Repost: Notes From Pickens County Delegation Meeting Regarding Recycling

Here is a repost of some notes I made about my addressing the Pickens County Delegation (South Carolina Government Representatives & Senators):

* I think it worthy to note that I was the ONLY Liberty resident in attendance and no Liberty City representative was present.

• Addressed Pickens County Recycling Program

(I mentioned that this lends to fraud by not accounting for home efforts, commercial pickup, & water weight differences.)

All of our delegates expressed that they will be scrutinizing this carefully. Since the meeting, I have had close communication with "other contacts" (asking not to be identified at this time). There are considerations to cede control of pickup to private waste management companies. If even one municipality does this - the whole program would fall apart.

My concerns over fraud have been discussed with two other mayors (besides Liberty) - they both feel that MANY in our county recycle themselves by burning trash, hauling themselves, reuse, composting, etc and that this behavior should be accounted for and encouraged. Further, these mayors have reviewed my personal study that water weight isn't being considered. The trash is being picked up and compacted. The trucks are then weighed and dumped. A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT of water weight is being added to our recycling totals that is NOT being hauled to a landfill. Either the water weight isn't accounted for or evaporation has occurred.

A simple test of a banana peel illustrates this principle:

Take a fresh banana peel and leave it outside for three weeks. It's weight will be approximately 1/10th that of the original weight.

Concerns have also been expressed by municipalities that the county is only considering THEIR efforts and not private trash pick up.

I know that over the past year I have saved AT LEAST a ton of organic waste and somewhere around a 1/2 ton of aluminum from being thrown away.

Note: I mentioned my efforts and personal studies to Mayor Deese and City Council during the February 2010 City Council meeting