Ah, finally some hope for this cynic.
An article in our Independent Weekly’s “2011 Green Guide” shows that recycling efforts in the triangle have increased over the years.
While this news may actually be a bit outdated, I would like to hope that the trend has continued.
I was particularly proud to see how much the city and county of Durham increased from 59/55% to 91/98% respectively from 2007/08 to 2009/10. That is a 43% increase in Durham County in just 3 years! Nearly at 100%. Also of note, the total pounds recycled only increased by 23% for Durham. Are we getting better at reducing excess packaging, or are more people participating without recycling everything? And then over in Cary, their household participation grew by 14%, while their pounds recycled grew by 24%. That trend is what I expect, more people joining as they become aware while also more material being recycled and not trashed. Yet in Durham, I’m left confused by the numbers.
Now, this table only shows the number of serviced households that regularly participate. I’d be interested to know the percentage of households that are actually serviced. How are the people who live in serviced apartment complexes counted? And when will they have a complete set of data for drop-off centers?
This data is before our statewide ban on plastic bottles in the landfill waste stream took effect, so I would be extremely interested to see data about that. Funny though how most citizens still don’t know that throwing their water bottle in the trash isillegal.
So despite all the litter I see everywhere, and all the recyclable items I see filling up our trash bins, my area is apparently moving in the right direction.
