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City officials hope this sticker will help Longview residents use the garbage and recycling bins properly. Courtesy of city of Longview

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Longview bin labeling begins this week

Sunday, August 31, 2008 9:48 AM PDT

By Amy M.E. Fischer

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Work crews on Tuesday will begin a six-week project of plastering Longview's garbage and recycling containers with large labels to eliminate the public's confusion over which bin is which, and what items are recyclable under Longview's program.

In June, the Longview City Council agreed to spend $30,000 on the sticker program. The stickers — which measure 6 inches by 10 inches for the 300-gallon communal alleyway tubs and 4 inches by 10 inches for the individual 90-gallon household carts — cost $18,000, and labor to affix them to the containers will cost about $13,000.

Garbage receptacles will be labeled "Garbage only. Please do not throw recyclables into this container." Recycling bins will have stickers with a list of what's recyclable. They also say, "No yard waste. Please do not throw garbage into this container." Both stickers bear the slogan, "Together Longview recycles."

To see whether the stickers help reduce the amount of trash thrown into recycling bins, the city asked Waste Control to weigh and examine all recycling gathered citywide the week of Aug. 18. Another audit will be conducted at the end of the year.

"I'm sure hoping that's going to have a positive impact," said Gregory Hannon, Longview's solid waste/recycling and code compliance manager.

This month's audit revealed that 52 percent of the recycling bins' contents was trash, which is "an unacceptable level," Hannon said.

When the city's curbside program began in 1992, the recycling bins contained less than 8 percent trash.

However, a 52 percent contamination rate is a huge improvement from an audit two years ago, when the recycling bins were found to contain an average of 70 percent trash citywide. The highest rates of contamination were in the Highlands area, which had 76 percent garbage in its recycling bins. That prompted the city to replace that neighborhood's communal tubs in September 2007 with individual household carts stickered with barcode labels for tracking purposes.

When Waste Control audited the Highlands bins in March of this year, the garbage contamination rate had fallen to 54 percent.

Recyclable items can't be sold on the market if they're "contaminated" with things such as motor oil, kitty litter and lawn clippings. The other garbage is sorted from recyclables on a conveyor belt at Waste Control Inc., the company under contract with the city. The more garbage that shows up on the belt, the less the city is able to recoup its costs for the recycling program.

For now, the city is losing money on the program. In 2007, the city paid Waste Control $83,000 to sort through Longview's curbside recyclables, a charge calculated per ton. Waste Control sells the recyclable goods to other companies, but those revenues are less than the sorting costs, said Hannon, who did not have a dollar amount of the losses available Friday.

"Basically, our revenue is going to Waste Control to sort the garbage. It offsets the income we potentially cold be getting," Hannon said. "We can save that money if we just recognize what we need to be doing in this program."

The city is researching other programs to educate the public and encourage good recycling behaviors:

• A residential yard waste program

• A citywide conversion to individual household carts for residential customers, except for multi-unit apartments

• Switching to a volume-based rate system in which residents could downsize to a 60- or 32-gallon garbage cart.

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Rocko wrote on Aug 31, 2008 1:47 AM:

" its not going to make a dif. people just dont want to take the time to seperate the trash. or they feel the way i do. if Longview wants me to seperate my trash they can make it worth my while and lower my bill. untill then they can do what i pay them to do, which is take away my trash. what they do with it after that is up to them. im sure what we pay for service will cover the cost for someone to seperate it. "

crowsfeet wrote on Aug 31, 2008 6:15 AM:

" It takes more than a sticker to change mentality. "

momto1 wrote on Aug 31, 2008 8:22 AM:

" They should have put the stickers on when they first put out the individual garbage cans in the Highlands. It was extremely confusing as to what to recycle and what couldn't be. "

JustMyOpinion wrote on Aug 31, 2008 8:34 AM:

" Well, we cut back on special education for special needs children, but at least our recycle bins are properly labeled. Sad, sad, sad. "

Kelso Hilander wrote on Aug 31, 2008 9:44 AM:

" Rocko- Way to be a TEAM player. Crowsfeet- You will be surprised to see what a little info. will do. Momto1- your right. JustMyOpinion- Longview's garbage and Kelso's education...come on now...can't you see we have two different cities with different budgets??? "

applepie wrote on Aug 31, 2008 11:38 AM:

" Re to Rocko. I don't think you get the point. If we don't recycle our rates will be higher. You want to be payed to do something for nothing. People are just lazy. If you had 10 garabage cans with everyone for a different item you would end up with the first two or three full and nothing in the others.
I wounder if these labels are all in english? "

louie wrote on Aug 31, 2008 12:15 PM:

" From the photo in the paper the stickers look very similar. There are some who live in our community who don't read English...has that been addressed. Recyclables should have gone in the green cans and garbage in the brown. Not too smart on the city's part.
My feeling is I would like my own garbage and recyclable containers. The large ones in my alley are full sometimes by Sat. and pick-up is Thurs. Someone is using our cans but nothing is done about it. I called the city man in charge and he said he would have it picked up...Didn't happen.
How about a 'pay as you toss' system. Why do I as a one person household have to pay as much as my neighbor with a family of 5? The same goes for the sewer. Singles are always stuck paying more than their share. "

Ella Mentry wrote on Aug 31, 2008 2:52 PM:

" Wow. The two stickers are the same color? "

Kay English wrote on Aug 31, 2008 3:11 PM:

" momto1 - special education kids are labeled, believe it. This labeling has all kinds of implications. Hopefully, the label also identifies the special teaching methods needed and USED for each unique child. "

recyclefan wrote on Aug 31, 2008 3:16 PM:

" to all naysayers, we don't know till we try. Maybe apartment managers could help those with language barriers, ya think??
I for one am hoping that the new labels will help.....:) "

teencitizen wrote on Aug 31, 2008 4:30 PM:

" If we are living in an American city there shouldn't be any language barriers for other people who live here "

reasonable1 wrote on Aug 31, 2008 5:23 PM:

" It's not just a language barrier. Even with streetlights, it's hard enough telling green from brown in the alleys. [I've found myself hoping that no one moved the tubs since I saw them last as I toss stuff into what I trust is green.] And I would have put a LOT of effort into creating big, graphic messages that even children could distinguish. ["Cans, paper, plastics 1 & 2: YES; grass, foam, wet trash: NO"] From the images in the paper, these two look awfully similar. Sorry--I'm not one who enjoys finding fault with city choices, but this time it just seems like another example of people being hired to create something they will never use. "

JustMyOpinion wrote on Aug 31, 2008 6:03 PM:

" I know that Longview and Kelso are two different cities, BUT the children don't know it. Nobody should go without an education regardless of the city. But thanks for reading my line. At least I made a point :) - which is that I believe that if there is money to be had by someone, please spend it on something or someone worthwhile. Labels wont change laziness. "

writegirl wrote on Aug 31, 2008 10:01 PM:

" What is so difficult to understand about green cans for trash and brown cans for recycling? I highly doubt that the amount of trash found in the recycling bins has anything to do with confusion about which is which... more likely that it is pure laziness. The green trash can is full? Throw it in the brown recycling bin! Who's going to catch you and what will they do about it? Seems to be the mentality around this community. I live near the lake and we have the big bins in the alley that we all share, and I see people tossing dog crap by the shovelful right into the recycling bins. $31,000.00 on this project? I have to say, this seems like a complete waste.Stickers are not going to change laziness and apathy. "

justa_name wrote on Aug 31, 2008 10:43 PM:

" I thought that garbages were green AND brown for a reason. Is a sticker really going to help? Its not that they dont know the difference, its that people don't care. I recently moved to oregon for school and the recycle cans are much larger then the garbage and there are many recycling depos around. Maybe we should try it. "

missymae wrote on Sep 1, 2008 12:07 AM:

" Are We sorting for waste control or so the bums don't have to dig thru the yucky stuff to get to the can's and bottles? and other things they may want or need from our trash like louie says with our bill as much as It Is already they can pay the workers to sort It. "

LongviewFam wrote on Sep 1, 2008 9:16 PM:

" I think it's great that we are attempting to get into the year 2008. Every other place we've lived has had a progressive recycling program. People who repeatedly and blatantly threw garbage into the recycling bins were warned and eventually fined. For those who don't want to recycle, shame on you. Our landfills are bursting! Sorting through a few cans, bottles, etc? Big deal. We have a family of 6 and produce a ton of garbage and sort it. Landfills aren't going to hold all our garbage forever. Why not do the little you can to help? Sheesh. "

recyclefan wrote on Sep 2, 2008 6:59 PM:

" way to put it Longview family....it is 2008, maybe they need to be hit in the wallet, then maybe they might try harder. "

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