Lack of participation, confusion plagues Phoenix recycle program

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Phoenix’s ambitious plan to divert green waste and recyclables from landfills has floundered, as few residents have participated in the new curbside composting program and many struggle to follow recycling rules.

In 2013, Reimagine Phoenix was announced with the goal of a 40 percent diversion rate by 2020 and zero waste by 2050. Now with more than half the initial allotted time spent, the official city diversion rate is 20 percent, only 4 percent more than when the program began. The Public Works Department is hoping that Phoenix’s first large- scale composting facility, completed in April, will spur momentum.

Residents in certain areas are already able to send green waste to the facility through the green organics curbside pilot program. For a fee, these residents get a separate bin for composting that is picked up weekly by the city.

However, in the heart of the pilot location, Coronado resident Sarah Gaumont had no idea green waste composting was possible in her area. Neither did her neighbor Don Mertes, who said if he had a bin it would be easy for him to compost all his green waste.

“I have a yard guy, I could just ask him to put it in there,” said Mertes.

Joe Giudice, public works assistant director, said the city program hasn’t reached many residents. Of about 158,000 eligible properties, slightly less than 4 percent are participating.

Yet the new $13.3 million 27th Avenue composting facility is already operating close to full capacity. The majority of this waste comes from landscapers and the green waste pilot program, according to Giudice. The compost center is currently able to turn 55,000 tons of organic green waste into compost per year.

The city plans to double the amount of waste the center is able to handle in the coming years, but this will take more capital investment.

Giudice said diverting organic waste is key to success and the Public Works Department had to move slow on many programs until they had the ability to compost on a larger scale. The city plans to release new numbers in the coming week that show a recent change in diversion rates, said Giudice. He remains hopeful that they will reach the goal of 40 percent diversion by 2020.

However, Giudice called the 2050 zero waste goal idealistic, a way to guide the vision of the project. He explained the theme of the program is to upgrade an old waste system that is focused on health and quick disposal.

“These systems were designed on pick it up, get it out of here, bury it. Get it away as soon as possible so it’s not a problem,” said Giudice. However, he says this approach means all waste is mixed together and valuable materials are not able to be repurposed.

Reimagine Phoenix programs flip the focus to extracting everything with value from the waste before it is deemed trash. Not only does the initiative focus on compost programs, but also attempts to increase the recycling rate and efficiency.

What to recycle, Gaumont said, can be tough to figure out.

“I’ve looked it up several times because it’s a conflict in the house – what can be recycled and what can’t,” said Gaumont. She hopes that even with little mistakes, the city is recycling everything in her bin.

That’s not always the case, according to Giudice. He says the latest city recycling study shows that 30 percent is bagged, instead of placed loosely in the bin. Sometimes this can be sorted out, but sometimes it ends up being thrown away. So do other items like plastic bags, which are recyclable, but not in the blue household bins.

“If we could get our citizens to put the right things in the blue containers and not put the wrong things in there we would save them one million dollars in contamination costs,” said Giudice.

Phoenix partnered with Recyclebank beginning in January, a company that hands out rewards in exchange for education, to help purify the recycling stream.

Mertes wasn’t impressed, calling the program “scammy.” He said he wouldn’t use it. But, according to Paul Winn, Recyclebank chief revenue officer, almost 40,000 Phoenicians have signed up so far.

Winn hopes the program will battle what he calls the “aspirational recycler.”

“So everybody has a big cart outside the house,” Winn said. “You have a Starbucks cup, you think it should be recyclable, so you put it in the bin and you walk away feeling like you did the right thing. But, the problem is now someone else has to go in and pull it out.”