Information on recycling paints too rosy an image

If Fayetteville had a written procedure to keep our recycling workers safe from the materials being dumped out of the bins coming from unsupervised recycling drop-off sites, we would have seen it by now. I made the request to see this policy last week.

Anyone who has worked in the recycling trenches knows recycling is filthy, dirty business. Many “recyclers” do not clean out their containers. Some people toss in jars with moldy or rotten food. There are people who don’t give a flying Frito what they put in the bin and there are even those who will put dead animals in recycling bins. There are those who put garbage in a recycling bin: poopy diapers, used Kotex, slimy condoms and Kleenex filled with mucus. I am being graphic because we are in an election cycle.

During the past two election cycles city staff didn’t give us the full skinny on 1-7 plastic recycling or single-stream recycling. We need complete information so we can do our part to keep workers safe and provide end-users with materials they can actually make into new product. Hopefully leaders will tell us what we need to hear rather than what we want to hear.

One of the reasons we are in the environmental mess we’re in today is the addiction to convenience, which lured us into thinking that using an item for five minutes was just fine as long as it was “recyclable.” Please see the PBS Frontline titled

“Plastic Wars” to learn more.

I expect city staff will tell us the loads from these unsupervised drop-off sites are cleaner than they expected and they are so proud of how consciousness citizens are being. Will I trust this message? Seeing is believing. Recycling facilities need to be designed so citizens can see what is being dumped from the bins. Seeing the contents is very educational, provided those in charge want citizens to be educated.

LOUISE G. MANN Fayetteville