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 Smelling money--and french fries--in the air, Berkeley residents have a new motivation to recycle. June 2001
From February through mid-July, in conjunction with the city's Trash for Cash program, recycling specialists from Berkeley's Ecology Center are selecting trash cans from among the city's households and sifting through their contents in search of recyclable material. "We pick a random day of the week," says recycling coordinator Dave Williamson, "and then we pick five trash cans." With advance clearance from the residents (via a notice on the door, then a call later in the day), Williamson inspects the trash for recyclable content: it should be free of any paper, tin cans, foil, plastics numbered 1 or 2, and yard debris. If no recyclable material is found, the family is awarded a cash prize of $250. "What if you tried really hard, but missed that one tin can?" Williamson asks. Well, you could win a congratulatory $50. Even people whose trash is far from perfect receive a service in the form of a detailed list of things they could have recycled, a sample budget of how much money their household would save yearly by creating less trash, and a complimentary smaller garbage can. The center, funded through the Alameda County waste-management authority, is trying to raise awareness about a California law that will require cities to reduce their trash 75 percent (from 1990 levels) by 2010. Williamson says the program has met with a lot of enthusiasm: 99 percent of households are participating. But looking through their trash has been a strange job. "We've got a lot of Nobel laureates in Berkeley," Williamson explains. "We know where Alice Walker lives, but it's kind of weird to dig through her trash. We picked up garbage from Ray Bogas, a concert pianist, and then we sorted it on TV. We found a dead bird. He told us that the bird had gotten drunk on fermented berries and run into the window. At another place we found a coffin. That was really weird." Adding to the surreal picture is the fuel that powers the recycling trucks: Berkeley is the first city in the nation to run municipal vehicles on bio-diesel, a vegetable-based fuel that eliminates the particulates associated with regular diesel. According to Williamson, vegetable diesel is economical to produce and easier to supply than natural gas. That's because it can be, and often is, reprocessed from the oil in deep fryers. "Believe me, this fuel is recycled," Williamson says. "It runs anywhere from light brown to deep purple." Although the fuel has been criticized for putting nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, Williamson says this harm can be mitigated by modifications to a vehicle's exhaust system. The real drawback? "We smell like a big french fry," he says. "We haven't had any complaints, but our recycling drivers are starving when it comes time for lunch." |
