Does the cleaning fairy recycle?

A couple of weeks ago, I walked out into my driveway after trash pickup to retrieve the bins from the curb only to find that a giant green bin had been left beside my regular trash can. There was a plastic bag attached to the handle explaining that this was my new recycling bin.

I opened the bag and learned a little about the new program. Well woohoo, I thought to myself. Now I'll have more space to recycle and my five year old daughter will stop yelling at me for throwing away all of the things that Dora the Explorer told her can be recycled. And that, in and of itself, is worth the space that this new NINETY-SIX GALLON can is going to take up in my garage, or is it??

Let's see, it IS 96 gallons, that means I have a ton of room compared to the small red bin that we had before that would barely hold a week's worth of newspapers (good thing I stopped getting the Observer awhile ago, I don't have to worry about proper disposal). The new recycling program is going to allow me to recycle more types of things too. Aerosol cans and all plastics can now be recycled - except number 6 plastic and I will admit, and I am sure that I am not the only one, I have never looked at the plastic to see what number it is so I really don't know if that is going to help me or not, but the city government tells me that it is going to. I guess that since the bin is bigger, pizza boxes can now be thrown in too? A quick glance at the materials included with my new green can shows me that that is not the case. Oh, well on days that I don't feel like cooking and I call to order pizza then use the gas to go pick it up after the restaurant uses all of that oven energy (hope they got a good deal on their emissions credits) to bake it, I can just feel more guilty that I have to throw the box away.

No, though, I can't do any of these things now. Apparently, my garage is simply the cheapest storage that the city of Charlotte can find because I am not allowed to use my pretty new green recycling can until JULY. Yes, that's right, I have to just store my green recycling bin until the new program starts. I guess I should feel lucky that at least I read the information and found that out. Many of my neighbors obviously have not because they started rolling that cart out the very next week only to have it left, still full, at the curb for them to roll back in at the end of the day. I guess maybe that they should have made those bags on the handle a little more noticeable, huh? Local newscasts have even starting doing stories on the fact that the new cans can't be used yet - I haven't seen the number of green carts out on Monday diminish yet though.

That of course is not all. I now find out that we aren't going to have recycling picked up every week like always but rather every other week. Okay, yeah I can see where that would make sense maybe. Save gas by using the trucks less, the bins are bigger so I guess the thinking is that they will take longer to be filled. But if you want me to recycle more items, wouldn't that mean that I need to use more space and if that space is filled in the first week and I have to throw the rest of the newly recyclable materials away because there is no room in my green can, what has it accomplished? Not to mention the idea that if people can't read (or watch TV) in order to find out that the cans shouldn't be used yet, can the city realistically expect these same people to remember which week to roll the can to the street?

I went to the website for the new recycling initiative and found out some more interesting facts. Over 200,000 new rolling carts are being distributed throughout the city of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. This new program is expected to save $12 Million over the next 5 years. A recent news report stated that the new green carts cost about $40 each which means that the city spent at least $8 Million in order to save $12 Million over 5 years - I wonder how much we could have saved if we just kept using the system that we had, think its over $4 million? And how many of the 400 people who are about to be laid off from the Mecklenburg County government could have had their jobs saved?

And as in any good infomercial, WAIT there's more......this new ugly green 96-gallon rolling green carts that is being stored in my garage comes equipped with, wait for it.........ITS VERY OWN RFID CHIP!! Yes, that's right. The city government is now going to be able to track my recycling habits. The folks in the solid waste department's public relations office say that the RFID chips are no different than the ID numbers on the trash cans now and that they are "only going to track the recycling habits of neighborhoods in order to target our marketing efforts".

Did I mention, the cleaning fairy is due at my house tonight, I wonder if she'll be on time and if she sorts recyclables? I sure hope so because I'd rather incur the lecture of a five-year old girl rather than further this insanity.