REID’S Recycling Woes…Returns!
Here we go again. I’m fighting with the City of Kingston. Last week I put out my bottles and plastics for recycling and guess what? The City decided I was a very bad man and wasn’t going to take them. You may recall something similar happened shortly before Christmas (see post below).
Does this picture look THAT bad to you? It would appear I’ve made two mistakes according the “official rules of recycling” with our “friends” at City Hall. Firstly, I didn’t use the “official” blue box (the one on the right) for some of my recycling. Well as you know, a few years back the City decided plastics and paper only needed to be recycled every TWO weeks. We are only two people in my household…obviously they were wrong! I took a chance with this “other” bin…DECLINED! 
Secondly, there are apparently some non-recyclable materials in the “official” blue box (the one on the left). Well, rather than take the “good” stuff and leave behind the “bad” (something that they’ve done before), they left behind everything. If I didn’t have enough box space before, where the hell will I put everything in another two weeks!!!!?????
It’s times like these where I feel like saying “Screw the environment!” and throwing everything out in the trash. Now I won’t do that, but I am annoyed. Got recycling woes? Please share at reid@989.fm or leave a comment.
Thanks, REID!
PS: I realize the many uses of quotations in the blog.
Tags: city of Kingston, recycling
February 17th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
We had the exact same thing happen to us… They issue you one bin to last u the 2 weeks and if u fill that one, u better use your lunch hour to get down to the recycling depot (since it is only open during normal business hours) and get another one. I especially love that they spend the time to fill out their recycling etiquette card when that time could be spent putting my incorrectly boxed recycling in their truck and thanking me for even recycling at all. We are a household of 3 and have at least one bin in those 2 weeks. Kingston may want to look at bending their rules a little bit.
February 17th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Reid this recycling stuff is just garbage! lol Our tax dollars should be put to work litterally! Recycle collecters are some of the laziest people i’ve ever seen and get paid way to much money to be lazy! just a question…… Who would know if they took plastic from a bin that wasn’t blue? No one exactly! So it sounds to me like the city need to employ an excercise program in the morng so these people can actually be productive!
February 18th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
We have had the same issue, with both coloured boxes. They refused to pick up our grey box one day. There was no card saying why. My boyfriend and I guessed it was because the cardboard wasn’t “folded properly”. The next week, they refused to pick up our blue box because it had a bit of snow in it. The week after, the grey box was picked up, because I had more to put in it, so of course I crammed it all in.
Blue box week was next, of course. They refused it because it had a bleach bottle in it. Once again, no card -so only an assumption. It was right on top, and they could have picked it out and left it in the empty bin, which has been done before.
Like you, we’ve been tempted to say ‘screw you’ to recycling.
It’s just frustrating.
April 16th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Reid,
I’d love to join forces with you against our lovely city’s garbage collection team. I have heard of garbage collection referred to as Refuse, and it now makes sense that this term comes from the employees who REFUSE to pick up even properly sorted waste and recyclables!!! It seems as though it is easier to find an excuse to not pick it up from the curb than to actually do the job that these men and women are getting paid to do (by us). If they won’t pick it up from my curbside do you think they will pick it up from the front step of Utilities Kingston building??