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Talk About Tulsa => Other Tulsa Discussion => Topic started by: TheTed on September 15, 2012, 01:04:26 PM

Title: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: TheTed on September 15, 2012, 01:04:26 PM
Mr. RecycleMichael (or anybody else who may know):

The city is accepting a much wider array of recyclables than the MET. The Feed Mr Murph containers are also taking plastics that can't be recycled at MET locations.

So is this stuff actually being recycled? I generally save up plastics that aren't 1 or 2 with necks or handles and drop it off in Dallas or KC when I'm in those cities.

I'd rather get rid of it in Tulsa, but I've heard there's no recycling of most of those plastics in Oklahoma. So are the city trash haulers and the Mr Murph company actually recycling this stuff?
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: RecycleMichael on September 15, 2012, 09:15:16 PM
I can't say for sure. I have never seen any documentation on where they are selling materials. I hope so. I have heard complaints and passed these on to city officials.

I do hope so, but it is hard to trust a recycler who owns a landfill.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: patric on September 16, 2012, 11:48:35 AM
Quote from: RecycleMichael on September 15, 2012, 09:15:16 PM
I do hope so, but it is hard to trust a recycler who owns a landfill.

Making the effort and being disappointed by a result is still going to be better in the long run than not making the effort.
Its just going to require a lot of follow-up.

(http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/afghanistan22.jpg)

FYI my new city recycle bin is almost twice the size as my garbage bin.

Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Gaspar on September 17, 2012, 09:59:39 AM
We got our new bins yesterday.  I'm going to have to drink a lot more beer to fill that baby.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: rdj on September 17, 2012, 01:40:54 PM
Quote from: Gaspar on September 17, 2012, 09:59:39 AM
We got our new bins yesterday.  I'm going to have to drink a lot more beer to fill that baby.

That's a great line to tell my wife once they finally deliver carts to the NW Quad.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: sgrizzle on September 17, 2012, 02:02:40 PM
Quote from: Gaspar on September 17, 2012, 09:59:39 AM
We got our new bins yesterday.  I'm going to have to drink a lot more beer to fill that baby.

Filled mine same day. Had to jump up and down to get the lid to close.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Gaspar on September 17, 2012, 02:08:55 PM
Quote from: sgrizzle on September 17, 2012, 02:02:40 PM
Filled mine same day. Had to jump up and down to get the lid to close.
(http://funnyanimalpicturescat.com/pictures/I-Don--t-Always-Recycle-But-When-I-Do-----.jpg)
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: patric on September 17, 2012, 02:55:33 PM
Quote from: Gaspar on September 17, 2012, 02:08:55 PM

I gotta give Gaspar one for that. 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Gaspar on September 17, 2012, 04:35:33 PM
Quote from: patric on September 17, 2012, 02:55:33 PM
I gotta give Gaspar one for that. 

I gotta get a jacket like that!
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: tulsa_fan on September 18, 2012, 08:35:30 AM
I just read a comment somewhere else that the lids are not to be on the recyled bottles?  GRR, I've been putting juice bottles, watter bottles, pop bottles in there with lids on them I'm going to be not happy to drag that crap back out if they don't take it.  What's wrong with the lids? 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Hoss on September 18, 2012, 08:42:08 AM
Quote from: tulsa_fan on September 18, 2012, 08:35:30 AM
I just read a comment somewhere else that the lids are not to be on the recyled bottles?  GRR, I've been putting juice bottles, watter bottles, pop bottles in there with lids on them I'm going to be not happy to drag that crap back out if they don't take it.  What's wrong with the lids? 

I've been keeping lids on them with no issues.  Called the city in this respect the weekend we got the bins to get the official word (since the label on the bin says something different from the booklet) and got confirmation that the lids stay on.  I've also been putting containers up to recycle number 5 (solo cups are #5) with no issues yet.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Gaspar on September 18, 2012, 08:55:31 AM
Quote from: Hoss on September 18, 2012, 08:42:08 AM
I've been keeping lids on them with no issues.  Called the city in this respect the weekend we got the bins to get the official word (since the label on the bin says something different from the booklet) and got confirmation that the lids stay on.  I've also been putting containers up to recycle number 5 (solo cups are #5) with no issues yet.

Glass gets crushed and magnetic separator sorts away the ferris lids and other materials.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: tulsa_fan on September 18, 2012, 10:04:06 AM
OK, thanks!  Mine have been plastic bottles and lids thus far anyway.  I just didn't want to keep doing it wrong and have an entire bin to sort through.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Hoss on September 18, 2012, 10:09:42 AM
Quote from: tulsa_fan on September 18, 2012, 10:04:06 AM
OK, thanks!  Mine have been plastic bottles and lids thus far anyway.  I just didn't want to keep doing it wrong and have an entire bin to sort through.

then the magnetic resolution wouldn't apply.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: sgrizzle on September 18, 2012, 11:04:49 AM
Quote from: Gaspar on September 18, 2012, 08:55:31 AM
Glass gets crushed and magnetic separator sorts away the ferris lids and other materials.

(http://captainsdead.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/ferris.jpg)
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: tulsa_fan on September 18, 2012, 11:06:43 AM
OK, so now I'm confused again.  Am I suposed to take lids off plastics but its OK to keep them on glass? 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: DTowner on September 18, 2012, 11:59:59 AM
I'm still trying to understand the thought process behind the decision to distribute exclusively ginormous recylcing carts in a city that had a 10% recycling participation under the old system.  Therefore, I don't have time to figure out whether or not to remove lids from my recyled items.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: RecycleMichael on September 18, 2012, 12:06:24 PM
Quote from: DTowner on September 18, 2012, 11:59:59 AM
I'm still trying to understand the thought process behind the decision to distribute exclusively ginormous recycling carts...

That was discussed today in a TARE planning committee meeting. I expect a TulsaWorld story tomorrow.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Townsend on September 18, 2012, 12:08:23 PM
About those large recycle bins, the TV people on KOTV told me a resident has recently chopped his up and placed it in his trash to be picked up.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Conan71 on September 18, 2012, 12:08:47 PM
Channel 6 reported this morning one customer cut up his new recycling bin and put it in his trash container.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Townsend on September 18, 2012, 12:09:33 PM
Quote from: Conan71 on September 18, 2012, 12:08:47 PM
Channel 6 reported this morning one customer cut up his new recycling bin and put it in his trash container.

24 second donkey kicking.
Title: Re: Re: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Hoss on September 18, 2012, 12:50:13 PM
Quote from: Townsend on September 18, 2012, 12:09:33 PM
24 second donkey kicking.

Guessing he'll get a nice bill from the city.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: tulsa_fan on September 18, 2012, 01:40:15 PM
Quote from: RecycleMichael on September 18, 2012, 12:06:24 PM
That was discussed today in a TARE planning committee meeting. I expect a TulsaWorld story tomorrow.

Not all of us read the Tulsa World . . . cliff notes version?
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Gaspar on September 19, 2012, 03:45:16 PM
Quote from: Conan71 on September 18, 2012, 12:08:47 PM
Channel 6 reported this morning one customer cut up his new recycling bin and put it in his trash container.

You could do the opposite. 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: shadows on October 08, 2012, 04:37:36 PM
The TW reports in Friday's paper, after a beginning recycling it may gross 400 tons weekly. This amount of recycling materials will require an enormous large building to store and work in.  Now the next blow will be the increase charge for picking up the recycling material by the new trash contractors.

But if AA leaves, the city will have some empty buildings already stocked with recyclable machines.   It is a win win for the city.         
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Townsend on October 08, 2012, 04:41:08 PM
Quote from: shadows on October 08, 2012, 04:37:36 PM
The TW reports in Friday's paper, after a beginning recycling it may gross 400 tons weekly. This amount of recycling materials will require an enormous large building to store and work in.  Now the next blow will be the increase charge for picking up the recycling material by the new trash contractors.

But if AA leaves, the city will have some empty buildings already stocked with recyclable machines.   It is a win win for the city.         


There you go.  You fixed it.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: TheTed on October 09, 2012, 01:17:44 PM
But how many tons of these recyclables collected are actually recycled? If the answer is all, then why doesn't the MET accept all the stuff at all the locations?

Take your corrugated cardboard here.
Take your cereal boxes there.
Take your deli-style plastic containers to some other city.
Separate everything into 17 different containers.
I still haven't figured out why the met workers deny my plastic pill bottles. They're #1 or 2 with a neck.

Etc, etc, etc.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: RecycleMichael on October 09, 2012, 02:15:02 PM
I appreciate you recycling.

The M.e.t. has offered recycling in the Metro area for almost twenty years. We have done some things very well for these many years, but haven't been able to recycle everything that everybody wants to recycle for many reasons.

We also only accept things that we know are going to be recycled into new products. Many communities accept items like odd plastics just because they believe it is easier to take them rather than educate the masses. They stockpile or throw away a measurable amount of refuse in the recycling trucks. The M.e.t. doesn't.

The M.e.t. is also limited by our business plan. We have centers in parking lots without fences and are open 24 hours a day. That makes it difficult to accept cardboard boxes from citizens that won't break down the box. We are also limited because of our workforce. We have 120 employees with disabilities and I can't easily distribute box knives to them.

The city carts take a large amount of items and the M.e.t. collects other things like batteries, cooking oil, motor oil, and recently in pilot programs at our Sheridan location plastic grocery bags and electronic waste like computers, stereos, cell phones.

I am sorry that you expect one stop shopping from us. We are a non-profit that begs for money from local governments and local businesses in order to create jobs for hard to employ people.

Your sentiments are not unique. I have people mad at me all the time because we can't meet their expectations. Just because we were the only ones doing anything for years doesn't mean we should be expected to do everything for everybody.

We do publish a directory of every recycling business in the region to help local recycling businesses. A link is found here:

http://metrecycle.com/recycling/d/   
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Conan71 on October 09, 2012, 02:30:34 PM
Quote from: RecycleMichael on October 09, 2012, 02:15:02 PM
I appreciate you recycling.

The M.e.t. has offered recycling in the Metro area for almost twenty years. We have done some things very well for these many years, but haven't been able to recycle everything that everybody wants to recycle for many reasons.

We also only accept things that we know are going to be recycled into new products. Many communities accept items like odd plastics just because they believe it is easier to take them rather than educate the masses. They stockpile or throw away a measurable amount of refuse in the recycling trucks. The M.e.t. doesn't.

The M.e.t. is also limited by our business plan. We have centers in parking lots without fences and are open 24 hours a day. That makes it difficult to accept cardboard boxes from citizens that won't break down the box. We are also limited because of our workforce. We have 120 employees with disabilities and I can't easily distribute box knives to them.

The city carts take a large amount of items and the M.e.t. collects other things like batteries, cooking oil, motor oil, and recently in pilot programs at our Sheridan location plastic grocery bags and electronic waste like computers, stereos, cell phones.

I am sorry that you expect one stop shopping from us. We are a non-profit that begs for money from local governments and local businesses in order to create jobs for hard to employ people.

Your sentiments are not unique. I have people mad at me all the time because we can't meet their expectations. Just because we were the only ones doing anything for years doesn't mean we should be expected to do everything for everybody.

We do publish a directory of every recycling business in the region to help local recycling businesses. A link is found here:

http://metrecycle.com/recycling/d/   

Come on, quit being such a nice guy.  Can't you for once just say: "STUFF IT!"?
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: TheTed on October 09, 2012, 02:55:26 PM
Quote from: RecycleMichael on October 09, 2012, 02:15:02 PM
I appreciate you recycling.

The M.e.t. has offered recycling in the Metro area for almost twenty years. We have done some things very well for these many years, but haven't been able to recycle everything that everybody wants to recycle for many reasons.

We also only accept things that we know are going to be recycled into new products. Many communities accept items like odd plastics just because they believe it is easier to take them rather than educate the masses. They stockpile or throw away a measurable amount of refuse in the recycling trucks. The M.e.t. doesn't.

The M.e.t. is also limited by our business plan. We have centers in parking lots without fences and are open 24 hours a day. That makes it difficult to accept cardboard boxes from citizens that won't break down the box. We are also limited because of our workforce. We have 120 employees with disabilities and I can't easily distribute box knives to them.

The city carts take a large amount of items and the M.e.t. collects other things like batteries, cooking oil, motor oil, and recently in pilot programs at our Sheridan location plastic grocery bags and electronic waste like computers, stereos, cell phones.

I am sorry that you expect one stop shopping from us. We are a non-profit that begs for money from local governments and local businesses in order to create jobs for hard to employ people.

Your sentiments are not unique. I have people mad at me all the time because we can't meet their expectations. Just because we were the only ones doing anything for years doesn't mean we should be expected to do everything for everybody.

We do publish a directory of every recycling business in the region to help local recycling businesses. A link is found here:

http://metrecycle.com/recycling/d/   
I appreciate what you're doing. And I appreciate your response.

But as we see with curbside recycling, the easier you make it to recycle, the more people do it. Right now it's extremely difficult to recycle everything for those of us who don't live in single-family dwellings. It involves going to 4-6 different places on a regular basis and stockpiling all the stuff that can't be recycled here. That difficulty has to be limiting potential recycling in this city.

Has there been any talk of partnering with the city on dropoff locations to accept more stuff? I know our (new and improved) curbside service is new, but I think most cities with more mature curbside programs offer a drop-off component for those who don't live in single-family dwellings.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: RecycleMichael on October 09, 2012, 04:36:03 PM
I think you are jumping a step. Just because you live in an multi-family living unit doesn't mean you can't recycle.

Your beef should be with your landlord, not with me.

The apartment owners in this town don't offer recycling because they don't think their tenants care. I have met with officials with Lincoln Properties and Case and Associates, as well as smaller landlords and I soon as I say it is going to cost a few dollars per month per unit, the conversation ends. I don't understand. The retirement communities like Inverness Village have great recycling programs because they know it is a selling point for new tenants.

I feel the same way about shopping centers in Tulsa. Malls and strip centers across America have good recycling programs, but they are rare around here. I don't understand.

Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: joiei on October 09, 2012, 05:22:48 PM
It is possible to get a recycling program in multiunit locations.  We were able to get recycling introduced at the Yorktown Condos after much pressuring the board and the administration.  Because it was considered a commercial account we had to go with a company that was not the city.   The program is very successful in a building that houses mostly older home owners.  What it took was for one of the residents to go through the Master Recycler program. 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: guido911 on October 09, 2012, 07:39:55 PM
Anyone else getting fed up with this recycling nonsense?


ducking, donning Kevlar..
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Conan71 on October 09, 2012, 07:49:14 PM
Quote from: guido911 on October 09, 2012, 07:39:55 PM
Anyone else getting fed up with this recycling nonsense?


ducking, donning Kevlar..

It's a passing fad.  Sooner or later they will let us all cut up our recycle bins and toss them in the trash.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: shadows on October 09, 2012, 10:47:27 PM
Quote from: Conan71 on October 09, 2012, 07:49:14 PM
It's a passing fad.  Sooner or later they will let us all cut up our recycle bins and toss them in the trash.
Just stand fast.  The wage scale of the American worker and the broadening gap between the haves and have-nots where the majority of the created jobs are government jobs that increase the average wage by inflation makes the virgin materials cheaper.  Used in production recycling material prices have been driven up by China and are not vulnerable to inflation as we know it.  Government is getting ready to dump 40 billion unsecured dollars PER MONTH in out faulting economy.  We are able to buy finished products (which we do on credit and not pay) for less than recycled products cost.  The only thing we have an edge on is recycling bathroom tissue.  Like Japan they have built their first aircraft carrier out of our recycled vehicles.

Type in your search engine"RECESSION 2013 PREDICTIONS" and read what experts of government and private sectors are saying regardless of who is president.     
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: nathanm on October 09, 2012, 10:55:25 PM
Quote from: guido911 on October 09, 2012, 07:39:55 PM
Anyone else getting fed up with this recycling nonsense?

No, I'm quite happy to be able to get rid of my cardboard and other recyclables that were not previously accepted in the green bin in a SWMBO-approved manner that doesn't involve driving to another city.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: nathanm on October 09, 2012, 11:02:05 PM
Quote from: shadows on October 09, 2012, 10:47:27 PM
Type in your search engine"RECESSION 2013 PREDICTIONS" and read what experts of government and private sectors are saying regardless of who is president.

Absent the fiscal cliff scenario arriving unaltered or China or Europe really going off the cliff instead of having only mildly recessionary economies, recession here in the US is unlikely. If we do end up cutting that much out of the federal budget, hold onto your butt. It's not a coincidence that as soon as state/local spending cuts and firings eased off domestic economic indicators improved to basically being all at least weakly positive. Federal cuts (or tax increases not matched by spending increases, for that matter) really should wait until private sector deleveraging is complete, which will likely take another year or two barring a very significant stimulus that increases income across the board.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: shadows on October 10, 2012, 07:42:53 PM
QUOTE:
While about 70% of the U.S. economy emanates from service-based sectors such as restaurants and tourism, those are not the positions that sustain a world-class economy.
These are not recent concerns.
U.S. job creation began to slow down around 2000. That is when the great decline in manufacturing employment started.......................................

These dismal signs of low quality job growth and lower salaries make Recession 2013 seem like a certainty.
Written By Jonathan Yates From Money Morning
_____________________________________________________________________

This reflects that our GNP is eatables called fats.  With 200 years of proudly being rated for our industrial world trade seems to have reached the point of ancient Carthage when their city/state was sacked by Rome and the land was sown with salt.  The clouds again of an approaching mortal storm on the horizon as we stand on the edge of the cliff.  In the meanwhile the recyclables with cheaper labor can be produced and flood our markets and we cannot compete in a balance of trade. 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: RecycleMichael on October 10, 2012, 07:47:19 PM
You sure are one confused mofo.

The number one export item from the U.S. to China is recovered paper.

They buy from us.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: shadows on October 11, 2012, 02:34:19 PM
Quote from: RecycleMichael on October 10, 2012, 07:47:19 PM
You sure are one confused mofo.

The number one export item from the U.S. to China is recovered paper.

They buy from us.

That is a strange fact as China was the inventor of paper.  It is assumed that we pay them to use their manufacturing process. 
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Teatownclown on October 11, 2012, 02:41:46 PM
Quote from: RecycleMichael on October 10, 2012, 07:47:19 PM
You sure are one confused mofo.

The number one export item from the U.S. to China is recovered paper.

They buy from us.

What do they know that we don't?
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: nathanm on October 11, 2012, 02:57:05 PM
Quote from: Teatownclown on October 11, 2012, 02:41:46 PM
What do they know that we don't?

The difference in population, apparently.
Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Teatownclown on October 11, 2012, 03:04:46 PM
Quote from: nathanm on October 11, 2012, 02:57:05 PM
The difference in population, apparently.

If it's a commodity, someone needs to let The Chamber know...maybe they can arrange for a replacement tenant for the Airport in case the Vision thingy fails and American makes the mistake of leaving.

Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on October 11, 2012, 06:00:40 PM
The really big opportunities in recycling are being completely ignored for now...think "Soylent Green".

Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: Gaspar on October 12, 2012, 08:23:22 AM
Well, the answer is that it's not going anywhere yet.  They haven't finished the improvements to the line at MURPH necessary to process mixed materials.  They are apparently a couple of weeks out, so it's just piling up.

Title: Re: Recycling: where's it going?
Post by: shadows on October 12, 2012, 02:40:56 PM
Quote from: Teatownclown on October 11, 2012, 02:41:46 PM
What do they know that we don't?
We have been a struggling nation for 200 years.  China was a society and a nation 4000 years ago.  It would be possible to learn from them.