My mind would be so much better if I spent more time thinking about Shakespeare’s sonnets. But I can’t because it’s trash I ponder, and apparently you do too, since a recent Beacon Hill Civic Association survey found that Beacon Hill’s trashiness was the top complaint of the neighborhood’s residents.
Surely if Obama can clean up the mess in Washington, we can achieve the same goal on our modest streets.
A major contributor to our trash problem is the time household trash stays on the sidewalks. And right now, our practices are stuck in the mid-20th century, when recycling was barely a word. Here’s how the week goes.
Monday: At 7:10 am I set out our trash. It consists of one bag, filled with approximately one inch of trash. In the trash are several plastic bags, 2 corks and a smattering of paper wraps that still have a bit of food on them. The trash truck growls by about 8:30 and the guys throw my limp bag in the hopper, where at least one out of ten times any bag bursts or spills on the street, especially if it isn’t tied properly. Do they pick up the spill? Silly question.
Wednesday: At 7:15 am I again place a trash bag on the sidewalk. It’s about half the amount I set out on Monday, perhaps weighing an ounce. I shouldn’t bother since the amount is so small, but I’m worried that the wrap from the halibut we had on Monday night will stink up the kitchen if I leave it until Friday. The sidewalks are filled with small bags of trash and a lot of stuff that should be recycled.
Friday: I get up before 7:00 am because it takes a lot of time on Fridays to do my job. Actually it takes two of us. We haul out three heavy clear bags. They are packed full of empty containers that once held Tide, shampoo, pizza, yogurt, milk, orange juice, cider, wine, V-8 juice, pills, cereal, and take-out from the King and I. They are also filled with bare cardboard toilet paper and paper towel tubes, discarded office paper, mail, newspapers, catalogues I have unsuccessfully tried to stop and the plastic tray—washed—on which Monday’s halibut came home from the store.
Then we struggle with seven cardboard boxes—too big to fit into the clear plastic bags—that held birthday presents I had ordered for our grandchildren. (All four were born between January 24 and February 21, so those weeks’ recycled boxes are particularly numerous and bulky.)
Finally I carry out my practically empty black trash bag, into which I drop the two doggie-doo bags someone has helpfully left in my tree pit. I place this bag alongside my neighbor’s trash, also small, so the trash bags are separated from the bags to be recycled.
Lesson from all this: This is ridiculous.
If we are devotedly recycling, we no longer have much of anything to throw away. Yet these feather-light trash offerings are collected three times a week. Ninety-seven percent of what our household discards can be recycled. But this massive amount of material is collected only once a week.
Our household is lucky to have a closet in which to store recyclables, but most residents do not enjoy that amenity.
Time for a change: This is a new world order in recycling. We must change the number of weekly pickups of both trash and recyclables to reflect the new circumstances.
We should have TWO weekly pickups of recyclables. And since we would then be recycling so dutifully, we would need only two weekly pickups, at most, of trash. I would be satisfied with only one pickup for trash, but that change might be too drastic for some people.
Benefits: Two weekly pick-ups of recyclables would double the ability of Beacon Hill residents living without adequate storage to recycle. If it’s easy, people will do it.
Two days of pickups for everything would reduce the amount of time trash can legally stay on the sidewalk every week from about 48 hours to 32 hours. It would also reduce the rat population and the time available for street pickers to go through the trash and strew it around. These changes would make a big improvement in Beacon Hill’s appearance.
Recycling saves the taxpayers money. According to Susan Cacino, Boston’s recycling director, last year the city paid $80 a ton to dispose of trash, compared to about $20 a ton to dispose of recycled materials. On recycled paper it can even make money, although the price fluctuates, said Cacino.
To Public Works and Transportation Chief Dennis Royer and the Beacon Hill Civic Association: Make it happen. Yes we can.