Seattle ups the ante on recycling
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced a number of improvements to Seattle's recycling program yesterday.
As much as I was hoping it would be more people in costumes of recyclable items, the changes instead are extremely practical.
Among the changes are the following:
- All families will be offered yard waste recycling that includes food scraps.
- Dairy and meat can be included in food scraps for the first time.
- All other recyclable material can go in a single bin.
- Starting next year, Seattle residents can start recycling food plastic, like plastic cups and take-out containers. Yay!
- The recycling fleet is being overhauled to run on bio-diesel and natural gas.
In 2005, Seattle recycled 44% of all its waste. It's goal is to get to 60% by 2012.
Remember, recycling saves energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Make sure your home recycling system is doing all it can.
Source: Seattle.gov
Wonderful news about the new recycling program for you. I live in Salem OR and we can do food scraps but not meat and dairy. Have they given any indication as to what will be done with the new stuff that gets recycled like food plastic. Many times we can't recycle something here because they have no buyer.
Posted by: Sunny | February 21, 2008 at 08:29 PM
sounds fine, but hasn't it been determined that bio diesel has a larger carbon foot print than regular diesel?
Posted by: mattro2.0 | February 21, 2008 at 10:23 PM
Mattro2.0, you're thinking of Ethanol, which has a larger carbon footprint than gas. As far as we know, biodiesel is still an improvement over regular old diesel.
Posted by: Brave New Leaf | February 22, 2008 at 12:44 PM