Recycling Drop Off

 According to the city map, Carbondale has three locations, besides Southern Recycling, where residents can drop off recyclable materials:  parking lot at the now closed University Baptist Church, East College across from Victory Dream Center and behing the Grand Avenue Mall.  I took a look at all three spots this week and only found recycling bins at the University Baptist Church location.  If the others have been moved to new locations, the city should update its map of their locations.

Hazardous Waste Recycling

 If you are a Jackson County resident, you can register to dispose of chemicals and other items at the Bantera Center parking lot tomorrow. Here is the link . 

Hazardous Waste Collection

 Jackson County has hazardous waste collection set up for Oct 17. Unlike past events, you need to register in advance to use the service. You can call 618-683-3143 ext 128 to schedule an appointment or sign up online here . 

Christmas Tree Recycling

If you want to recycle your Christmas tree, the city will accept them from Jan 2 through Jan 31. Strip all of the Christmas decor from them and leave them out on your normal refuse and recycling day. Note that this applies to your live tree only. The only way to recycle artificial trees is to take them one of the thrift shops in town or put them in your trash.

Trash Can Recycling

In case you hadn't noticed, everyone with trash pick up in Carbondale will receive nifty new trash cans. So, the question becomes, what to do with the old ones? One option is to keep it as a souvenir of trash days past but that is probably not practical. There are two options you could choose:

1.  Leave your old trash can at the curb. The city will pick it up and toss it in  a landfill. Gets it out of your house but rather wasteful

2. Drop it off behind Hickory Lodge for someone else who might need a trash can. They have a spot marked in the back corner for trash can recycling

From the email sent out by the city:

Carbondale residents who find themselves with unneeded trash cans following the new trash cart rollout have several options to choose from.

Residents can keep their old can and use it for other purposes; pass it on to someone who needs it; bring it to Southern Recycling (wheels and metal must be removed); or make a note on it asking City workers to take it to the landfill.

If you would like to give your trash can a new home, a site has been set up by Keep Carbondale Beautiful behind Hickory Lodge at 1115 W. Sycamore Street for “Trash Can Give Away.” Residents can leave cans in the back corner of the parking lot, next to the shed. Anyone in need of a free trash can is invited to come take one.

Christmas Tree Recycling

In case you are wondering what to do with your Christmas tree, the city's annual recycling program starts tomorrow.

City Council Meeting

Figured it would be over by the time I arrived about 10 p.m. last night but nope, council was still discussing the solid waste/recycling scheduling issue, with Councilwoman Jane Adams offering an amendment to the ordinance that would limit trash pickup to two cans per household with an additional charge for extra cans.  Councilwoman Corine McDaniels came out strongly against this proposal, arguing that such a limit and charge would be unfair to larger households which would conceivably generate a larger quantity of garbage.  Adams' amendment lost, 6 to 1 if I remember rightly.  Then there was another clarification indicating that 4 apartment multplexes could now participate in the city's recycling program, whereas before no apartments were included.  After this, the original ordinance passed.

The chicken ordinance (allowing Carbondale residents to keep up to six chickens, no roosters) came up next with several members of the Sustainability Commission ready and waiting to promote the ordinance to the council.  Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance as, after some discussion, council decided to send the ordinance to the Planning Commission for evaluation and recommendation regarding what action the council should take.At least a couple of council members argued for a higher chicken tax than the currently proposed one of $5.

Council comments were enlivened by a brief argument between Councilwoman Adams and Councilman Lance Jack, with Adams taking Jack to task for comments he had made regarding the appropriateness of other councilmenbers, Adams included, to vote on liquor issues since they owned shares in the Neighborhood Food Co-op, which will soon sell beer and wine.  Jack retorted that, according to state law, even indirect ownership in an establishment selling liquor was enough to disqualify a member of the council from voting on the issue.  Adams then responded that the city attorney had looked into the issue and had said there was no conflict of interest.  It looked as if the two of them planned to go back and forth on this for several minutes until Mayor Fritzler stepped in and put a halt to the argument, saying that council comments was not the appropriate place for such a discussion.  Council then moved into closed session.

I missed the earlier section of the meeting when the council voted to pull funding for District 95's Summer Math and Reading program but understand that Councilwoman McDaniels and Councilman Chris Wissmann both spoke out in favor of retaining the funding, while Councilwoman Adams, while agreeing the program did show benefits, said the city could not afford funding it at this time.  City funding for the program was then cut, with Adams, Fronabarger, Monty and Fritzler voting in favor of the cut, while Jack, Wissmann and McDaniels voted to retain it.

City Council Meeting

Several interesting items on the agenda of what looks like a busy city council meeting tonight including the chicken ordinance, the establishing of a solid waste recycling fee schedule, and the termination of city funding for District 95's Summer Reading and Math Program

Rcycling Workshop

The City of Carbondale will host a Recycling Program Workshop for all interested residents. The Workshop will focus on curbside, drop-off, landscape and special waste recycling.  Information about the City’s refuse collection services will also be available.

The Workshop is free and open to the public. The event will be held in the Carbondale Civic Center located at 200 South Illinois Avenue in Room 118 on September 13, 2011 at 6:30 pm. New residents and those with questions about the City’s recycling and refuse collection services are encouraged to attend.

For more information residents may call the City of Carbondale Maintenance and Environmental Services Division at 457-3275.  Information about refuse and recycling services can also be found online at www.CarbondaleRecycles.com and on the City of Carbondale Web site www.explorecarbondale.com.

Recycling Workshop

In case you want to know about the recycling services offered by the city, it will host a Recycling Workshop next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in room 118 of the Civic Center.  I'd like to find out why we don't have recycling set up in the Civic Center yet.  Take a look around the next time you are in there, no bins or collection receptacles at all.

The City of Carbondale will host a Recycling Program Workshop for all interested residents. The Workshop will focus on curbside, drop-off, landscape and special waste recycling.  Information about the City’s refuse collection services will also be available.

The Workshop is free and open to the public. The event will be held in the Carbondale Civic Center located at 200 South Illinois Avenue in Room 118 on July 12, 2011 at 6:30 pm. New residents and those with questions about the City’s recycling and refuse collection services are encouraged to attend.

For more information residents may call the City of Carbondale Maintenance and Environmental Services Division at 457-3275.  Information about refuse and recycling services can also be found online at www.CarbondaleRecycles.com and on the City of Carbondale Web site www.explorecarbondale.com.

Sustainabily Commission

The Sustainability Commission met last night with newly appointed city council representative Don Monty attending.  Asst. city manager Kevin Baity reported that the Koppers' wood treatment plant clean up continued.  For those of you who think government typically slows things up, the EPAs activities regarding Koppers would certainly reinforce that opinion as Baity indicates that the EPA has changed its mind on a number of actions it wants taken regarding Koppers, issues new directives and changed regulations, slowing the cleanup significantly.

The possibility of a bike trail west of town looks pretty good, if the money becomes available.  The trail would start at N. Oakland and follow the abandoned railroad bed, joining old Rt 13 approximately where the Jackson County Humane Society stands.  The city and the Carbondale Park District hold the right of way for much of that section of the trail.  Unfortunately,  further west of the Humane Society, much subdividing of the old rail bed has taken place and about fourteen property owners, at least, would have to agree to allow the trail to extend to Murphysboro.

The chicken ordinance has been handed off to Mayor Fritzler so it's up to him now to decide if he wants to bring it before the council.

Finally, the city recycling program, strangely, does not pick up at either the Civic Center or Amtrak Station.  City employees have been gathering recyclables and hauling them to Southern Recycling on their own. Baity indicated that public recycling bins have been ordered for the Civic Center and, once they arrive, the city recycling program will start picking up at both locations.

Recycling Workshop

Rather last minute but there are still some seats left for today's workshop “Recycling Works: A Toolkit for Reducing Waste in the Workplace.”  The workshop is FREE and is being presented by Mike Mitchell from the Illinois Recycling Association and Mike Huskey from Revolution Recycling.  Please join us for a great presentation on taking the next steps to greening your office, department, program or business.  We will also have a display of serviceware (utensils, cups, plates, etc.) that are made from recyclable, compostable and/or renewable materials.  A continental breakfast will be provided.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m., Room 150, Dunn-Richmond Economic Development Center

RSVP via this email (LINDBERG@SIU.EDU)  or leave a message at 453.6754

Cost of Recycling

Not much new came out of last Thursday's sustainability commission meeting.  Chicken ordinance is still on hold and will remain so until the new Mayor and council are sworn in.  The new bike path committee met last Friday and the commission will look into increasing recycling at apartment complexes.  One interesting fact did come out of the discussion regarding recycling costs.  Southern Recycling, who handles the city's recycling program, currently loses money on cardboard recycling.  However, the money made on aluminum recycling covers the losses on cardboard.  Recycling one truckload of aluminum covers the losses on recycling three truckloads of cardboard.

The city could save money by just dumping the cardboard in the Jackson County Landfill, but county ordinances prohibit the disposal of recyclable materials, including cardboard.

Carbondale Recycling

A few interesting insights came out of the presentation by the city's reycling program at Thursday's Sustainability Commission meeting. Number one, due to the regulations Jackson County has imposed at the landfill the city uses, the city has to have a recycling program in place. Two, due to the recession which has hurt the price paid for recyclable products such as cardboard, plasitic, aluminum etc. , teh city loses money on recycling.

Third, apartment dwellers help subsidize the recycling program for the rest of the city as the city doesn't pick up recyclables from apartments of 5 or more units but adds the recycling fee to their water/sewer bill. Finally, due to fuel price increases, the city expects to break even on recycling by the end of this fiscal year. It is much cheaper to haul stuff to Southern Recycling than the 20 miles out to the county dump.

Holiday Recycling

The city has announced its holiday recycling schedule:

s Christmas approaches the City of Carbondale would like to remind residents about holiday refuse recycling schedules. Holiday wrapping paper and cardboard boxes can be recycled within the green bins or taken to one of the City's three drop off locations. Foil coated wrapping paper and plastic or Styrofoam packing material can be disposed as refuse. Boxes should be bundled or flattened or placed in a larger box and set next to the green recycle bin if it becomes full. Extra recyclable material may also be taken to a City of Carbondale drop off location.

Christmas Tree recycling will begin January 3, 2011. Pine rope, wreaths, garland and flocked trees must be discarded with the regular refuse.

Refuse and Recycling routes will run on the normal scheduled pick-up days during the holiday season. Trash, recycling and Christmas trees should be placed at the curb by 8:00 AM on the normal collection day.

Residents who need a recycling bin or have any questions, may contact the Maintenance and Environmental Services Office at 457-3275 during regular office hours of 7:00 AM and 4:00 PM, Monday thru Friday or visit the City's recycling website at www.CarbondaleRecycles.com.

Light Bulb Recycling

Apparently it's going to become much easier to recycle compact florescent bulbs locally and the state and Ameren are partnering to put a hundred recycling units are various locations throughout the state, including Carbondale.

Tuscan Lodge Update

Got some more information regarding Maier's $20,000 bid on the demolition of the Tuscan Lodge. Apparently the council had budgeted around $45,000 for demolition costs but Maier's bid doesn't include any charges for taking the bricks from the building to the landfill. Higher bids included a dumping and landfill charge for all materials. Instead, Maier takes ownership of the materials from the building and will be able to resell the bricks to cover a significant portion of his costs.

There is a thriving demand for old bricks, especially for landscaping and remodeling projects. When I had some work done on my chimney a couple of years ago, I was told by the mason that he had pulled down chimneys like mine for no charge, as long as he could have the bricks from them.