Recycling bill may offer cash incentives
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KSNV coverage of a recycling program that is being discussed by Nevada lawmakers, Feb. 21, 2012.
Todd Korgan stands with his new recycling and garbage bins at his home near downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011.
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Clark County has the lowest recycling rate among Nevada’s populous counties, but a legislative committee is looking at ways to improve that.
Figures presented Tuesday to the legislative committee show the recycling rate in Clark County in 2010 was 17.9 percent compared with the state average of 20 percent. Carson City’s rate was 41 percent; Douglas County, 38 percent; and Washoe County, 27 percent.
Among the possibilities to improve recycling rates: deposits and refunds on recyclables.
A bill in the 2011 Legislature would have imposed a 5-cent deposit on beer and soft drink bottles and cans. It didn’t pass, but lawmakers agreed it should be studied during the interim.
Ten states have can and bottle deposit bills.
Bob Coyle, vice president for public affairs for Republic Services, Southern Nevada’s trash hauler, told the committee that a pilot program involving 80,600 homes in Clark County showed an increase of 500-600 percent in recycling.
The testing is of so-called single stream recycling in which customers use two 96 gallon wheeled carts — one for trash and the other for recycled goods.
This pilot program diverted 25-30 percent of recyclable materials away from the landfill, he said.
Coyle said he hopes to have the entire county converted by 2017. It’s costing his company $80 million to make the switch. Imposing a deposit on bottles would cut into his proposed business.
Converting to a single-stream program would not mean an increase in collection rates, he said.
Asked which is the most valuable scrap, Coyle said aluminum gets $1,600 a ton. But he said a lot of it is lost to scavengers who “know the route better than the drivers.”
The committee is allowed to propose five bills, and these requests must be in by summer.
Many people drink many things for example. I recall living in the Commonwealth of Virginia decades ago my brother and I would bottles at the time to the local grocery store and get money then we would go to McDonald's and get something to eat. Those were the days.
I can only imagine getting a nickel for every plastic bottle or glass bottle and return it back to the store. Less likely to see them in the desert. I'm sure Republic Services would go crazy if people started to get a few bucks in peoples pockets. It's not the end of the world but I feel kids of today learn something about the environment by saving it.
Clarke is on it. It's about the future. They can actually start THINKING about how their actions can impact the planet. 'Return a bottle or can and get a nickel' WORKS everywhere else.
But ya know?? It may NOT work here. IF kids can't even READ the label or UNDERSTAND what it means, then we'd be wasting time and money in even trying to get them to become a part of this universe.
Maybe we can find other uses for them. We could could emphasize RE-USING things instead of reCYCLING them. Make houses out of plastic water bottles filled with sand, make cars out of aluminum cans, etc
Back in "the day," as a child growing up in Los Angeles County, it was marvelous to collect bottles and redeem them. It does encourage saving in several ways: putting the extra change to work in a savings account, and going through the extra effort and steps to collect and salvage an item that can be reused in the future.
Many of these plastic bottles are recycled into goods we enjoy today: building materials, furniture, pens, toys, even fabric for clothes! And the metals have endless uses as well.
There would have to be a way to make it lucrative for those who take these items, and I am sure our lawmakers can access the many available models from other states to select the best of the best ideas for here in Nevada.
Continued education also encourages our young people to "think green" and incorporate recycling in their lives and school projects. Recently, a student constructed a skeletal model recycling plastic milk jugs, another made a solar system model, another jewelry. It certainly brings smiles and makes one want to also put recycling to work more in their own life.
Blessings and Peace,
Star
So they want to cut pickups in half, give us 2 huge ugly cans, force us to sort garbage that they already sort themselves at the intake, and we have to pay the same rates. No thank you.
My family puts out one 32 gallon can per week for pickup. I don't have space for 2 huge cans that I'll never use.
I'm not against recycling, I'm against forcing the population to recycle AND charging them for it, when ALL trash is sorted at the intake. This is just a way for Republic to increase profits by cutting service. If you're going to cut service in half, cut the bills in half.
Call it what it is, a tax. This is more governmental social engineering to get "society" to do what the elites in government think we should be doing.
My wife and I recycle already and think the single large bin made life *much* easier compared to the three small bins. Having a deposit on cans and bottles would make it much more difficult for us to recycle if we wanted the deposit back (which we would.)
We are on the single stream recycling. One can for trash, one can for any recyclables. It's easy. We keep two trash cans in the kitchen. It's amazing that about 70% of what we throw away goes in the recycling can.
I never recycled when they made you sort it.
What I have heard is that Glass is not recycled and not reused now. It is crushed and sent to the dump and a small fraction is used in concrete and roadway materials.
Glass, which is mostly silicon dioxide, comprises about 75% of the weight of the earth's crust. Oxygen is 50% of the weight and silicon is next at 25%. It's the one commodity that has the least worth, next to hot air in Texas.
Becker is funny and he is right.
Sand melts into glass; we shape a bottle, fill it with some beverage, sell it, drink it and smash the bottle.
Awhile back there was a push to regrind the glass but now the weight/transportation expense WAAY outweighs the value so we start with new bottles now.
Not so w/ aluminum. Not so w/ plastic junk that is light and easily reground to melt into long-lasting and non-rotting lumber for your deck, clothes, toys, etc.
Two bins. Yes.
Harley,
that newsprint actually accounts for a tiny percentage of trees felled, especially now that recycling has impacted the supply routes.
One excellent benefit from newsprint besides the cool stories from Hemingway, Ralston, Coolican etc., is the cellulose insulation we make from adding some metals and stuff to the paper and making it fireproof, reUSING it as insulation in walls and attics.
Cellulose is the premier wall insulation material as it is easily compressed into cavities and thoroughly fills voids, works its way around pipes and wires and then is densely packed so that it does not settle as fiberglass does, leaving voids at the top.
Trees comprise a slow growing resource. The phrase 'holocaust of forests' is kinda funny Harley in that you're attempting to convey the human agony and tragedy and emotional baggage of historical slaughter of PEOPLE to the harvesting of materials that flourish on the planet. Your credibility plummets, sir, when you equate forests and families, people and pine trees, your neighbors and a bundle of Newsweeks.