Pittsburgh upping recycling enforcement this year

Failing to help the city of Pittsburgh in its ongoing efforts to reduce waste and clean up its… Failing to help the city of Pittsburgh in its ongoing efforts to reduce waste and clean up its refuse process could cost city residents up to $500 in fines.

The city announced earlier this year in a news letter that it is revamping its recycling efforts and will start to aggressively prosecute people who fail to recycle properly. And whereas students shouldn’t expect city police to go rooting through their trash cans for rogue plastic bottles, officials said they take recycling efforts seriously.

Shawn Wigle, supervisor of the city’s recycling program, described the city’s efforts at detecting violators.

“We are at every residence every week,so if there’s a problem, certainly our crews will report it back to us. We also have 12 foremen that work with the crews, basically supervising them to take care of the issues. They’re out there looking for violations,” Wigle said.

According to Wigle, the city also receives tips of violations through the city’s 311 helpline.

People who fail to recycle might be issued citations summoning them to court and might be subject to steep fines. The most common violations include failing to recycle entirely or failing to clearly separate recyclables from those for regular trash pick up. Materials for recycling must be placed in blue bags or bright blue containers.

“Where we find problems, we will be warning the residents and giving them the opportunity to correct the problem. We will then be following up to make sure that folks are recycling and that they are doing it properly,” Wigle said.

Students living in off-campus housing are only liable to pay fines if they fail to use recycling units provided by their landlords.

“Number one, the landlord must provide a means for those students to recycle. If the landlord has met that obligation then it would fall to the student residents, but if he doesn’t provide a way for them to recycle, then the citation would go to the landlord,” Wigle said.

Fines can accumulate quickly too, as each incidence in which a violation is not corrected is counted as a separate violation.

According to City Code 619, people will be faced with a minimum fine of $15 for their first violation, plus court costs. The punishment for continuing offenses are more severe and can reach up to $500 plus court costs.

“We’ve done a lot to make sure that recycling is as easy and as simple as we can for all of the residents, and it’s certainly in everyone’s best interest if they participate,” Wigle said.

In 2008, the city increased the ease of recycling by switching to a “single stream” recycling method, which allows city residents to combine all of their recycled materials curbside unseparated in the same bag.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl also issued a Green Guide last year to city residents that provides information on how to dispose of hard-to-recycle item such as batteries, electronics and appliances, which cannot be recycled with the single-stream system items. The guide is also available online.

The city’s enforcement policies haven’t had much of an effect on Pitt, according to senior manager of energy initiatives Laura Zullo. She said the University has been working to increase its recycling for the past several years.

“In 2004, we recycled less than 8 percent of our total waste stream and in fiscal 2009 we recycled 42.3 percent of our total waste stream,” Zullo said.

In 2005, the University sought to increase the visibility of its recycling program by adding more receptacles. And with the approach of the RecycleMania competition, a national competition beginning in February to see which university can recycle the most, the housing department is working to add more receptacles to residence halls.

In addition, the University has also increased the types of materials it recycles.

“We recently changed the plastics recycling program to accept plastic grades one through five. It used to be that we accepted only grades one and two. We now recycle batteries as well and we’ve also recycle construction and demolition debris for the past couple of years,” Zullo said.

With the emphasis on recycling on campus, students seem to be doing their part.

“We requested recycling bins so we can collect our recyclables in our apartment before bringing it to the bins outside,” junior Alyssa Lyons said. “In Bouquet, the University seems to promote it more, and I feel better about recycling here because it’s almost like it’s my home.”