Daryl’s Brain

A closet full of boxes and bags of paper, cardboard, metals, glass, and plastics was just emptied into the dumpsters. And that wasn’t even including our wine bottles. Those we are using, in their original cases, to support our coffee table. It’s time for us to start focusing on the other two R’s waste management.

As a side note, I made as much noise as possible when I threw out all the recycling. I’m not sure why. There was no one around I was upset at. I just felt like it would be appropriate to make lots of noise.

I talked to our illustrious future visitors on the phone last night. We were so very excited. Stella was doing some sort of weird dance when she got the news (he he he, don’t tell her I said that). We talked for a bit about some general things like what they should bring. Just before I had to go, a thought occurred to me. I mentioned that they should make sure not to bring too much because they were going to need a lot of room in their car…….to take back all our recycling

So, I attended my first condominium board meeting today. There was a character there who disagreed with everything that was said and thought that everything each board member mentioned was something to do with a conspiracy. But he really did his homework. He research the issues he talked about quite thoroughly (I would have never guessed that was how you spelled that) and if he had of been willing to listen to what was said he could have probably made a big impact on proceedings. But because he came across as a “conspiracy nut” no one gave him much credence.

A big disadvantage to tonight’s meeting was that there wasn’t a controlling majority of units present. As a result, no decisions could be made. At least that’s what it seemed like they were saying.

The next problem was that they didn’t follow Robert’s Rules of Order. If they did, then it was a version of them that I’ve never seen. The end result was that no motions could be brought before the board at all.

Finally, when it came time for general discussion and I had my turn, turns out that most of the board members have, individually, attempted what I am doing right now. It also seemed that one of them is trying to work something out but wouldn’t go into specifics about it. As a result, they brushed off what I had to say.

When I mentioned that having a cardboard recycling bin would take garbage out of the other garbage containers and save them money because it was cheaper to dispose of cardboard, they simply told me that no one would follow the directions and regular garbage would end up in the cardboard bin anyway. (Separating garbage from cardboard is more expensive then not doing anything.)

At least they listened politely, right? Actually they really didn’t listen at all. There are ways to teach people how to sort their garbage. Had they been listening I would have given them some ideas to help. There is no way that I will believe that Canadians have an innate ability to recycle that is not present in an American. Though it’s tempting.

I can think of many solutions to this problem, but no one is listening. Granted, some aren’t listening because they’ve tried and given up already, but that’s not true of most.

I did mention one thing that I had hoped might spark an interest. The fact that we can take our recycling out to a residential house and have it picked up there. The response?

“Huh, interesting. Is there any other business? No? Good, we’re done here.”

None of the people on the board actually care about this. How can I say that? Easy. If they did they would have said “Wait, what’s that? You said that recycling can be picked up at a residential house? I have a residential house. Would it be possible for someone to arrange delivery from the complex to my house? If so, you can recycle.”

Or something like that.

I’m just at a loss. Our closet is getting more full by the day with items we will not throw in the garbage. I don’t know what to do from here.

My stomach just got a sinking feeling and my brain said “Oh crap, someone took me seriously.”

I just received a phone call. It was my landlord. There is a tenants meeting on October the 12th and I am invited to attend with her. She seems to have generated some interest in the recycling program that I mentioned.

Uh…

Oh.

Right, that.

That proposal that I *cough* wrote up. Right. Ok. I can do this. Really, I can. Where’s my notes? I had them here a couple of weeks ago. I know I didn’t recycle them.

Step 2 (my previous post would be step 1)

Ok, so I talked with the Minister of Recycling who was very nice and thought that I should start a crusade to have the cities recycling pickup service stop by apartment and condominium complexes with more then 6 units. You see, Shrewsbury actually does have recycling pickup. It’s just that apartment and condominium housing complexes that are larger then 6 units fall outside of the townships jurisdiction and, therefore, the cities recycling trucks do not stop by here. Mr. Minister gave me the phone number of the Minister of Health and wished me luck.

He also said that when he was in a similar situation as mine he just dropped off his recycling at a friend’s house on recycling day for the trucks to pick up. That would be nice if we had any friends.

Step 3

I looked up Recycling services in the Yellow Pages (we just got ours delivered recently) and found nothing. At all.

Step 4

I called the condominium’s office and talked with the lady there who told me that others have asked about this too…and that there was nothing that she knew of that could be done. I asked for the name of the company that takes away the trash and she gave it to me. I was looking for the number too, or any contact info, but I guess I wasn’t obvious enough about that.

Step 5

I called the company that takes away the trash for our complex. I was told that the company I called did not in fact have a contract with our complex. They suggested I contact the town hall. I also asked about places to take recycling to and it seems that there is a place we can take our cardboard, but only the cardboard. Nothing else.

Step 6

I looked up the town hall in the Yellow Pages but could only find the town hall for Worcester so I called them. The phone company had printed the wrong number, but the nice people at the retirement home gave me the right number. I called the right number and had quite a bit of trouble explaining to the secretary that I was looking for Shrewsbury Town Hall, but that their number wasn’t in the book so I was calling them to get it. After some very frustrating dialogue I finally managed to get through to her what I meant and got the number.

Step 7

I called the Shrewsbury Town Hall. I was told everything that I had been told before up to this point. They don’t service apartment and condominium complexes that are this large. I tried to sound shocked. They suggested that I take my recycling to a friend’s house to be picked up with their recycling. I debated just leaving it with the town hall’s recycling. I’m still debating that.

In the end, the suggested that I talk to, guess who? The Minister of Health and Wellness. Wait…where did I put that phone number?

Step 8

The Minister of Health also told me pretty much the same thing as everyone else, but in a friendlier way. He also suggested that I contact the people who take away our garbage because they might be able to set up recycling services as well. I thanked him and went for a short walk over to our dumpsters to get a phone number. Sure enough, the name of the company was what I thought it would be, but the number was different then the one I had found earlier.

Step 9

Armed with a new number, and a secret plan, I called our garbage disposal provider. I said that I was a tenant of The Greens at Shrewsbury and that I was drafting a proposal for the inclusion of recycling in our waste management plan at the complex here. I then asked if they were able to provide this service for us. I was given a managers direct cell phone number and told to speak with him personally.

AHHHH HAAAA!!!!!

Step 10

I called up Mr. Manager (memories of Arrested Development…sigh) and re-stated that I was a tenant who was drafting a proposal for the board of our condominium complex to do with including recycling in our waste management program. (By this time I actually wasn’t kidding, I do now intend to do this.) He was delighted to talk to me and informed me that the best that they could do was to include additional bins for cardboard and paper materials only, and that they could do this for $80.00 per month. There are at least 80 units here, I thought, so that would be a dollar per person. Hmmmmmmmm.

He was also so kind as to offer a possible solution for the rest of my personal recycling.

“Do you know anyone else in the area?”

I am horrified at the lack of recycling going on in the east coast of the United States of America. I live in a condominium complex and there are no recycling bins here at all. None. Not even one that says “cardboard only”. I’ve checked and we can’t get curb-side pick up which seems to be reserved for certain areas. Apparently, equality regarding access to easy recycling does not exist here. Stella and I have a closet full of cardboard that we just can’t bring ourselves to throw out. We need recycling.

The other day Stella and myself thought we should at least return our bottles and cans at the return-it depot that is by our house. So we drove them over there (we had a lot). The big signs on top of the machines said that there was a maximum fine of $25,000.00 PER incident if you get caught returning bottles and cans that can not be returned in Massachusetts. I went over to the local grocery store and asked how it is that we can tell if we can return the bottles and they said that there would be the states abbreviation on the bottle.

That took care of 1/3 of all our bottles. One third. That means that we still had a lot of bottles to return. There was a liquor store near by and I went in to ask about recycling our wine bottles and he directed me to the bottle return-it depot. I told him I tried that and he just looked at me blankly with a “are we done here yet?” look on his face.

So now our pile of recycling is slowly growing and growing. I have called the commissioner of environmental protection to ask him what should be done about this (at least I think that was who I called) but I probably won’t hear back from him until tomorrow.

Anyone out there have any ideas?