City of Calgary Recycling Program

[Hakkola]

We got our blue bin today, and we called the city and they say there is no opt out.

Are they going to do anything if we don't use it? Basically we'll just be paying to store their bin each month. :facepalm:

[Eleanor]

I don't think so. You're going to pay the fee no matter what, you might as well use it.

[Dr_Funk]

Exactly!! Its 8 dollars a month..thats about 2 starbucks!! And its a good program...

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by Dr_Funk
Exactly!! Its 8 dollars a month..thats about 2 starbucks!! And its a good program...

It's not the money, it's the fact that we won't use it. It's not a good program, it's bullshit.

[atgilchrist]

Originally posted by Hakkola


It's not the money, it's the fact that we won't use it. It's not a good program, it's bullshit.

Explain.

[kaput]

.

[JordanAndrew]

Originally posted by Hakkola


It's not the money, it's the fact that we won't use it. It's not a good program, it's bullshit.

It's not a bad program, it makes recycling a lot easier. They are probably going to make money out of this though.

[Redlyne_mr2]

Sure beats having to collect all my recycling load in into my truck.. bring it to some random location, unload my truck and seperate everything individually.

[DNSRadio]

what area of the city are you in ?

[realazy]

I assume the recycling program is for plastic containers that don't have deposit? i.e. milk containers, shampoo bottles, etc.

[luxor]

Whoever says they don't want this is just a cheap fuck. Its only $8 a MONTH, even a bum could afford that.

It doesn't even matter if its a full bin or not, you can toss ONE tin can in there a month and you already recycled something that would've otherwise been sitting in a landfill site for centuries, waiting to decompose.

[lint]

Originally posted by Hakkola


It's not the money, it's the fact that we won't use it. It's not a good program, it's bullshit.

You pay taxes for a lot of stuff you won't use.

Although I agree, this program is set up ass backwards. They should be subsidizing recycling fees with increased garbage collection fees, not charging more to recycle.

[kenny]

I can't wait for my blue cart to arrive. I have so much crap I need to get rid of but I'm just too lazy to cart it to the community recycling center.

[lelalong]

City Recycling FAQs (http://www.calgary.ca/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_0_780_237_0_43/http%3B/content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/Waste+and+Recycling+Services/Recycling+Information/Residential+Services/Blue+Cart+Recycling/Blue+Cart+Recycling+FAQ.htm?f=FromFlashPage#five)

Seems pretty easy to me.

[D'z Nutz]

http://www.beyond.ca/curb-side-recycling-coming-next-month/1566.html

[Xtrema]

Isn't it just one huge blue bin? How can they enforce stuff going in or not?

And how much do they charge if you lost your bin? Use the bin for other purposes etc?

[jmc]

What I don't like is this: they have no firm plan to eliminate the monthly fee when this turn into a cash cow...

[403Gemini]

I like paying property taxes for my property which I have to have government property on it and pay some more!

I know it's only $8 ;) I'm just saying shouldn't the government be paying US for having THEIR property on OUR property?

[msommers]

$8 bucks a month is f'in sweet. Don't need to drive anywhere and as as far as I know, you don't even have to sort shit! My time + gas, more than 8 bucks worth, just don't tell them that!

[hampstor]

The 8 a month is cheaper than my time from loading my recycling into my truck, driving down to the centre, carrying to the bin, unloading it, and then driving home.

I find it funny that there is so much complaining about it when some of the people here will drop 150 on a pair of jeans, shoes, belt etc.

I can't wait to get the bin. I wonder if I can get two bins!

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by hampstor
I can't wait to get the bin. I wonder if I can get two bins!

You consume too much if you need 2.

The fact remain is that while $8 isn't much. It's a slap in the face for people who do their recycle for free (with some effort, I know) and the businesses who got outed by a city policy without compensation at all.

[eblend]

Originally posted by hampstor


I find it funny that there is so much complaining about it when some of the people here will drop 150 on a pair of jeans, shoes, belt etc.



werd

[canuckcarguy]

It's easier and cheaper to just throw it all in the trash. I sort of figure that if waste isn't worth buying, it isn't worth recycling. Lots of stuff is cheaper to produce than recycle.

[TorqueDog]

My time is worth far more than the $8 a month they're asking me to pay for the blue bin.

I'm jealous of the communities that do have it, to be honest. Winnipeg has had a blue-box recycling program for years now... granted, it was free of charge, but Winnipeg is small.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by DNSRadio
what area of the city are you in ?

Pumphill.

As for why I don't like the program?

Lots of reasons, I think there's already a thread on the problems with recycling, (though there are some things worth recycling). I'm all for bringing your own reusable bags instead of getting plastic at the grocer and buying items that don't have rediculous amounts of packaging etc. though.


Originally posted by hampstor


I can't wait to get the bin. I wonder if I can get two bins!

The bin is huge, you could easily fit a couple full grown bodies in there.

You should watch the Pen and Teller episode on recycling, then maybe you'll want 12 bins.

[ChappedLips]

Originally posted by canuckcarguy
It's easier and cheaper to just throw it all in the trash. I sort of figure that if waste isn't worth buying, it isn't worth recycling. Lots of stuff is cheaper to produce than recycle.


Are you being serious?

[stretch]

Originally posted by Hakkola


It's not the money, it's the fact that we won't use it. It's not a good program, it's bullshit.

You're right. It's not a good program. Calgary simply has too low a density for a program of this nature to be cost effective.

I take my recycling to the local green-bins once a month. Unless you don't have a car, there are not many good reasons for not being able to do the same.

[kertejud2]

Originally posted by Hakkola


You should watch the Pen and Teller episode on recycling, then maybe you'll want 12 bins.

It was probably their weakest episode. While tackling teh sociological aspect of recycling was cute, they really didn't debunk anything about recycling at all, just showed one side, made a contradictory point then left it at that. All it really did was show a need to streamline the system rather than scrap it altogether.

And their idea of tree farms is at best misinformed. You can recycle paper all you want but the more often its recycled the more virgin material will be needed to put in, so its not going to put an end to the paper industry, but it was more the idea that tree farms are a desirable thing. Almost like they view trees as a crop as opposed to what makes up a habitat and ecosystem.


But I'm starting to ramble and perhaps even argue in agreement. The system is bad, recycling is not, if you get my drift.

[Mibz]

I usually just let my cardboard and papers pile up until I (Read: My girlfriend) can't stand looking at it anymore. So I spend 20 minutes crushing cardboard and loading it into the car. 5 minute drive to the bins, 5 minutes to unload it all, 5 minute drive back.

35 minutes of work. Or I could just throw it all in a bin, not give a shit if it's sorted or crushed, and take it to my back alley once a week.

I'd pay $15 a month for this service.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by TorqueDog
My time is worth far more than the $8 a month they're asking me to pay for the blue bin.

I'm jealous of the communities that do have it, to be honest. Winnipeg has had a blue-box recycling program for years now... granted, it was free of charge, but Winnipeg is small.

In Winnipeg you pay a 2 cent levy on top of every beverage container to pay for the blue box program.

It isn't free.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by Hakkola


Pumphill.

As for why I don't like the program?

Lots of reasons, I think there's already a thread on the problems with recycling, (though there are some things worth recycling). I'm all for bringing your own reusable bags instead of getting plastic at the grocer and buying items that don't have rediculous amounts of packaging etc. though.

Pumphill... and you (read: your mommy and daddy) are worried about $8/month?

So what do you currently do with your recyclables?

[Isaiah]

Implementing this program is one of the most progressive things this municipality has done in years. Another poster mentioned that we all pay for some things we don't use, which is true. When you consider the wasteful spending that we all put towards things every month, and the amount of recyclables that will stay out of landfills for such a trivial amount as $8, I can't understand how anyone could argue against it. Not to mention that the fee is per household so it breaks down to as $2-3/person for most residences.

If you don't subscribe to any newspapers or magazines, eat any canned foods, cereal, crackers, or anything that comes in a cardboard box, and don't drink any thing except tap water, I may consider your point. Otherwise, you are or should be recycling those things when you're done with them and the city just made your life $8 easier.

[TorqueDog]

Originally posted by sputnik


In Winnipeg you pay a 2 cent levy on top of every beverage container to pay for the blue box program.

It isn't free. Let me rephrase then: the method by which it is paid for is a bit more 'transparent' as opposed to being charged $8/month directly.

[msommers]

Am I reading some posts incorrectly or are some of you guys saying that recycling is bad and a waste of money?

Regardless, Calgary is still catching up. Christ, my Grandma lives in Olds and they have a better recycling program than we do. Smaller size yes, but they also generate less money...how much per person vs. Calgary I don't know but it just goes to show how behind and ineffective our municipal government currently is.

[canuckcarguy]

Originally posted by ChappedLips



Are you being serious?

Sure. I don't believe in recycling. I think it's a waste of time and money, and there is no shortage of landfill space. Recycling itself costs money, consumes energy and creates hazardous by-products. And if you think there is a problem (I really don't, obviously), it has far more to do with the "consumption" side than the disposal side.

Everything we buy is made in China, packaged in plastic, and generally disposable - it seems to me that if people were serious about "saving the earth", they wouldn't consume these things to begin with. And is it really necessary that a toothbrush, or a ballpoint pen, be packaged in almost indestructible plastic packaging? From an economic perspective, I try to purchase things that are made or grown locally, though that's a virtual impossibility now. But I couldn't give 2 hoots about the recycling side of it. Sorry.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by sputnik


Pumphill... and you (read: your mommy and daddy) are worried about $8/month?

So what do you currently do with your recyclables?

Learn to fucking read, it isn't about the money.

We give our cans/bottles to sports teams that come around collecting them a few times per year. We don't recycle anything else.


Originally posted by canuckcarguy


Sure. I don't believe in recycling. I think it's a waste of time and money, and there is no shortage of landfill space. Recycling itself costs money, consumes energy and creates hazardous by-products....

Exactly why we don't recycle.

[Jonel]

Originally posted by canuckcarguy


Sure. I don't believe in recycling. I think it's a waste of time and money, and there is no shortage of landfill space. Recycling itself costs money, consumes energy and creates hazardous by-products. And if you think there is a problem (I really don't, obviously), it has far more to do with the "consumption" side than the disposal side.

Everything we buy is made in China, packaged in plastic, and generally disposable - it seems to me that if people were serious about "saving the earth", they wouldn't consume these things to begin with. And is it really necessary that a toothbrush, or a ballpoint pen, be packaged in almost indestructible plastic packaging? From an economic perspective, I try to purchase things that are made or grown locally, though that's a virtual impossibility now. But I couldn't give 2 hoots about the recycling side of it. Sorry.

I think the only recycling that's cost effective and doesn't really have any hazardous by product is aluminum tin cans. As for paper recycling program, don't even get me started, all that nasty crap they use to whiten out the paper, what do you think happens with all that sludge?

[msommers]

Originally posted by canuckcarguy
there is no shortage of landfill space.

Wow....just wow.


Originally posted by canuckcarguy
it has far more to do with the "consumption" side than the disposal side.

Everything we buy is made in China, packaged in plastic, and generally disposable - it seems to me that if people were serious about "saving the earth", they wouldn't consume these things to begin with. And is it really necessary that a toothbrush, or a ballpoint pen, be packaged in almost indestructible plastic packaging?

Consumption and disposal are tangential in my opinion. While I agree that the packaging gets down-right ridiculous, what choice do we have right now? There are no laws stating that X product can only have X amount of packaging with %plastic content/%paper content. So, as an individual you can attempt to recycle such packaging. Instead of creating new packaging for the consumption side AND 'new' packaging for the disposal side, why not break that plastic down to pellets again and make the same packaging all over again? Thinking that because someone gives you all this stupid packaging gives you the right not to give a shit is very selfish.

[Hakkola]

Originally posted by Jonel


I think the only recycling that's cost effective and doesn't really have any hazardous by product is aluminum tin cans. As for paper recycling program, don't even get me started, all that nasty crap they use to whiten out the paper, what do you think happens with all that sludge?

Not to mention all the replanting which leads to younger healthier trees, and the fact that a lot of paper companies farm their own trees, they're not just clear cutting and leaving the land bare. Recycling paper is a waste of time.

The only problem with all the garbage is the methane produced, but some landfills harness that methane to power communites. I think a project like that would be much more beneficial than some bogus recycling program that makes people feel good about themselves and not much else.

[canuckcarguy]

Originally posted by msommers

Wow....just wow.


Excellent argument. Are you sure you shouldn't have followed that up with a :facepalm: for clarity?

The whole overstuffed landfill thing is mythology. The recent landfill in Ryley has virtually limitless capacity, and that's just in one tiny northern Alberta town. When it was in approval stage, they estimated that if it were possible to pile all of North America's waste into that landfill, it would still last for over 50 years. Environmentalists consistently underestimate the level of innovation that man is capable of - today's landfills are not your father's "dumps", they are well managed and therefore have widely increased capacity.


Originally posted by msommers

Consumption and disposal are tangential in my opinion. While I agree that the packaging gets down-right ridiculous, what choice do we have right now? There are no laws stating that X product can only have X amount of packaging with %plastic content/%paper content. So, as an individual you can attempt to recycle such packaging. Instead of creating new packaging for the consumption side AND 'new' packaging for the disposal side, why not break that plastic down to pellets again and make the same packaging all over again? Thinking that because someone gives you all this stupid packaging gives you the right not to give a shit is very selfish.

New plastic is cheaper than old plastic. When that changes, they'll start paying us for used plastics, and at that point, recycling will make sense. And, as far as not having a choice, sure you do - just don't buy stuff in plastic packaging if it's that important to you. At least I'm honest about not giving a shit. Plenty of people with your attitude get a raging sense of superiority just because they have a full blue bin. Get over yourself.

The truth is that most people recycle because society tells them that it's a good thing, and it therefore makes them feel better. Doesn't mean they're doing much good.