July 22, 2009 9:24 am

Norwalk: Recycle More, It’s Greener

From a press release:

Mayor Moccia Encourages Residents to Recycle More Items

On Wednesday July 22, 2009 at 11:30am in the atrium at City Hall, Mayor Richard Moccia will encourage the residents of Norwalk to recycle more items.

With the expansion of the curbside recycling program, residents can now put plastics #1 through #7, aseptic containers (i.e. juice boxes), milk and juice cartons in their blue bin along with the glass and metal food containers.

Paperboard or boxboard (i.e. cereal boxes) are now also accepted with the mixed paper and newspapers, which can all be mixed together.

Last fiscal year the City of Norwalk recycled 6,048 tons of recycling and disposed of 53,445 tons of solid waste.� With increased participation and more materials being recycled, the amount of solid waste the City disposes of would decrease, promoting a “greener” Norwalk.

The City recycling drop-off sites include: the Norwalk Transfer Station located on Crescent Street, which collects waste oil, batteries, antifreeze, electronics, scrap metal, and the curbside materials; and,� the Yard Waste site located at 15 South Smith Street which collects leaves, brush, and logs.

For more information contact Customer Service at 854-3200.

Anonymous

In order for it recycling to work we need to stop people from going on my property going through my bins taking cans out and throwing everything else all over the place. I no longer recycle because of that, I put everything in the garbage. When the city stops people from going through the bin on my property I will start to recycling again untill then the system and the plastic ect. is garbage.
Andrea Light

Why don’t you put the cans in a separate bag? If I don’t take them back to the store, I bag them separately so someone else will be able to redeem the deposit.
Anon

Lame excuse #1. We all have to be responsible for the environment. Keep your recycling inside until you put it outside for the truck.
Anonymous

# 3 that is what I did and then when I leave for work at 6:30 I put it out and by 7:00 someone is on my property going through my recycling bin. Lame as it may be it is what it is. # 1 I just dont want to promote people coming on to my property to take anything, what if they want my patio furniture next they are already on my property so why not. I would not go on your property and I expect no less. It may not make sence to you however I watch these people throw thing around and spend 5 minutes or so going through each bin. Not at my house sorry.
Anonymous

Don’t put redeemable cans and bottles in your blue bin, donate them to the high school drives. Keeps the homeless from using the scrounged bottles for their addictions, is less hassle than redeeming them yourself, and supports the high school marching bands.

I have homeless people going through my bin every week and never have to clean up after them because they know at a glance that there’s nothing in there for them. And if you don’t want them on your property, leave the bin on the curb.
Anonymous

Anon #1 –

“When the city stops people from going through the bin on my property I will start to recycling again untill then the system and the plastic ect. is garbage.”

Interesting that you feel the City is responsible for the actions of private individuals.

I follow Andrea Light’s and #5 suggestion. Our cans are inside until they are redeemed, either by us or a local charity. Our bins were disturbed a few times, but now they know we don’t put the redeemable cans out, so they pass right by.
Norwalk recycler

I am passionate about recycling, and feel sorry for #1. I’ve personally never had that problem, but I hope a solution will be found. It is imperative that we as a community take this very seriously. I applaud the city of Norwalk for working to make the expanded program possible.

My one suggestion to the city is that they make the directions a bit clearer on their website as to what can be put together, what should be seperated, what to do if there is no recycling number on the plastic item.

I encourage everyone to seek creative solutions for their waste that is not recyclable. There is a market for all kinds of old items on freecycle.org and craigslist – one person’s trash is another’s treasure for sure.
Anonymous

Aside from the lack of personal responsibility that #1′s posting represents, there is one issue that the post raises, and that is the ongoing problem of homeless people going through recycling bins.

While I realize that our society is really responsible for allowing this to occur, I personally would like to see something done to stop this practice. How about a municipal ordinance to discourage it? Offenders would have to perform community service if caught.

Most of my neighbors probably aren’t even aware of what’s going on since they are at work by the time the shopping cart people come by. There would need to be a fair amount of education taking place before there are enough people in the community to raise the awareness level to the point that something could be done.
Norwalk recycler

One more thing that will hopefully help #1 out – Now that plastics 1 thru 7 are included in the program, there is so much more than bottles or cans that can be recycled. Look under everything you are thowing away – food containers, bags, plastic cups, toys, trays. The list goes on and on. These have no “street value” so definitely throw them in your bin and keep them out of the landfill!
nwlknative

It isn’t just homeless people who are going through the recycling bins. We have a gentlemen that drives his car to our road, parks it with the blinkers going and proceeds to go through as many bins as he can, throws the cans in the trunk of his car and then moves on up the road. It doesn’t look like he is hurting for money – his car is newer than mine. We also have the occasional street person going through the bins but none has ever left a mess of trash behind.
Anonymous

Recycling is a crock.
Not a greenie

Dear recycling is a crock: Recycling saves the taxpayers money – even if you are not a “greenie” you might want to recycle. It costs you the taxpayer almost 90 dollars per ton to have garbage disposed of, but the city gets money for recyclables.
Anon

I had the same experience as #10, people go through, take out the cans and move on without tossing anything else out. I have no problem with that, at least they’re not stealing anything.
Anonymous

I can always tell which of my neighbors are going to be needing liver transplants in a few years.
Maribeth Becker

I can tell you that since I started recycling all of the things now accepted in the blue bins a few months ago (I previously took them over to the transfer station when they expanded to #1-#7 plastics), I hardly ever have any regular trash to put out. It’s amazing how much stuff can be recycled. Try it, you’ll be amazed.
Anonymous

This may be a bit extreme, but I remove the bar code from the can or bottle, rendering it useless in a machine.
Anonymous

What happens when the bin scroungers take that bottle or can despite that? Where does the container end up when they discover they can’t redeem it in a machine?
Joanne

I actually put out 2 bins…1 for recycling and one with bottles and cans for those who need them. It saves on having someone rumage through the trash and bins to find what they can use. It doesn’t bother me that someone can make use of my throwaways just as long as I don’t have to clean up the mess afterwards.
Anonymous

Yes, let’s do what we can to support addictions with our bottle and can deposits.
Anonymous

I buy cans and either crush them or remove the bar code.
Joanne

Why is it supporting addicts…are you aware of the unemployment rate in CT? Do you know how many families have to actually feed their kids at a soup kitchen? If they can use my bottles and cans to suppliment whatever small income they have in order to maintain their homes or feed their kids then its fine with me. Do I monitor who takes them? No, but I do know that I don’t have uncoded bottles and cans strewn about my lawn by those looking for the good ones nor is my garbage pail rumaged through…what I have is in plain therefore eliminating the need to wake up to a small replica of the city dump gracing my front lawn as i have seen many times in other yards around town.
Andrea Light

I’m with Joanne – I’m blown away that anyone would remove bar codes for the purpose of rendering cans valueless to scroungers. That seems very mean-spirited. I must be missing something.
Anonymous

The next time I see a shopping cart person draining a scotch bottle found in my neighbor’s blue bin, I’ll think of you, Joanne.
Joanne

I don’t know who you are but I can assure you that if your neighbor washed out their bottles like you are supposed to do before putting them in the recycle bin and separate them from the usable cans and bottles this person would not be a regular visitor to their bins. I do not advocate leaving liquor in a recycle bin since most people put their garbage and bins out the night before pickup therefore leaving this stuff in full view/access to small children and teens. Not a real good idea. Sorry I have a human side to me that feels there are those in need of the small things in life that can help them get by.
kylej

Wow there are a lot of people posting here who have a really negative outlook on life. I used to live in Los Angeles where they DON’T have curbside pickup, and I’d put cans out specifically for the homeless if only because I knew they would end up recycled and it saved a trip to the recycling center. In fact, I would see the guy with the cart every week and he would thank me for helping out. Kindness breeds kindness. Not everyone who lives on the street is an addict, and even the ones who are need help, not scratching off of bar codes to spite them and enable your small town dreams. Norwalk is a city with city issues. Would you rather they just break into your car to get at the change in your ashtray instead of taking your cans?
anon

God bless them and if they can make a bit of money from what I’m throwing away, so much the better. I don’t begrudge them…I’ve never yet had one dump things on my lawn or make a mess.
Anonymous

Maybe I’d just prefer not to have homeless people wandering through my neighborhood. Anyone got a problem with that?
Anonymous

eez, you sound very bitter. Lets just hope you never lose your job, you can’t feed your kids, they turn off your utilities and finally forclose on your home. Please don’t bring your homeless self into our neighborhoods. We won’t want you wandering around either.
1 of the SMD 3

Perhaps some facts needs to brought out here.
1. Recyling is GOOD, it keeps plastics and metals out of the landfills.
2. The MAJORITY of so called homeless in Norwalk are that way by choice. They are mostly morons who CHOOSE to overdose themselves with alcohol and illegal drugs.
3. If you put redeemable cans or bottles in the recyle bin you invite these people to rummage for them. STOP and the problem with take care of itself, of course this assumes no one builds larger “shelters” to make the problem worse.
More Facts

1. Those who rumage for bottles and cans do recycle, they have to if they want to make money from those items
2. Not all homeless ask to or choose to be homeless. Some do I will admit but unfortunate circumstances have put many of them in this position. take a walk to the shelter in Norwalk sometime during dinner and you may be surprised to see people you know there feeding their families because they can’t due to economic hardships.
3. So you would rather have a small run down shelter thats bursting at the seams then a new bigger one that can actually accomodate and keep the so called undesireables off your precious streets? Maybe you could pitch some tents in your yard for the spillover! “Guess who’s coming to dinner honey”
Anonymous

Hey, Mr. Greenpeace is back!
More Facts

which entry? its certainly not #30 and where has been anyway?
Anon

It’s interesting to learn how your neighbors really think. Very sad state of humanity.
Secondhand Rose`

I recycle, but I think recycling should be voluntary and not mandatory.