With the help of County Commissioner Heather Carruthers and her administrative aide Carol Schreck, I was able to speak last week with Greg Sullivan, who heads up Waste Management’s operation in the Keys. I did not seem to be the only person who was confused about waste pickup and recycling in Key West and the Keys, and I told Carol and Heather that I hoped Greg would be able to elucidate my ignorance and clear up my confusion.
Greg and I spoke maybe fifteen minutes on the phone. He was friendly and informative, and did not seem to mind any of my questions.
Here’s a synopsis of our conversation, which I’m pulling from memory.
A lot of larger Keys businesses recycle and contract their wastes out to other companies than Waste Management, and that is not reflected in the county’s and Key West’s recycling rates of around 6-7 percent.
In the county, WM picks up recyclables one day of the week, garbage another day. This same method is used in most parts of Key West, but in some locations in city recyclables and garbage are picked up on the same day (separate collection trucks).
Greg recited a pretty long list of stuff WM will pick up for single-stream recycling. Although it didn’t include everything that conceivably could be recycled, it was extensive. What isn’t recycled goes to either WM’s burn facility or a landfill on the mainland.
As for my idea of WM turning unrecyled garbage upside down on the property where it came from, Greg said that would get the Department of Environmental Protection involved pretty quick. I agreed, and said it would get a lot of people besides DEP involved pretty quick. He did not seem to have a problem with my recommendation of a $100 fine per violation. I forgot to ask if WM would be willing to use its employees who pick up our waste to write the tickets.
Greg said the county pays WM through ad valorem tax revenues (WM’s fee is added onto the tax bill), while Key West pays WM directly and bills its residents for waste pickup. Greg said he thought the county’s method of collecting through taxes is probably is more effective. There was a fee increase last year, which was reflected in a rise in the ad valorem tax bill for people living in the county. The fee had been in the $290-something per year range, per property, for a few years, and it was increased to around $325 per year, as I recall from my tax notice. It was first WM increase I’d seen on my tax bill since buying my place on Little Torch Key in the spring of 2006.
When I asked about WM’s claim on some of its trucks that it provides electricity for 1,000,000 homes, Greg said the burn facility creates steam that runs turbines that produce electricity, which goes to homes. I had heard WM used that electricty to run its own facilities, and I did not think to ask him about that.
When I asked about WM’s claim on some of its trucks that it provides a lot of acreage for wildlife habitat (the number of acres now escapes my aging mind), Greg said old landfills that have cooled off are are capped/sealed, three feet of dirt is brought into to cover it, and then it is planted and becomes wildlife habitat.
I was left with a strong impression that WM is not the problem with low recycling in the Keys, and changing to another waste-handling company will not increase recycling appreciably. The problem seems to be lack of commitment to recycling in Keys residents and county and city government.
I have felt for some years, based on personal observation of Waste Management’s waste pickup and its sanitation workers’ work ethic and demeanor, that this is a good company doing a very necessary job I myself do not want to be doing. Sometimes I opine to Key West friends that our sanitation workers are our most important workers, which we’d find out real quick if they quit picking up our garbage.
I also have thought for some time that the show case for Key West to start getting serious about recycling is Duval Street. I often walk or bike down it before the city’s street cleaning crews and machines pick up the debris from the night before. It looks like it’s all going into one big hopper, and I don’t see how it later can be separated for recycling. Most of it is plastic cups and wrappers and paper products. Maybe if businesses where the debris originates start collecting it before it goes out the front door, that will be a good start.
As “chance” would have it, when I got home last night from another terrific Sunday night open mike at Sippin’ Internet Cafe, I turned on the TV and lo and behold there was Larry McDonald, President and Chief Operating Officer of Waste Management, palying the lead role in “Under Cover Boss.” On this weekly show, bosses of companies go undercover into the field to find out what is really going on in their companies.
Larry did some pretty wretched jobs during his week in the field. Picking up loose debris at a landfill. Slopping out portable toilets. Riding a garbage truck and picking up garbage. Besides not doing very well on the various jobs, actually getting fired from one of them, he got his eyes opened real wide and went back to headquarters and made a lot of changes in policies and management styels, some of which he had instituted himself. Then he brought to headquarters the employees who had been his unknowinng tutors in the field, to thank them and explain how they had helped him and their company improve. Some of them got new jobs, in management.
There wasn’t much about recycling in the show, and perhaps that’s something Larry should take a look at. Given what I saw of him on “Under Cover Boss,” I won’t be surprised if he makes some changes in that area, too. But, as I said above, he and his company will need help from Key West and Monroe County.
Sloan Bashinsky