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In our first posting we talked about the current recycling situation in our home towns. Now we have focused our goals on one town that we thought would be the easiest to work with and that is Columbus, WI. We chose to focus on only one town because of logistics. There was no feasible way to work with every town, plus with our focus set, we can do more with this one town.
We decided to start with the heart of any town, the people. We wrote up a small survey that we handed out over multiple days in order to get a good sample. The survey is fairly simple and straightforward. Its purpose is to show that people are concerned about recycling and the state of landfills in the area. We tried to show that the idea of public recycling bins would be a positive one, and an idea that people would support. We know that Columbus has a little extra money sitting around, and we figured that by showing public support we would make a better case to using that money on public recycling bins. Stay tuned for the final blog post to see results from the survey, but until then you can look at the survey itself at the bottom of this post.
Some of those who we surveyed asked other questions about the idea of public recycling. We were prepared with facts about a similar program that is going on in Ney York City. In New York, there are blue and green bins all around the city. Blue bins take glass, cans, and plastics while green bins take paper products. The bins are managed by city workers who monitor them and empty them when needed. On the city’s web site, in the FAQ it clearly states how they plan to take care of their bins when they say, “Successful public space recycling required ongoing monitoring of bins by maintenance staff.” When the city is this involved the public is sure to notice and be grateful for these public bins. We hope that in the coming days we can at least get the city of Columbus to consider public bins.
NYC Bins 
Our survey – recycling-bin-survey
NYC web site – http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/recycling/public_space_recycling.shtml#highlights
We also talked with officials in Columbus about what is happening right now. Currently, there are some very nice public garbage cans, but only in the downtown area, and they are just a year old. These cans exist through the efforts of Main Street Columbus, a downtown development organization. According to Main Street’s Executive Director, Kim Bates, the city of Columbus didn’t seem interested in providing these public waste bins. In fact, funding for these garbage bins, planters, and benches came from local businesses sponsorships and resident donations. Each trash receptacle costs $997.00, but they are large and made out of concrete. The city works department maintains and empties the bins.
I asked Kim if anyone had brought up the idea of adding a recycling element to these bins. She said no, but that was a good idea. She says she is already doing some public recycling… when she finds a bottle or can in the new planters! I also asked her if she thought people would use a public recycling container. She said “definitely”. She believes “people are trained enough” these days to use a recycling bin properly. Plus, Columbus is making many efforts to be labelled a “green” community, so it would make sense to recycle.
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I like this idea a lot, I know in my town there isnt much recycling, I have noticed some around the nearest grocery store but there are other places like parks, and around the streets that would be useful to have recycling bins.
Comment by depieslm05 10.29.08 @ 9:10 pmIf there is extra money laying around putting it to use on recycling could save them more money in the long run!
Your are doing a good job and it seems like your project is on track. It’s always difficult to get things done rapidly when there are some sort of administrative entities to deal with but you are laying the ground work in order to establish such a program.
Comment by Sonya Larocque 11.04.08 @ 2:31 pmI think that would be a great idea! Do you know if they are expensive? I agree with Larocque, it sounds like a wonderful idea just probably really hard to get though to the administrativers.
Comment by billinghma05 11.20.08 @ 6:20 pm