The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com.
Question:
Yesterday, i had the unfortunate experience of being stuck behind a recycling garbage truck in a small development’s cul-de-sac. I therefore was able to watch the sanitation workers manually empty about 15 yellow garbage pails into the recycling truck for a full five minutes. i was horrified to see them empty one yellow recycling garbage pail which was clearly fully filled with regular household trash and another with at least one bag of regular garbage. i was thinking of all our work collapsing every box only to have them soiled by chicken bones and leftover soggy cheerios as i watched the garbage thrown into the truck being lifted and squeezed – compacting all the boxes while ripping open all the garbage bags, whose contents spread all over the other recyclables…
YUCK!!!
1) what happens to the contents of the entire truck once mixed with regular trash?
2) why did the sanitation workers empty the garbage when it CLEARLY was not recyclables?
3) what is the homeowner THINKING? (i imagine you can’t answer that one)
If the sanitation workers would not empty the contents of that garbage, i would imagine the homeowner would learn very fast what garbage belongs in which container.
Thanks for listening,
A Conscientious Recycler
Response from Mayor Coles:
Thank you for bringing this to our attention, as well as being a conscientious recycler. I sent this to Pat Donnelly at Public Works as soon as I received your email. He spoke with the drivers and the recycling coordinator & the came to the conclusion that you are absolutely correct in being concerned. He wrote me back – After speaking with Nigel we have come to the following conclusions. The writer was absolutely correct to question what they observed. We will schedule a meeting next week to address the importance of not contaminating our collection materials. They will be reminded to be diligent and report contaminated containers to code enforcement. Contamination in materials is costing everyone money. Current market conditions have put the emphasis on clean material with little too no value for loads which were once acceptable. Many cities are now back logged by reject loads of recycling material due to contamination and are left with no choice but to pay tipping fees to landfills or incineration facilities to dispose of them. We all must continue to be mindful of what is placed in recycling cans.
While I always prefer education over enforcement, we will do our best to make sure our residents know what is and is not acceptable as far as recycling goes and continue to work towards the goal of recycling as much of our waste as possible.
Thanks again for looking out for all of us.
Ray
—————–
Have a question for the Mayor? Send it to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com
Have a question for the Chief? Send it to AskTheChief@thelakewoodscoop.com
I Have a question but I am not sure that it pertains to this article. I have friends in other towns close by here in New Jersey and I am told that some towns have PAPER SHREDDING EVENTS, About once a month [or maybe less often ] the township has a truck with Shredder equipment parked at a particular place in that town and everybody can bring their paperwork that needs to be shredded and shredd right there, Can we possible have something like that here in Lakewood, Thank you .
Thank you for opening up about recycling. I live in a legal basement and I recycle. I was brought up in a town that gives fines to people that don’t recycle. Too many times I have witnessed that people don’t recycle. Hence my landlord uses the recycle bin as a regular garbage can. Is there a way we can implement recycling? The pros it helps keeps a better and cleaner town. Thank you!
I am also having problems with recycling. I am very into it and My landlord is really not. Our recycling hasn’t been taken a couple times because i am assuming they notice she doesn’t recycle and fills the recycling can with garbage. Anyone else having problems ?
how selfish!
why can’t they just order another green can from the township?!
just for the record, its public news that much of your recycled items end up in the regular landfill, do some research and you’ll see the scam in recycling, but at the end of the day, we need to follow the law
What happen to the sticker that showed what is allowed for recycle and whats not. Maybe we can get those sent out to homes and placed on the garbage cans to remind people.
YOU are missing my point, I know the YELLOW BIN IS FOR RECYCLING. But important papers with private info, does not belong in the YELLOW BIN, It has to be shredded first, You can not shredd a lot of paperwork in a small shredder , Thats why If the township could get us a truck with a commercial shredder Even every few month and park it somewhere in town where everybody could have access to it would be very helpful to everybody, We do pay enough in real estate taxes yearly. Thank you.
I was wondering if it’s a normal practice to do runs at night. Last week Friday night at about 9:00pm a truck was going down my development picking up recycling. Our zone is usually scheduled for Wednesday. I thought this was a bit strange and random. Although it didn’t look so suspicious observing them…
My recycle can has had a sticker on it for 15 years. Do the new ones not have them?
@RECYCLER. never got on mine. I still do know what goes where but would love to have it as a reminder. And I do not see them on many cans including older ones
@ Bubbie zeida. good idea. Until they do that you can go to staples free 1lb of shredding with coupon