-By Lisa
Way back in spring of 2010 when Simplifying the Simple Life was in its infancy, I was talking trash.
I promised I'd update everyone with details about the new single stream recycling plant, and I tried. But van der Linde stopped doing tours due to insurance issues, so my whole behind-the-sceens exposé was shot.
But luckily, something else was shot - a video! This helps a bit in explaining how single stream recycling works and what they are actually doing over there in Troy, VA.
I know there have been lawsuits and opinions and skepticism about this new fangled recycling machine.
What do you think?? If you have van der Linde single stream recycling, have you adjusted to "throwing everything away" in the same container? Or do you still separate because nothing can be that good? Or have you stayed away from single stream all together, because you love your Saturday morning recycling trips?
And while you are thinking, let's rewind for an STSL flashback.
Remember this article?
A trashy series: the epic tale of switching to an eco friendly garbage service
-By Lisa
I want everyone to like me. It’s an ugly character trait and I am working on it, but since forever I have wanted everyone to like me. Historically, this has caused me to date way too many waiters, for way too long.
The latest incarnation of my little problem is my fear about calling Allied Waste Services to cancel my trash service. Because if I cancel, they won’t like me. But, I must call because Husband has refused to do this deed for me, because then I can “blog about it.”
(As a sidebar, this has become Husband’s pièce de résistance while encouraging this new experience. While “Babe, you have to call the old company to cancel, it’s part of the whole thing--you can blog about it” might be feasible, “Babe, can you bring me a drink, there’s only a minute left in the 2nd half--you can blog about it” most certainly is not.)
In my neighborhood, the trash pick up is not done by our county, we have to hire an independent garbage company. A couple of companies service this area, so we have some choice in the matter. In preparing to exercise my freedom as a consumer, I practiced my break-up speech, gathered courage and called Allied.
To my great relief, the woman there was sweet as pie and simply asked me why I was changing companies. Now, this, I felt great about. It gave me another chance to explicitly vote with my money and directly tell the company about a service that I valued. Namely, recycling. I heard the clickity clack of her keyboard and she repeated back to me as she typed “wants…recycling…service…” and I could just feel emergency company-wide meetings being called to change policies and consider my eco-friendly wishes. (OK, not quite, but I still felt good about the word “recycling” going in a computer system.) The rest was equally easy and painless. I am part-way through my billing cycle, so I will continue with Allied until that is done, then switch to Time Disposal.
In the past, of course Husband and I recycled, letting our cans of tomatoes and Odwalla bottles pile up in a sticky mountain in the garage waiting for an idle Saturday morning to be delivered to the McIntire Road Recycling Center. But then we got this flier for Time Disposal which uses a Materials Recovery Facility. What that means, I learned, is that you don’t separate your recyclables from the rest of your trash.
It is done for you automatically by high tech machinery at the facility which identifies and separates recyclables.
What??? Holy crap this blows my mind. I watched this little movie which, despite the fact that it’s animated, successfully convinced me that this might not be a giant scam. I am going to do further investigation by contacting the van der Linde Recycling Center so I can learn how this whole thing works, which I will of course tell you about, dear readers, as this seems almost too cool to be true.
My biggest question now is, how will I ever possibly get used to “throwing away” everything from newspapers to plastic bottles with the rest of the trash??? The thought makes me panic. Maybe I will just separate anyway. Maybe that will make it easier for the machinery and I will be the machinery’s favorite customer and it will like me the very best.
For more from Lisa, check out www.justherejustnow.com
I have friends who have crossed over to the other side, with single-stream trash/recycling pickup, and never looked back! I mean- "high-tech machinery"? How can you argue with that??? :)
Posted by: Katherine | February 10, 2011 at 08:41 PM
Right? That's kinda where I'm at, too!
~Lisa
Posted by: Simplifying the Simple Life | February 11, 2011 at 08:03 AM