STR looking at recycling alternatives
By Kathryn Reed
South Tahoe Refuse is working on ways to be compliant with the California mandate that by 2020 75 percent of what it collects must be diverted from the landfill.
This means looking at different bins for recyclables and then possibly retrofitting trucks to make this work, as well as expanding what the South Lake Tahoe-based company currently recycles.
“We are working on how to implement food waste throughout the service area,” John Marchini with STR told Lake Tahoe News.
There has been a program in place with select restaurants for a number of years to collect food scraps. More recently the collections have spread to schools on the South Shore. Finding a way to have individual customers recycle food waste is the next goal. Food waste is taken to Full Circle Compost in Minden where it is then repurposed.
South Tahoe Refuse may move from blue bags to totes. Photo/LTN
At the Waste Management Joint Powers Authority meeting this month, STR officials agreed with the board to conduct a survey of customers about recycling.
Several moving parts are in play. One is that people with bear boxes would not be able to accommodate the totes normally used by consumers to toss recyclables. The other is how much the change would cost and who would pay for it. Dealing with vacation rentals is always an issue. And another concern is whether the expense for all of this would have the desired payoff of actually capturing more recycling material.
“We don’t want to see a rate increase without greater diversion,” Jeanne Lear with STR told the JPA board.
Marchini said it’s possible the totes may only be able to capture between 1 and 2 percent of the recyclables that currently end up in the landfill. Refuse officials said it would cost customers an additional 50 cents per month with a subsidy from the JPA for totes and retrofitting trucks, or 68 cents without the subsidy.
This board – made up of Nancy McDermid from Douglas County, JoAnn Conner of South Lake Tahoe and Norma Santiago with El Dorado County – was encouraging to go the route of totes.
“Less plastic is always good,” Conner said.
A handful of years ago STR started using blue bags. These plastic bags, which are recyclable, are good for paper, cans, bottles and the like. Food waste is a big no-no for blue bags.
The JPA has been subsidizing the blue bag program. There is $75,000 in the 2014-15 budget for blue bags. If that allocation is not all used, the board this month agreed it could go toward with a pilot tote program dependent on results of the survey.
The rest of the trash goes through a conveyer belt, with recyclable material sorted by hand.
Totes are the type of cans that are able to be lifted and dumped by a garbage truck. (Today, STR employees pick up each can and dump it into the truck.) Marchini said if the company goes to totes, those recyclable bins would be picked up every other week, while regular garbage service would remain weekly. A concern is if vacation and second homeowners were to leave them out for that extended time because they could attract animals.
Make the catalog companies pay for the tremendous amount of tossed catalogues that find their way into our mail boxes. The quantity has become ridiculous, and shutting them off is a tedious process. They fill up our tote every week!!
also, what does it take to shut off the periodic carpet-bomb delivery of ‘telephone directories’ to every driveway in the region? this litter onslaught has got to be stopped.
Message to JPA: Enact ordinance in each jurisdiction to prohibit the indiscriminate and generally unwanted delivery of telephone books to each residence. Nowadays, they are virtually useless. Instead, they should be provided by request only for the few who want them.
I believe we have gotten four separate telephone books this year. Not one of which made it past the bins and into the house.
Ok, so now joann thinks plastic bags are bad? Go figure…
If Tahoe wants to increase recycling, they should stop discriminating against Nevadans. I got straight up rejected at the recycling center because I had a Nevada plate despite the fact that practically every item was clearly labeled “CA return value”
I almost called the Bureau of Weights and Measures to report the gross inaccuracies in their scale and weighing process I was so mad.
What’s a phone book?
Where does one find or buy said garbage person friendly recycle tote? I would buy one.
“Less plastic is always good,” Conner said.
Unless of course it is the free to the public type of plastic bags that are distributed by store merchants so that certain consumers can repurpose them to contain dog or cat feces and soiled baby diapers. The STR employees must have a real fun time when they hand sort that recyclable material on their conveyer belt.
Sarcasm intended.
Stick your food waste down the garbage disposal. Less bears…m’may. It’s better for the environment too.
JoAnn’s comment cracks me up-spoken like a true politician. I would enjoy hearing her explain how she came to that enlightened opinion. Another issue with the mandatory phone book delivery system is that thieves can target those second homes whose neighbors don’t or won’t pick them up from their driveways.
Hay Jack do a little research and maybe you will learn that Nevada does not have a bottle bill, as a consumer in CA I pay a fee for every can, bottle, plastic bottle I purchase so that I will return them to the recycle center and get my money back. Why should they pay for material out of Nevada when your not paying a deposit. Just because it’s labeled CA return value means nothing when it’s sold in Nevada.
I would like to see free Tahoe TAP water bottles at motel/hotel check in counters. Maybe a local business could advertise on them to cut the cost.
One of the most common litter items I picked up on the beach cleanup Saturday was the tops to plastic bottles.
Garbage and Recycling. I’m no longer employed by STR, but I will say we tried a recycling program of phone books at STR many years ago and it was somewhat succseful, but many people used the open dumpster for general trash that was placed at Raleys.
Phone books left in front of vacation homes which are in the driveway for weeks at a time invites crime. Pick up your out of town neighbos phone books and hold them for when your neighbor comes to town.
Catalogs and other junk mail can go into the recycle cans at the post office,(that is if you’re and old fogey like me who still goes to the p.o for your mail!)
Food waste in the trash stream can be reduced and used in your own personal compost pile. Not too much tho as it will attract animals. Good compost can be bought locally here in town or down at Full Circle Compost in Minden.
I’m glad my old place of employment is steppin’ up on the reduction food waste goin’ to the landfill. Your diversion numbers are looking better all the time! OLS
Can’t really blame STR for turning away Nevada licensed cars. A couple of times I’ve seen Nevada cars driving up Spooner toward South Lake loaded to the gills with plastic bags full of crushed aluminum cans. They didn’t pay a redemption fee so it’s pure profit for them. You know where they’re going: to load up their friends’ California car full and turn ’em in.
What a racket.
Ummmmm-
The totes all are talking about are plastic too.
Ms Connor, more totes are more plastic.
Also to remember…food waste down the garbage disposal is more solids required to be processed by STPUD. More solids = more water = more cost
The point was made by someone above that garbage disposals are better for the environment than
putting it in the trash for composting. I think not.
Ca. mandated this same 75% mandate in the early 90s with compliance by 98 or so. STR, I think led all other companies in this mandate but the state never enforced it and just kicks down a new mandate. Food waste that can’t go down the disposal accounts for less than 1% of the trash. Mi tres centavos.
When low flow toilets first started the solids to liquid issue came up and was found to have no effect on STPUD treatment of waste.
“The JPA has been subsidizing the blue bag program. There is $75,000 in the 2014-15 budget for blue bags. If that allocation is not all used, the board this month agreed it could go toward with a pilot tote program dependent on results of the survey”
This is why we don’t get blue bags now. We have even called and still they won’t leave one.
How can you increase recycling when you are not even implementing the plan in place ?
Looks like the bag money is purposely being saved up for a pilot program leading to yet another debacle.
Another thing , those totes are ugly. Take a drive down to Folsom sometime and you will see 3 ugly plastic,gangley totes in front of every house-talk about blight.
Pay more for recycling, especially for materials that should be diverted from land fills that are not eligible for cash now (such as bimetal cans and paper/cardboard). Not the end all solution, but will help. Adding a recycling center in Meyers would also be helpful.
Gus, I can’t speak for STR, but your idea for a recycle center in Meyers is excellent! It would reduce the trash flow in the area, create some jobs and if designed properly,it would be quiet, clean and a benefit to the Meyers community.
Maybe the old Alpaca Petes building?
What’s next?Public transportation for Meyers ?? Thanks, OLS
It’s 4.8 mikes from Meyers to South Tahoe Refuse. Let’s not add more cost for another recycle center when there is one so close unless it can be staffed with volunteers.
As ONE TIME says CA Redemption Value means nothing in Nevada. This may be off the subject a bit, but I work 90% of the Nevada football games. It’s very stupid that the University does not recycle, it would bring more money on to the campus. What happens at the end of the game is a small army of thieves working together go through each garbage can and grab the aluminum. It would be fine, if they kept it in Nevada. I have asked what they do with the cans? They bring them to California to recycle. The program is going broke because of people like this. I shame them in front of my coworkers and everyone around and they get very angry at me. They’re wrong, but no one can stop them. They are stealing a few thousand dollars from California every game. They must have a vehicle with California plates.
Only buffoons in California’s state government could be in charge of its CRV beverage container recycling program, which returns deposits never made on Nevada-purchased containers, then uses these false recycling numbers to inflate California’s return rate.
What Nevada taxpayers and consumers get is a free recycling program at California’s expense.
My Grandparents told me about the “drives” to “recycle” during WWII. As I recall, they recycled metals, rubber, oils, paper and food scrapes in different containers.
Countries with high recycling rates: Austria 50%, Germany 48%, Netherlands 46% and Switzerland 52%.
USA is not doing to bad at 30% but can obviously improve.