debris. The Chicago Center for Green Technology got an award for its building (Grzeskowiak, 2006). Our city could do the same. Tallahassee, Florida recently renovated their Solid Waste Administration building to conform to green standards (Grzeskowiak, 2006). A successful "green" building has been built in New York City -- the first green high-rise residential building in the United States. The designers set up a wastewater treatment system that sends flushwater to all the toilets in the building and to an adjacent building (Zavoda, 2006). In all of this, the city makes the rules and sets the standards. Our city needs to require recycling of construction and demolition debris, too, and encourage green building.

Another thing the City could do -- a smaller, but effective and very visible program -- would be to place recycling bins on the street for pedestrian use. Presently, pedestrians have to carry their bottles and cans home with them in order to recycle them. Most do not -- they throw them in the trash, and they end up in the landfill. Both Baltimore and St. Louis have addressed this problem effectively by adopting similar programs in cooperation with Outdoor Partner Media, a business based in Tennessee. Outdoor Partner Media places bins on the...

The company gets its revenue from selling advertising space on the bins. For every 25 bins on the streets, the city gets three more to use for their own advertising. Your name and picture with "Working for you..." could be on these, Mr. Mayor. The city collects and recycles the contents. Other cities have opted to buy their own bins. Santa Barbara, for example, estimates that their bins, which the city buys, keep 700 to 800 tons of recyclables out of the landfill each year. Currently, Santa Barbara installs bins with an upper section for recyclables and a lower one for trash. The upper part is left open for homeless people and other "scavengers" to take the recyclables. This saves the city time and effort (Recycling Goes Public, 2006).
If the city expands its recycling efforts in just these two ways, the environment will be cleaner, and the landfill will last longer. This could save the taxpayers millions of dollars and would definitely reduce wasted resources. Mr. Mayor, it just makes good sense.

References

Grzeskowiak, J. (2006). Laying the groundwork. Waste Age, 37 (10), 60, 62-64, 66.

Recycling goes public (2006). Waste Age, 37 (2), 26.

Ursery, S. (2005). Tackling C…