On 1/20/04 7:01 PM, "Dan McConnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What make me think there is a problem is that I have seen first hand people > who have put recyclables into the garbage because sorting for recycling is > too much of a hassle. I know that Minneapolis is blest with a large number > of environmentally conscious residents who feel that sorting is not a big > deal and who may actually get some satisfaction from feeling that they are > doing there part. I cannot understand how anyone can argue that by making > the process simpler / more user friendly that participation will not rise.
Do you know for certain that those people were not recycling because it was "too much of a hassle" to source-separate? Did you ask them or are you presuming that because you obviously think it's a hassle? Some people do think like that. Some people may be new to the city and never developed the habit of recycling because the service was not offered where they lived before. I saw that a lot when I went to the U of MN. Some people are just plain lazy lunkheads who can't be bothered, even if we operated under single-stream. You all know these kinds of folks - they're the same ones who throw their fast-food trash out their car windows while speeding down the freeway or who leave behind all their garbage at the park... Participation might very well rise if we switched to single-stream. But that's not necessarily the point if the quality of our collected materials goes down. If switching to single-stream also results in an increase in screwing up, as I've seen and heard about in some communities where single-stream is used (like my cousin in Brooklyn Center who told me about how my aunt keeps goofing up since they switched), then the uptick in participation might not be worth it. Personally, what I like best about source-separation is it makes me actually think about how much garbage I produce. Which makes me think about ways that I can reduce the amount of garbage I produce, since source-separation is such a hassle. Especially for me, since I'm one of those Susan Young groupies who goes all-out and rinses bottles and pulls off plastic cap rings and all that. :-) By the way, anybody seen the new Eureka materials recovery facility? It's located in NE Minneapolis! http://www.eurekarecycling.org/abo_facility.cfm Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
