Editorial: Recycling system not perfect but has potential
By World's Editorials Writers on Sep 13, 2013, at 2:26 AM Updated on 9/13/13 at 3:30 AM
Editorials
The 6,300 employees at the American Airlines Maintenance Facility in Tulsa could use some certainty, but they're going to have to wait.
The loss of 12 lives, 13 counting the suspect, in the Navy shipyard shootings Monday is tragic. With each killing spree the natural reaction is to search for the motive or the psychological reason for such a horrific event.
Tulsa's recycling program isn't as green as promised, and it has already suffered one embarrassment for not shooting straight with customers. Yet, the program holds definite promise and deserves community support.
Eleven months ago, only 16,000 Tulsa households were signed up for recycling. With the Oct. 1 switch to curbside service, 111,000 of 116,500 customers requested a blue recycling cart. At a minimum that shows most customers are at least considering recycling.
Those who do the right thing and recycle are seeing rewards. They're doing something positive for the environment. They're freeing up space in indoor trash containers by separating out recyclables, and the recyclables are getting hauled away once a week.
The system isn't perfect. Customers thought green waste was being recycled but found out recently that it's being burned like regular garbage. The same is true of certain types of plastic.
About 25 percent of the contents of big blue carts is ending up at the Covanta waste-to-energy plant where it is burned along with regular garbage, according to a Sept. 8 Tulsa World analysis by Zack Stoycoff and Ziva Branstetter.
The city cannot recycle most of those items because there's no market yet for plastic Nos. 3 through 7. About 4 percent of items, however, remain listed as recyclable on the city's website. Officials claim that it's better to allow hard plastics to go in the blue cart than to confuse customers about which plastics are recyclable and which are not. There's also the chance that someday a market will open up for all those hard plastic yogurt tubs and sour cream cartons.
Tulsans are smart enough to understand those issues, and the system of throwing all the plastics in the blue cart isn't a problem. But Tulsans are also savvy enough to recognize that burning plastic at the waste-to-energy plant doesn't pass the smell test for "recycling," even if electricity is produced.
The city spent $1 million on a campaign to educate customers about the new trash service. If the city plans on staying on good terms with that now educated public it will be straightforward about what happens after the trucks drive away from the curb. No more surprises.
Original Print Headline: Recycling is right
Editorials
The 6,300 employees at the American Airlines Maintenance Facility in Tulsa could use some certainty, but they're going to have to wait.
The loss of 12 lives, 13 counting the suspect, in the Navy shipyard shootings Monday is tragic. With each killing spree the natural reaction is to search for the motive or the psychological reason for such a horrific event.
