Dan and I both traded emails with Christine Knapp of PennFuture yesterday in response to the interview she did for "It's Our Money." Christine is full of fun facts. Here are some more tips and info on recycling topics:

First and foremost...

The City Controller said if we recycled 35% [of current waste], we'd save $17 million a year!

Remember, some cities like Berkeley have goals of 70%, so our goal can be upped at some point too, which means we'd generate more revenue.

How much does the city get?

Each material stream had its own price tag attached to it. Paper was, and still is, the most lucrative. But plastics and metals are in high demand now too. But now that the city is single stream, there is just one price for our “co-mingled” stream...it’s actually $35 [a ton]. Last quarter it was $38 (they re-evaluate the price quarterly depending on market demand). It’s a safe bet that we’re making more money on recyclables now than in 2005. It’s also safe to say that the cost of landfill tipping fees will keep going up, making it more and more lucrative to recycle.

If you want to figure out how much your household recycles, audit your own waste!

Put your garbage bag on a scale before you put it out and same for your recycling bin and then figure out what your diversion percentage is.

Why the airport is a problem:

Each of the vendors does their own waste contracting, so there are a zillion different collections going on and some recycle, some don't. There is actually a green airport task force working on issues with the airport and they've made some really good progress on recycling, but I don't have new numbers yet.

What's up with recycling at hotels and restaurants:

Hotel and restaurants would also pay and provide for their own hauling. Many of them just don't have a recycling program and enforcement is so lax they can get away with it. Even if they get caught, the fine is $25 -not enough to scare them into compliance. The increase in recycling budget this year is partially going to hire more enforcement officers and the law dept is going to look to see if they can raise the fine.

What about composting?

There is no major composting game in town right now...for the time being, the city does provide free compost bins to anyone who takes a composting class.

On public recycling bins:

They [public trash cans] are very much abused (people put household trash in them, etc) so they really have to be emptied every day, maybe even several times a day in high traffic areas. Just think about what that kind of service [if you added recycling] would cost the city in terms of additional trucks and manpower. Of course much of that could be offset or covered by the $17 million previously mentioned, but it would be a tough sell right now in having to either raise taxes or eliminate some other program to pay for it.