Rss Feed
Most Recent Jobs
Our Blog-FriendsApologies, I feel like I am behind in reporting the seemingly biggest news of the New Year. Yes, our local blog friends and news providers were on top of this subject in way I wasn’t, which is surprising considering the topic is decidedly GREEN. What SustainableSavannah.com and Savannah Morning News (among others) have been trying to remind us is that we’re mere weeks away from our very own curbside recycling program. Gasp, sputter, cheer, grin.
Savannah has caught up with the rest of the world and is ringing in the New Year with a bang. The brand spanking new recycling program is the product of many years of negotiations among residents, City government officials and contracted service providers. To be sure, it has turned many a hair gray and the stress is not over, as the government now has to enact the program and make it work. But I for one feel like this is a huge step in the right direction. (I’m sure you were expecting me to say that, though.)
For many communities, recycling means business. For our state the possibilities are endless. In one example, my father works for timber company and paper products manufacturer and they, like countless other companies, have had to import recycled goods from New Jersey to manufacture post-consumer materials here in Georgia - because Georgia didn’t have a sufficiently abundant supply. With communities like Savannah creating a supply for recyclable material things could change. So, while it’s inconclusive at this stage, this could directly or indirectly better state production of post-consumer recycled material.
So how does all this affect you? The City is taking a preemptive approach to spreading the news and educating folks about the new program. First, the basics: Curbside recycling collection will begin the week of Jan. 5, 2009. Recyclables will be collected twice monthly on the same day as your regular household waste collection.
The following items will be collected for recycling:
- Plastic Bottles and Jugs - #1 thru #7 such as soda, juice and water bottles, or detergent and shampoo bottles (emptied, rinsed, and without tops or lids).
- Tin, steel, and bi-metal used food cans (emptied of food residue and rinsed).
- Aluminum beverage cans (rinsed).
- Glass bottles and jars (clear and colored; emptied, rinsed, without caps or tops).
- Paper items such as newspapers and inserts, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, phone books, paper back books, office paper, white and colored paper (without wax coating; wet paper products will not be accepted and are considered as contamination).
- Cardboard boxes (flattened), paperboard, brown bags (wet and damp items will not be accepted and are considered as contamination).
The following items are prohibited:
- No household waste, food waste, or food-tainted items.
- No yard waste or dry trash.
- No plastic bags; styrofoam cups, containers, or packaging.
- No hazardous, automotive, or electrical parts or materials.
- No building and construction materials.
- No medical waste or pharmaceuticals.
- No wet or damp cardboard, pasteboard, or paper products.
- No, grass clippings, tree limbs, shrubbery and brush are considered yard waste and should not be placed into the recycling cart.
For more information on the program, visit the City’s website. And keep an eye out for a black and yellow recycling bin, coming to a curbside near you.
Summer, thanks for posting on this subject.
Curbside recycling is a necessary municipal service and will be successful in our community - as it has been in many others. Not only does the program benefit the local environment (and, of course, in a small, important way the global environment), but it says a lot about who we are as a community, what we value and the kind of clean/green/creative/thriving future many of us work toward and desire for our area (remembering previous post ‘Thanksgiving’).
Hopefully, our local leadership (County still against Curbside recycling and ‘green’ skeptics BTW) will realize that adopting more environmental public policies serves to perpetuate a positive image of our area to visitors, entices those who are relocating (businesses, too) and, yes, (gasp) improves the quality of life for those already living here :)
More green public policies and programs - like curbside recycling, connecting economic centers with bike paths/lanes, and improving mass transit - will do wonders in attracting new residents, new businesses, new tourists, new students and green industry. (I am also sure this is not news to the people at TCCa :) Maybe some local leaders and power brokers are realizing it’s not sustainable (or at least not as profitable) for the Savannah area to keep a pretty face, but behind the scenes look like opening day at Disneyland…
The future of our world, country and state is clean and green. The sooner our local leaders acknowledge this and meaningfully act on it, the better. The sooner the Savannah area will be known for it. The sooner ‘green’ will be amongst the area’s selling points. Curbside recycling in Savannah is a great start and I’m proud to have it.
Also, to wrap up recycling, let us not forget that our City leadership did not skip happily into adopting a recycling program. The petition process - advisory and binding - started and helped finish the debate on curbside recycling. It can be a powerful tool - a megaphone if you will - when expressing policy demands to local leadership.
Happy holidays and thanks for reading.
Summer
Where is the County on curbside recycling? Do you have any idea? I heard some of the cities in west Chatham may make the move and join the city of Savannah? What do you know?
John,
Great question that I don’t really know the answer to. When posed to Anne Robinson, recycling coordinator with the City, she responded as such:
“John may want to speak with a man named David Nash who works as the Environmental Services Coordinator of The Chatham County Department of Public Works and Park Services. His e-mail is danash@chathamcounty.org. He’s an incredibly nice guy and may be able to provide some insight as to where the county is with their recycling initiatives.”
If anyone else knows more about the recycling situation in the county, please weigh in!!
Yea! No more carrying large amounts of plastic and newspapers around in the back of the mini!
Summer-Do you know if there is an incremental charge for this that will be added to our regular utilities bill?
Summer thanks for the great update! It has indeed taken sweat, blood and years of work for many in the community. What’s important to remember is this type of grassroots advocacy works and shows results. And it comes as a result of working with the City and trying to come up with a win-win solution instead of just bashing them about it or whining about it. True civic action at its best has helped get us here!
To the best of my knowledge the county is examining it and it is certainly a top recommendation from the Chatham Environmental Forum. Since the county does not have an official waste management program where they collect (indeed there are over 4 private firms cruising around collection trash) it is much more complicated to swiftly impelement. However, I believe it is coming, hopefully as part of a comprehensive greening program.
And note, for the City, recycling is just one of many initiatives that is being undertaken to green the city, from their own LEED buildings, to encouraging employees to bike or take mass transit, to hybrid vehicle fleets. Much of this is going under the radar, but great things are happening in our own town, after what seems like years of nothing green going on. Very positive things - and a great way to kick of 2009!
And for Kayne, I believe you will see 1 dollar added to your waste collection fee per month. I spend more than that on gas getting to dropoff locations!
Tommy,
This just in. Exciting stuff.
Tommy
Let’s set the record straight. In 2006 one particular group of well connected, well intentioned, Savannah Recycles? type people decided to work quietly (mostly behind the scenes) to try and persuade the City of Savannah to institute a curbside recycling program. They took trips to Jacksonville and Charlestown to see how successful other programs worked.
This group was motivated by and picked up on the grassroots citizen calls for curbside recycling that had been growing louder and louder.
At the end of the day, the City told you guys it was a no go, at least for a while and that burning trash was the way the city wanted to go. Citizens were looking at their government extending the dreadful practice of burning recyclables while ignoring pressure to use best practices and recycle materials.
Then some of the grassroots citizens who had been patient and supportive of the process grew frustrated and were amazed that the city was going to extend the incinerator program.
At this essential point, the average everyday citizens discovered they had constitutional authority to petition the government for change and they stepped into the breach and began what came to be the first City citizens initiative (O.C.G.A. 36-35-3 c) in the history of Savannah. 11,000 signatures were collected in 60 days, more than enough to mandate an election to decide the recycling issue.
The city agreed with the organizers of that petition to make curbside recycling a law and to stop burning our city’s trash and recyclables and in exchange we would not submit the petition and cause an election.
Everyone should be very pleased with where we are now and yes it took a long time to happen and many different people from all strata and position came together to achieve that.
The people Tommy, the people, were not whining or bashing anyone - they were just using their constitutional rights granted them by our founding fathers.
Since it’s going to be awhile for County residents to have curbside recycling, I wonder if there’s a way to set up a barter system of sorts where County residents could make use of some underused City recycling containers.
Any hope for small business participation within the City?
Excellent idea Joyce. Maybe those who do this blog could pass that along or perhaps someone over at the Chatham Environmental Forum could bring this idea up… becoming “the Greenest County in the State of Georgia” will take some work.
Hi Summer. A warm greetings to you all the way from Singapore. This is my second day in your site and im already learning a lot. Your blog above sparked a hope for my little community too who more than having the need to know about recycling is also seeing face to face the ailing mother nature back in my town. Expect more visits from me and my friends. Keep it up! Xie Xie Ni