When state Rep. Frank Nicastro tossed some junk mail in the trash last week, he probably didn’t think much about it.
City Councilor Ken Cockayne said he certainly wasn’t thinking about recycling mandates when he winged an empty honey bottle in his garbage.
And city Councilor Mike Rimcoski said he, too, threw junk mail into his trash can. An aerosal can found its way into the barrel as well, but the councilor pinned the blame for that on his wife.
All of them fessed up after a Hartford television station dug through their rubbish barrels recently – perhaps violating a city ordinance in the process – and confronted them for a story that will apparently air next week.
"I apologize for putting junk mail in my trash," said Nicastro, a Democrat who is also a city councilor. "I'll try to do better."
The city-issued trash cans put out at the curb in front of each of the six city councilors’ homes – and Mayor Art Ward’s – were pawed through for evidence that glass, metal, plastic or paper that should have been recycled was instead lumped in with everyday debris.
It appears that all of them violated recycling rules to at least some degree.
"We are human beings," Ward said, and make mistakes.
“I plead guilty,” Rimcoski confessed. He said it was more convenient to throw his junk mail in the trash than put it in the blue recycling bin that gets put out every two weeks.
George Wallace, the assistant public works director, said that city crews routinely tag barrels where recycling is found so that residents will recycle properly in the future.
But, he said, they haven’t checked on political leaders specifically.
“None of our people found it,” Wallace said.
Ward said that everyone in town, including City Hall’s bosses, could do better recycling.
In fact, the city has a pilot program in place that aims to increase dramatically the amount of material that is recycled.
About 900 residents – 2 percent of the city – got large recycling bins that can be emptied by the same kind of one-armed trucks that are used for garbage cans. They were told to throw all of their recyclables in the new barrels.
Wallace said that recycling rates shot up 97 percent in the targeted area, producing so much extra recycling that the regional recycling agency posted its best month ever in January almost solely because of more recycling from that one little area of southeastern Bristol.
Ward and Nicastro said that Bristol’s success with the single stream recycling test probably prompted Channel 61 to dig through its leaders’ garbage to check for violations.
City Councilor Kevin McCauley pointed out that none of the council members or Ward live in the recycling test area.
Public Works Director Walter Veselka said the city’s anti-scavenging ordinance prohibits anyone from rooting around in other peoples’ garbage.
The Press considered checking for recycling violations by municipal leaders earlier this winter, but chose not to do it because of concerns that it could lead to criminal charges. There were also worry about safety and violating peoples' privacy.
Still, it’s unlikely anyone will pursue charges against the station’s personnel, officials said.
Wallace said he hopes the recycling flap will shine a light on the need to recycle.
“A lot of people just don’t quite understand it,” Wallace said.
The city has plenty of incentive to encourage recycling.
It forks over $65.50 per ton to burn trash at the Covanta incinerator in Bristol, but only shells out only $33.50 per ton to have its recyclables processed. In short, it costs about half as much to get rid of recyclables as it does to deal with garbage.
For taxpayers, that means every item recycled saves money. If the whole town recycled at the same rate as the residents of the pilot program area, the annual savings would easily top $100,000.
Still, everyone involved recognizes the system will never be perfect.
Cockayne said that among his violations was throwing out “a small piece of unused tin” that he never thought would be on the recyclable list.
He said that he’s shredded his junk mail for a long time – taking it to the office to run it through the machine – because he worried that if he put it in the trash, private information could wind up in the wrong hands.
Now that his garbage has been raided, Cockayne said, he knows that was a good idea.
Nicastro said that the incident highlights his own efforts to get state legislation enacted that would protect Social Security numbers better. He said the violation of privacy that comes from digging through trash shows how vulnerable everyone is.
Ward said he didn’t know exactly what he did wrong yet. He added, though, that he recycles regularly."Maybe somebody put stuff in our trash," Ward joked.
Here's what recycled in Bristol:Materials Collected:
Clean glass and metal food containers
Plastics #1 and # 2: (Please check the bottom of the container for the recycle symbol and number)#1 (PET -polyethylene terephthalate) is typically soda, liquor, cooking oil, and other transparent liquid food containers. #2 (HDPE -high density polyethylene) is typically 1 gallon milk jugs, spring water, detergent, and bleach containers. *Except those that contained motor oil, pesticides, antifreeze or toxic fluids.*Plastics should be rinsed, flattened, and placed in the recycle bin with metal and glass food containers.
Newspapers/magazines/catalogues/junk mail/phone books/soft cover books - place in brown paper bags (or a separate recycle bin).
Place paper bags on top of recycle bin/pails. Shredded paper can also be recycled, please place it in a paper bag.
Paper milk/juice cartons and Juice boxes - Remove straws and caps, rinse, and flatten. Place in recycle bin/pails with metal and glass food containers. Corrugated cardboard - flatten, cut to 3' x 3' maximum, place on top of recycling bins/pails under newspapers or on edge between recycling buckets. Do not tie or tape. (Please do not use boxes for holding trash.)
For more details about what’s acceptable to recycle, please see these links:
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
