Recycling hits dumpster snag

Dozens of bins removed because of illegal dumping

By Todd Hartman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 03:56 p.m., March 9, 2008
Updated 09:14 a.m., March 10, 2008

Photo by Javier Manzano

Workers at the Waste Management plant in North Denver separate debris from the paper material belts at the plant. The region's biggest recycler has had to pull back many of its recycling bins distributed across the metro area because too many people were dumping their trash, mattresses, furniture, and unrecyclable materials at their sites.

Recycling in the metro area has picked up speed in recent years, but one company has tapped the brakes.

Waste Management, the region's largest household recycler, has removed dozens of dumpster-size recycling bins from area supermarkets and strip malls after too many folks pitched mattresses, sofas, broken strollers and other trash at the sites.

That, in turn, created too much hassle and cost for the company, which had to haul the garbage away and sometimes separate the old newspapers, junk mail, cans and other legitimate recyclables from the flotsam left in and around the bins.

"People were starting to use them as illegal dumping sites," said Melissa Kolwaite, a spokeswoman for Waste Management.

In all, she said, the company has removed 5 percent to 7 percent of its roughly 2,200 bins around the region because of the problem.

Another factor: rising fuel costs that make it costlier to send trucks to pick up the materials, said Charles Bayley of Waste Management. The fast-rising fuel prices are enough to trump the also-rising value of recycled commodities, he said.

The vanishing bins haven't gone unnoticed.

"People are calling me and saying, 'Where can I take my recyclables?' The local bin down at the supermarket is gone," said Marjorie Griek of the Colorado Association for Recycling. "The best I can do is give them Waste Management's phone number."

Griek doesn't fault Waste Management, however.

"These folks are trying to sell these commodities, and they lose all of their value when they've been contaminated (with garbage)," she said. "They're taking the risk and putting the bins out there and hauling the material; now they can't sell it, and it has to go to the dump."

The problem has led Waste Management to adapt its approach.

On one end, the company is pushing its residential recycling program harder, trying to coax more people to pay a small additional fee to leave their recycling out for curbside pickup, Kolwaite said.

On the other end, the company is trying to locate bins in areas where people are willing to provide more oversight and take a degree of ownership of them.

One example: The company has forged a cooperative agreement with El Jebel Shrine, placing about 300 bins on Shrine-supervised sites across the region. Waste Management will continue to pick up materials from the bins, and the Shrine has a crew of about two dozen volunteers who monitor the sites in hopes of warding off illegal dumpers.

At other sites, including some churches and supermarkets, the company has experienced fewer problems or found people willing to keep a closer eye on the bins.

The approach is hardly perfect. Many people, for example, still throw newspapers wrapped in plastic bags in the bin, even though the bins are clearly marked with signs saying they don't accept plastic bags.

It forces workers to separate out the plastic, which can gum up the complex sorting machinery at Waste's recycling plant in northeast Denver.

Despite pulling back some of its community bins, recycling volumes at the company's sorting plant are on the rise in recent years.

Since May 2005, recycling volumes at Waste's northeast Denver plant have grown from 2,000 tons per month to 12,000 tons.

Recycling options

* To find a recycling drop-off bin: Call Waste Management at 303-399-6351 and press 0 between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays. Provide your ZIP code, and a company official will help you find the closest site.

* Curbside pickup: Call Denver Recycles through the city's dial 311 service, or go to their Web site to sign up, at Denvergov.org/DenverRecycles

* Another option: Eco-Cycle, another major recycler, offers drop-off sites in Boulder and Broomfield counties. For a map of its 15 sites, visit ecocycle.org/centers/Dropoffmap.cfm. Also, many private haulers offer curbside recycling services, often for a small additional fee.

hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5048

• March 9, 2008

  4:47 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  It seems that the people who were dumping their garbage at the bins.Most of the people who did this were probably the ones who dump their garbage in a gully.They would rather pollute the streams and rivers rather then pay for trash pick up.These people are making life harder for all of us,because we have to go out and clean up after them.Seems like these are the same people we have always cleaned up after.From me Thank You for ruining something else.If they had done the right thing then we could have recycled more.Then a lot less cans and newspapers would not have made it into the landfill.Extending the life and use of the available space making it last longer.Thus slowing down the need for a new landfill in the near future.What do you think.It also would have kept the cans out of the storm drains and sewers.

• March 9, 2008

  5:07 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  happymike,
  Sounds like an opportunity for you to get into the business. You go out there and provide a dumping solution for these irresponsible people. The professionals seemed not to be able to handle it.

• March 9, 2008

  5:45 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Brix57 writes:

  Interestingly, Waste Management is the largest company that removes garbage, including recyclables, has several plants that have real American workers sorting the refuse of others and is now saying that we have to cut costs and require that each person insure that what goes into each bin is what is supposed to go into that bin.
  I find it odd that this company has not explored using alternative fuels, including electric to power their vehicles, instead of using diesel which is at an all-time high and going higher each day.
  Most everything is recyclable, even the garbage that Waste management states is not. Some things do not provide the returns that Waste Management wants, but is still profitable as they pay nothing for it.
  Now, they want to start nit-picking where the newspaper deliverer puts the newspaper into a plastic bag and tosses it on my lawn even though I do not have a subscription and I toss it into the purple bin. So, I suppose that there are not machines and/or people that cannot separate the two somewhere in the line?

• March 9, 2008

  7:42 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  The_Punnisher writes:

  It looks like the name Waste Management is a real oxymoron for this company.

  How much does the CEO and ( MIS ) management make??

• March 9, 2008

  10:26 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  kdo writes:

  So, it is not your responsibility to use FREE recycle bins appropriately? You want Waste Management to hire people to manually separate out unusable garbage because you are too lazy to take the newspaper out of the plastic wrapper before you toss it in the bin? Unbelievable...
  I just can't believe how ignorant people are(everything can be recycled? -- totally untrue, there are very clear guidelines that are readily available to those who make the effort to utilize the FREE service in Denver).

  Lazy, lazy, lazy, ignorant, ignorant, ignorant!!

• March 10, 2008

  6:01 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Jim writes:

  Denver does a pretty good with residential waste management. It includes recycleables, large items and haz mat. Sign up.
  http://denvergov.org/TabId/37910/Topi...

  Charities had the same problems with parking lot collection sites. It's unlawful to dump trash in a dumpster when you are not paying for the service.

• March 10, 2008

  9:43 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Eagle5 writes:

  I used to separate paper, plastic, and metal for recycling and watch the trash folks throw it all together at pick up time. Then they wanted to charge me extra for the service so I just gave up. Would love to recycle, but the inconvenient locations for pickup and the hassle are too much for me

• March 10, 2008

  9:44 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  jd writes:

  I've seen people living around public parks taking their trash from their homes and dumping it in the park trash cans.

  I do think that one of the problems is that it's costly to pay to take a big item like a couch out to the dump site. It costs $65.00 or so but if you call the trash company you regularly deal with most will haul it away for about $25.00. If it is a washer or dryer then you can call specific applicance companies and they'll pick it up for free so they can fix it and resell it.

  The unattended recylce machines ran into problems because people were filling cans with sand and putting them in the recycle machines for cash, thus stealing from the companies and of course I do't see the machines around anymore because they were getting robbed.

  Again, people thinking that they aren't hurting anyone with their actions but it's not true. They hurt everyone that used the system legally because they lost a way of recycling.

• March 10, 2008

  10:05 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  elaineb writes:

  Kdo...I TOTALLY agree! I am soooo sick of the "it's all about me" syndrome that seems to be plaquing this country. Wake up, people!

• March 10, 2008

  10:19 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  cvandyke writes:

  For clarification, you do not have to separate recyclables anymore -- WM has gone to a "single-stream" approach. You just need to remove the non-recyclable material. WM in town provides bins for free, so there's really no excuse for refusing to recycle. I've used public bins (at a local school) in the past and despite having to hustle stuff over, really appreciate that recycling is available. Usually our recyclables exceed the non in volume.

• March 10, 2008

  11:49 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  DahmersCookbook writes:

  Mattresses and Sofas can be dropped at any Boulder frat house for fire fuel, duh.

• March 10, 2008

  12:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  blacksho89 writes:

  "So, it is not your responsibility to use FREE recycle bins appropriately? You want Waste Management to hire people to manually separate out unusable garbage because you are too lazy to take the newspaper out of the plastic wrapper before you toss it in the bin? Unbelievable...
  I just can't believe how ignorant people are(everything can be recycled? -- totally untrue, there are very clear guidelines that are readily available to those who make the effort to utilize the FREE service in Denver).

  Lazy, lazy, lazy, ignorant, ignorant, ignorant!!"

  Bears repeating.

  Of course, if Obama is elected, recyclables will automatically sort themselves, 'cause he's so, you know, inspiring!

• March 10, 2008

  11:16 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  EDIT writes:

  Careful with those nautical terms, mate. Although "flotsam" can indeed be used to describe "useless or unimportant items; odds and ends", technically it is NOT something thrown out, but rather something that is unintentionally left behind, floating, when a ship sinks.

  Items that are thrown out, or jettisoned, are properly called "jetsam".

  Short the man on his grog ration tomorrow.