{"id":3475,"date":"2013-11-09T17:17:48","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T22:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/?p=3475"},"modified":"2021-11-20T13:42:26","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T18:42:26","slug":"needham-rts-superintendent-ann-dorfman-talks-about-recycling-at-the-climate-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/needham-rts-superintendent-ann-dorfman-talks-about-recycling-at-the-climate-cafe\/","title":{"rendered":"Needham RTS Superintendent Ann Dorfman Talks About Recycling at the Climate Cafe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the Needham Congregational Church\u2019s Climate Caf\u00e9 on Sunday, Oct. 27<sup>th<\/sup>, Needham RTS Superintendent Ann Dorfman spoke to an enthusiastic group of 30 people about recycling.\u00a0 Ann, who became Needham\u2019s RTS Superintendent in Sept. 2012, has worked in the recycling field for over 15 years.\u00a0 After a quick review or her background, Ann showed the group a short video from MassRecycle about paper recycling.<\/p>\n<p>After the video, Ann presented some key recycling facts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cRecycling\u201d is not the correct term \u2013 it\u2019s really \u201cWaste Management.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>In Massachusetts, approximately 13,000 people are employed in the recycling industry<\/li>\n<li>Of the total waste that is incinerated in Massachusetts, here\u2019s the breakdown by weight (Source: Mass DEP):\n<ul>\n<li>Paper \u2013 25%<\/li>\n<li>Plastic \u2013 14%<\/li>\n<li>Metals \u2013 5.5%<\/li>\n<li>Glass \u2013 2.2%<\/li>\n<li>Organic (Food) \u2013 21%<\/li>\n<li>Construction\/demolition \u2013 14%<\/li>\n<li>Other \u2013 18.3%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, clearly, we have the opportunity to recycle more of our waste!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The RTS is mixing in approximately 12 tons\/week of old produce\/flowers from local grocery stores in with their compost, which keeps the old produce out of the trash, and\u00a0 helps the composting process. Including food waste from Needham schools is next!<\/li>\n<li>There are<b> <\/b>20 recycling containers around town.\u00a0 Public Works has learned that these <i>must<\/i> be within five feet of the trash receptacle to be effective \u2013 otherwise, people just throw the recyclable container in the trash receptacle.<\/li>\n<li>Needham residents may borrow recycling receptacles from the RTS (e.g., for block parties).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ann then opened the floor to questions. The group was very engaged, and asked a lot of questions.\u00a0 Some interesting and informative answers from Ann followed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Corrugated cardboard is separated from paper because it\u2019s more valuable<\/li>\n<li>Paper-based milk and juice containers are also processed separately from paper because they are more valuable<\/li>\n<li>Textile recycling (not widely known): \u00a0all textiles clean\/free of mold can be recycled, including shoes &amp; belts; this is a good alternative for clothing too worn out to donate to Goodwill; at the RTS, the textile recyclables should be put into the bin immediately to the left of the Goodwill trailer.<\/li>\n<li>Pizza boxes can <i>only<\/i> be recycled if clean; the issue is that they can <i>not<\/i> be recycled if they are too greasy, so you need to expose the inside of the box (otherwise, they are assumed to be greasy and just discarded automatically).<\/li>\n<li>Plastic containers should be as clean as possible<\/li>\n<li>Containers:\u00a0 plastic &#8211; leave the caps on;\u00a0 glass jars \u2013 remove the caps<\/li>\n<li>Glass is difficult to recycle in a \u201cdual stream\u201d system like Needham\u2019s, when the glass is co-mingled with plastic and metal<\/li>\n<li>The RTS\u2019 reuse shed &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freecycle.org\">Freecycle <\/a>are great ways to recycle useful stuff that you don\u2019t want.\u00a0 Ann wants a list of more reusable options, which could be<b> <\/b>added to the RTS website.<\/li>\n<li>The RTS wants to work with people to develop recycling programs like one for construction materials (Needham has none now).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In conclusion, Ann\u2019s presentation was very interesting and informative.\u00a0 The RTS is very supportive of recycling and re-purposing of waste, and keeping it out of our yellow bags\/the incinerator.\u00a0 Please check out the RTS\u2019 new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.needhamma.gov\/index.aspx?NID=262\">website <\/a>to find answers to all your questions so that you can maximize your recycling efforts!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the Needham Congregational Church\u2019s Climate Caf\u00e9 on Sunday, Oct. 27th, Needham RTS Superintendent Ann Dorfman spoke to an enthusiastic group of 30 people about recycling.\u00a0 Ann, who became Needham\u2019s RTS Superintendent in Sept. 2012, has worked in the recycling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,36,17,292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-tips-old","category-houses-of-worship","category-municipal","category-reduce-reuse-recycle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}