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Finally
One of my biggest (only?) pet peeves about Austin is that it touts itself as a Green city. It is very self-congratulatory about being Green, and maybe even a little bit smug.
But its recycling program is quite lacking, especially in comparison to other cities like Madison, Wisconsin. Here we have to sort all the materials (fine), break down boxes to flat pieces of cardboard (fine), and wash out every bit of plastic/glass/metal we wish to recycle (less fine, but I still do it). In Madison, you throw it all in a bin and let the city sort it out.
But the annoying part is this: in Austin you can only recycle #1 and #2 plastics, and even then only if it's in "bottle form." So, no yogurt containers, tv dinner trays, or newspaper bags, to name a few. They also have some stupid rules about no cereal boxes, etc. which I studiously ignore. Here's a list of what's accepted and what's not.
This has been a source of irritation for me and, since it bugs me when people complain without doing anything, I've written a few letters to the appropriate parties. I received copies of emails that the appropriate parties had sent to other customers, so the answers were only half-relevant to my questions, but the bottom line was that they didn't really care that 80% of the plastics were still going into the landfill and that I needed to be more careful when selecting products at the grocery store.
Touche. But I'm already resisting the temptation of individually packaged, say, applesauces for Christopher, dutifully buying the largest GLASS jar I can find and then using reusable containers in his lunch box. At some point it becomes nigh impossible to avoid all those #5 and #7 plastics.
So, I'm pretty happy to report that changes are a'comin'. The news has made vague remarks about changes in the next year which will broaden the range of acceptable plastics, and now we see that the city is looking into a strategy used in San Francisco called the Fantastic Three program which aims to turn the city into a zero-waste place. (The Fantastic Three consist of "a cart for recyclables, a cart for compostables and a small little cart for garbage")
Zero-waste is really ambitious, but I'm happy to see that the city may earn the Green badge it has already awarded itself.
Also, I just found out that you can "recycle" all your #3, 4, 5, and 7 plastics by donating them to the Austin Children's Museum for use in art projects.
We now resume our regularly scheduled programming.Labels: City of Austin, Fantastic Three, recycling, zero waste
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I am the queen of individually packaged chickenbus.
which I then rinse out and tell emma that they are toddler-bowls.
OOOH and they could be diet bowls for Atkins people :)