Martin Bourque, Executive Director of the Ecology Center with a Berkeley recycling truck. Photo: Tracey Taylor Our story on Tuesday about Berkeley’s new split recycling carts, which are being rolled out over the next few weeks by the Ecology Center, triggered a significant number of reader comments, not all of them positive. Here, in a […]
Recycling
Posted inCity
New powder-blue split recycle carts coming your way
Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates shows off his new recycling cart outside his home. Photos: Tracey Taylor A new era in recycling has begun in Berkeley with the introduction of light blue, split carts which carry paper waste in one side and bottles and cans in the other. Mayor Tom Bates held a press conference outside […]
Posted inCity
A new type of green: Berkeley may charge for recyclables
The efforts of Berkeley residents to separate their newsprint from glass bottles appears to have a downside. Berkeley city officials are considering imposing a fee to pick up recyclables, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. So many residents are recycling that they have been able to switch to smaller garbage cans, and […]
Posted inBusiness
Garbage rate structure the problem
Following the reports that Berkeley’s success in recycling led to unexpected deficits, Martin Bourque, executive director of the Ecology Center, responded to Berkeleyside. The Ecology Center is a non-profit organization that runs Berkeley’s recycling program, as well as farmers markets and other programs. Recent coverage of the Solid Waste Management Fund deficit in Berkeley wrongly […]
Posted inCity
The costs and benefits of scavenging
We wrote yesterday about the financial dilemma that Berkeley’s success with recycling is creating. More recycling by Berkeley residents combined with a decrease in construction projects (and their associated waste), have led to a $4 million budget shortfall. Not good. But commenter TN poses another Berkeley refuse collection issue that needs solution: The Chronicle article […]
Posted inCity
Recycling success leads to city budget woes
It seems I wasn’t the only one to reduce the size of my trash bin last year — both to save money and because with more efforts on the recycling front I really didn’t need a large landfill container any longer. I upped the ante on composting, but the real difference was scooping up all […]
