January 16, 2009

Orlando City Hall Introduces Single Stream Recycling

Single stream recycling will allow City Hall to decrease the amount of trash sent to the landfill and substantially increase the amount of materials sent to local recyclers.

Single stream, or single bin, recycling takes advantage of the fact that recyclable materials can be commingled when collected and then separated later at the recycling center.

With the exception of food waste, almost all the trash material generated each day can be deposited into a single bin and subsequently recycled.

With very little time or effort on your part, you can ‘go green’, thereby reducing the amount of waste going to our area landfills.

How Single Bin Recycling In City Hall Works:

Mixed paper, glass, plastic & aluminum:

Within City Hall, each desk will have a recycling container with the City’s Green Works logo. Kitchens and copy/print centers will be provided larger containers. The recyclables listed above can be commingled into these single bins directly from a desk or work area. These bins will be collected every other day, or as required, and placed in the designated collection bin at the loading dock to await transport to the City of Orlando Solid Waste Division Processing Center.

Regular wet trash and food waste:

Each desk and work/kitchen area will have designated containers for wet trash and food waste. These containers will be collected nightly by the custodial staff, commingled with the restroom trash, and placed in the compactor at the loading dock awaiting transport to the landfill.

Cardboard:

The custodial staff collects cardboard and deposit it in the designated collection by for pickup by the City of Orlando Solid Waste Division.

 Click here for information on materials accepted in Single Stream Recycling.

It is important to first stress that Recycling is actually the third and last step in a Greener City Hall. The first step is to Reduce the amount of waste generated. A few of the many ways to reduce waste are: double-sided copying & printing, re-evaluate & update mail and distribution lists, letters, reports and publications, use of electronic mail, and proof-reading documents on-screen before printing.

Reuse is the next most efficient waste management technique for conserving resources. When an item is reused, the costs of processing, re-manufacturing and marketing are avoided. Examples of reuse options include: reuse foam peanuts, cardboard boxes and other packaging materials, as well as advertisement materials.

The last of the hierarchy is Recycle. Even after efforts to reduce & reuse, there will always be an end product to office work that must be disposed of. Our goal here at Orlando City Hall is to recycle as much of that end product as conventional practices will allow.

City Hall contributes 129 tons of trash to landfills annually! Single bin recycling allows us to recycle 51.6 tons of that which means reducing the landfill contributions to only 77.4 tons annually (a 40% reduction)!