The students learned about the 4Rs, resource conservation, the CartSMART recycling, composting and garbage collection program, and met Recyclist, the talking robot made from recycled materials. The grand opening also featured haute couture fashion modeled by some of Recology’s zero waste staff. This fun field trip is more than an introduction to recycling.

Learning about resource conservation and a resource recovery program like CartSMART is essential in preparing students for the world they will inherit. Recently, the National Climatic Data Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), published a graphic showing some of the significant climate anomolies and events that occurred across the world 2011. Among them were extremely hot weather in the United States and the United Kingdom, France, Spain Switzerland, and Finland, and torrential rain and floods across Central America, in Thailand, South Korea, Norway and Brazil, and unusually heavy snowfall in Chile and New Zealand. Extreme weather events are not only disasterous for those whose lives they affect, they are also expensive. The NCDC created a chart to illustrate the growing number of climate and weather disasters since 1980 whose costs exceeded $1 billion.

The connection between resource conservation, resource recovery and the climate is clear only to some. Fortunately, organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have developed educational resources to help bridge the gap. Rethink Waste and the folks at the Shoreway Environmental Center and doing their best to fill in the rest.

It’s been a great holiday. Cabinet and Lighting Supply in Reno, Nevada came up with a creative way to reuse old light bulbs. Many people rented or recycled their Christmas trees. For the fifth year in a row, Recology Vacaville Solano and Recology Dixon employee owners worked with a local agency to help a family in need have a special Christmas. The Recology Yuba-Sutter donated new blankets and tarps to the Red Cross and Recology San Mateo County collected coats for kids, teenagers and adults in six Peninsula cities and various drop off locations.

The Coats for Kids collection program concluded on Dec. 20th and Recology San Mateo County would like to thank the cities and residents of Belmont, Burlingame, Foster City, Menlo Park, Redwood City and San Carlos for their participation in this worthwhile program.

Residents in the participating communities placed coats in a clear plastic bag marked “Coats for Kids” next to or on the top of their blue recycling cart on their regular collection day for pick up by the Recology collection drivers. Collection containers labeled “Coats for Kids” were also placed at various locations throughout several communities and Recology’s office where residents were also able to drop off coats.

In just days, Recology and all participating cities in San Mateo County collected over 750 coats! The coats were then sorted by Recology staff and donated to St. Anthony’s Church and Samaritan House for distribution to those families in need.

Recology San Mateo County General Manager, Mario Puccinelli was glad to do it. “Recology has been providing our Coats for Kids Program for many years in the communities we service. It has proven to be a great program helping those in dividuals and families in need,” he said.

The Coats for Kids program is going to be held annually by Recology San Mateo County with the hopes of having more communities participate next year.

Recology San Mateo County (Gino Gasparini) unloading coats at St. Anthony’s.	Left to right, Sandra Tinoco and Yvette Madera (Recology), Father Medina (St. Anthony’s), Sarah Prescott (Recology)
Tammy Del Bene on Santa’s lap along with the rest of the Recology crew and the Menlo Park Firefighters Association which was donating and distributing “Toys” that same day at St. Anthony’s.Left to right, Sandra Tinoco and Yvette Madera (Recology), Father Medina (St. Anthony’s), Sarah Prescott (Recology)

About Recology San Mateo County:
Recology San Mateo County was chosen in 2008 by RethinkWaste to provide recycling, compost and garbage collection services for its twelve member agencies. Recology’s roots in recycling go back to the 1920s in San Francisco, when garbage men, known then as “scavengers,” actively sought out alternative uses for refuse.

It’s not just in San Francisco. All along the Peninsula you can find companies and organizations offering to rent and sometimes deliver a Christmas tree for the holidays. The idea may seem quaint but the implications are an important signal of American’s changing attitudes.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, 25-30 million pine and fir trees are sold each year during the holidays. These trees take between 7 and 15 years each to grow to six or seven feet–the height which makes them acceptable to most Americans.  And while there are as many as 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs across the country, the status quo is that most of the 25-30 million trees end up in a landfill. In the Bay Area, Recology would compost Christmas trees but due to their high acidity, they are being made into biofuel. 

In addition, there’s the question of which is the more sustainable solution: a tree that’s been cut down or an artificial tree? To get at an answer, we would need more detailed information than is currently available to us. Where were the real trees grown and under what conditions? The top producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Washington. And how were they trees transfered to their final destination? How were they disposed of? As for artificial trees, we know that 80% of those sold world wide are made in China. Most are made from plastic and metal and are most likely not recycled at the end of their use as decoration. 

Renting a live tree bipases these questions. The trees are never cut, and the transportation to and from the point of purchase would be about the same under any scenario. But there are other benefits. According to Mercury News, for about the same price as a high-end precut tree, families can enjoy the smell of a tree for the entire season, reduce the risk of fires, and we would add, have to do a little less vaccuming after the holidays. 

If you celebrate Christmas, consider a real tree that you can use over and over again. If you did get a pre-cut tree, visit Recology San Francisco‘s, Recology San Mateo County‘s or Recology Auburn Placer’s websites, call Recology Butte Colusa Counties or Recology Vacaville Solano to see how you can recycle your tree.

Do you know the company Green Toys?  They make toys out of recycled milk bottles.  There’s just one example of the innovative work being done by vendors to use recovered materials in their products.

Kaboose.com has a list of craft ideas to make from recycled and reusable material. There’s nothing like making things with kids to enrich their early life experiences.

In San Mateo County, you can also participate in the annual Coats for Kids collection drive. Recology San Mateo County will start collecting coats as part of the residential recycling service and will also picking up coats at special drop-off locations.

Recology Vallejo has collected children’s coats each year for the past eight years. The donated coats may be of any size but should be in good enough shape that a child can play, sit and go to school with a sense of pride.

All coats will be cleaned and then given to local children who are in need.

We look forward to your participation during the holiday season.

I spend a significant part of my day visiting with our customers, attending community meetings with neighborhood associations, service clubs, chambers of commerce and a host of other groups. In these meetings I get the same question from everyone — “Why are our rates going up again?” The common assumption is that our company, Recology San Mateo County (RSMC), is somehow allowed to charge whatever we want for our collection services.

However, the truth is very different from the perception. RSMC is simply the collection service provider to the 12 member agencies that make up the South Bayside Waste Management Authority (SBWMA or RethinkWaste) service area. We are not the rate-setting entity, we simply charge a contractually agreed upon cost to provide collection service. Moreover, while the percentages that rates are going up seem alarming, the actual dollar amounts are quite reasonable for the new and improved services being provided, in an area that has some of the lowest established collection rates in the Bay Area. The reality is that Recology’s cost is just one component of the collection rates set by the 12 agencies. For instance, within the rates set by cities, there are costs for disposal at the landfill and processing charges for the recycling and organics handled by a different contractor, South Bay Recycling, as well as the cost to close out the previous contracts with Allied Waste [totaling $10+ million].

To complicate things even more, a significant contributor to collection rates increasing for many cities this year is the impact of residents subscribing to smaller garbage carts — otherwise known as cart migration. Many residents have increased recycling and composting, which has helped them reduce their garbage service levels considerably, and since rates are lower for the smaller garbage cart sizes, they are able to reduce their monthly charges.  

This cart downsizing is a very positive thing, and coupled with the amount of material we pick up, tells us definitively that the recycling collection programs are working well, since we have increased recycling and compost volumes across the board by more than 30 percent. This is a good thing and it is what RethinkWaste and the CartSMART program sought out to do when choosing a new collection system and Recology as its new collection services provider.

Though a bit counterintuitive, the effort or time spent and the cost to service a 20-gallon cart is essentially the same as the cost to service a 32-, 64- or 96-gallon carts. In all instances, the same number and type of trucks are used, the labor costs are the same and the same infrastructure requirements are necessary. Yet, the rates charged to residents are based on the size of their garbage carts, and they are significantly discounted when using a smaller garbage cart.

This rate structure was put in place for a good reason: it provides an incentive for recycling over disposal — a highly commendable and sustainable purpose, and it has yielded cost savings to people who recycle.

However, because of the success of the new CartSMART program, and based on the rates established, the balance of large carts to smaller ones has shifted and many of the RethinkWaste member agencies have found themselves collecting insufficient revenue through their rates to cover the costs of providing the service and are therefore in a position where adjustments are necessary to account for past revenue shortfalls and to help prevent future shortfalls.

This explanation of rate setting is not to suggest that Recology’s costs are not increasing. They are. Our collection service costs to the RethinkWaste member agencies have an average rate impact of 2.2 percent from 2011 to 2012. The reason for this increase is due to contractual adjustments based on consumer price index, fuel costs and labor costs. The truth is that Recology would prefer not to raise collection rates. But the fact is, based on our contracts, our costs rise and/or fall based on established indexes to cover adjustable items like fuel and labor. What is also fact is that while our cost increases are part of the rate increases, they are a small portion of them and they are not done on a whim, but instead are based on solid, nationally indexed, contracted and approved formulas.

We understand that rate increases are never easy. We also understand that the percentages being discussed are large. We ask you to keep in mind that the actual dollar amount is minimal and are only due in small part to Recology’s allowable cost increases. We also ask you to keep in mind that the new CartSMART program is providing great results and has been warmly received. It also is a critical step in meeting new state recycling goals established by Assembly Bill 341 that sets a 75 percent recycling goal for California by 2020 — the most ambitious in the nation.

Recology San Mateo County is proud to be a part of this successful program and is committed to helping our community and cities that we serve achieve the highest level of recycling through the new CartSMART weekly collection program.

Are you planning to attend the Connoisseurs’ Marketplace this weekend in Menlo Park? It’s their silver anniversary, and it’s going to be their GREENEST event yet!

Menlo Park’s Chamber of Commerce has pledged to make this a Zero Waste event while showcasing top artists, music, chefs’ demos, fabulous food and drink, fun for kids, artisan specialty food purveyors, a collector car show, home and garden exhibits, health and wellness displays, an organic and green products showcase, and the new Cuda Lounge.

July 16-17 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Santa Cruz Avenue.

Admission is FREE–don’t miss it!

Learn more about the event and how Recology is helping out with their greening efforts.

Dear Belmont Residents,

Don’t know what to do with those boxes of documents and files that are taking up space in the garage?

Recology San Mateo County is hosting a *FREE* Confidential Document Destruction Event for Belmont residents on July 16th!

Come to Belmont City Hall, at One Twin Pines Lane, from 9AM to 1PM for safe and secure on-site destruction of your personal documents – for free!

Visit Recology San Mateo County’s website for more event information.

Recology San Mateo County has the info on all the great goings on this Independence Day!

We also want to remind you to reduce, reuse and recycle while you’re enjoying the festivities this July 4th.

Have a safe AND green holiday!

Foster City: Pancake breakfast, parade, festival and fireworks show over the lagoon at Leo J Ryan Park

Redwood City: Independence Festival and Parade

Menlo Park: Parade and Celebration at Burgess Park

San Mateo Highlands: July 3 – Fireworks at Highlands School, July 4 – Parade (themed “Around the World”) and Midway

Identity theft is on the rise; properly shredding your personal documents is more important than ever.

Belmont residents –  come out to Belmont City Hall on July 16^th from 9am-1pm and take this free opportunity to protect yourself from identity theft!

The party is sponsored by the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce.

Look for Gino and more of our amazing staff at upcoming events this summer!