Recycling on the South Shore

unedited March 2009 Tahoe Mountain News
By Kathryn Reed

By April 22 (aka Earth Day) blue bags will fill Lake Tahoe.
Well, not literally. But they will have been distributed to every residential customer of South Tahoe Refuse.
Blue bags are this area’s form of curbside recycling. Just about anything recyclable can go in the bag – paper and cardboard, metals, glass and plastic. No food waste, plastic utensils, glassware or Styrofoam is allowed.
A pilot program started at the first of the year shows Douglas County residents participating more through mid-March (36.6 percent), compared to El Dorado County (22.2 percent) and South Lake Tahoe (13.6 percent).
On average, each blue bag people are filling weighs about 9.5 pounds, which is higher than the refuse company expected.
“Trash has decreased dramatically in all three jurisdictions,” said John Marchini of STR.
Mixed paper represents what most people are putting in the bags.
“We’ve been surprised how low the percentage of aluminum and plastic is,” Marchini said. He speculates it’s a reflection of the economy – that more people are bringing those items to the buyback center.
The number of people wanting money for recyclables has more than doubled in the last year. STR used to see about 65 people day. Now it’s between 150 and 170.
It will take a couple of years to know if the blue bag truly captures more recyclables than the workers on the conveyor line on Ruth Avenue who manually separate the goods.
California projects a 3 percent increase in material being recycled when curbside programs are implemented, according to STR.
Jeanne Lear with STR said about 1,000 tons of goods equals 1 percent in how the state does its measuring.
From Jan. 1 to March 19, Douglas County through the blue bag program brought in 22,862 pounds for recyclables, El Dorado County 26,823 pounds and South Lake Tahoe 23,073 pounds.
STR folks hope more education will spur people to use the bags.
A laminated card that is given out with the blue bags explains what to recycle and what to toss. It also has some statistics like each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees and 380 gallons of oil; glass never wears out; and making cans from recycled aluminum uses 95 percent less energy than making them from raw materials.