two sets of actions. “It is important to remember that the ‘Three Rs’ is a hierarchy. The act of simply tossing something into your mixed recycling cart does not automatically make you a ‘good’ person. You’ve simply out-sourced your problem. If you are truly interested in having an impact, start thinking about ways you can reduce your consumption, and reuse materials whenever possible.”Due to Jamie’s negotiations with Trex, Ashlanders now have a clear, concrete action they can take. Rather than throwing all soft plastics into the combined trash, we can separate our bags, bubble wrap, etc. into two categories of plastic: 1. clear or 2. containing some type of color (see Trex website for a full list of acceptable soft plastics: www.trex.com/recycling/recycling-partnerships/). Ashlanders can then bring these soft plastics down to the Ashland Recycling Center on Water Street at Van Ness (open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday).Ashland resident, author and anthropologist Nina Egert has been a lay environmentalist since the early 1970s. (steNot: Recycling center again accepting soft plastic for recycling)
Culebra Road Texas Dispoal Systems Transfer Station (bulky items only), 11601 Starcrest Drive; customer may be required to wear a safety vest on loan Nelson Gardens Brush Recycling Center (brush only), 8963 Nelson Road Waste Management Landfill, 8611 Covel Road; customer may be required to wear a safety vest on loan Source: Solid Waste Management Department ... (ste Management offering free trash drop-off at landfills)
Now these same council members are acting shocked that eliminating market competition has led to price-gouging and poor customer service.The City of Los Angeles has a citywide dumpster fire on its hands. In just the first six months of the new system, the city has received close to 30,000 service complaints. Some customers' trash bills have doubled or tripled. Citizens have launched a signature-gathering campaign to try to force a citywide vote to kill parts of the program.This program, called RecycLA, was sold to city leaders as a way to shift more trash to recycling and away from landfills to achieve a 90 percent diversion rate by 2025.What the program actually did, though, is deliberately eliminate all competition for trash hauling. The program divides the city into 11 massive districts. Every commercial or apartment building in a district is served by a single trash hauler, and some of these haulers control multiple districts. The landlords and residents have no choice: If they want their trash picked up, they must do business with whoever gets the city contract.To land these contracts, the trash companies must meet a whole host of demands, including new natural-gas-powered trucks, city-determined "living wages" for employees, and labor peace agreements with local unions...
If that's the case, customers are asked to haul their garbage cans to the nearest paved road so that they can be picked up. Again, each situation is different. This is something you as a customer may want to ask Waste Management about if you're having problems with consistent service, but that is their policy, laid out in the company's franchise agreement. If you have problems with your Waste Management service, be sure to let us know so we can look into it and hopefully help to get the situation resolved. (KRNV My News 4)
Talbot said. The new rules would apply to all water customers, whether you live on the California coast or in the Central Valley. But some water agencies are starting to push back, arguing that the state’s one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Paul Helliker, who is general manager of the San Juan Water District that serves 180,000 customers surrounding Folsom Lake, said he is concerned about some of the restrictions imposed during the recent drought.“There were some unintended consequences,” Helliker said. “Trees died in different areas of the state, and I don't think anyone wants to see the urban forest be diminished. We heard during the drought from businesses that do power washing for example, that they were not able to do their business according to those rules."The challenge is finding a balance that encourages water conservation while not putting employers out of business. The new regulations will generate more public input. If approved, the rules would be applied statewide beginning in April of next year. In the meantime, it will be up to local water agencies to enforce the rules against wasting water. AlertMe... (KCRA Sacramento)
