Items tagged with 'garbage'

Albany switches to single-stream recycling

albany blue recycling bin

All you need is blue -- or green. Apparently it doesn't matter now.

The City of Albany officially announced today that it's made the switch to single-stream recycling. (It had unofficially made the switch back in July.) That means A-Towners can throw all their recyclables into one bin, instead of sorting into the green and blue.* [TU]

Troy made this switch last October. And County Waste, the big private trash hauler, has been transitioning since the end of 2009.

The one-bin-for-them-all method theoretically will be easier for people. And if that increases the amount of stuff getting diverted from the landfill -- great. Back in 2009, a consultant reported that "significant quantities of designated recyclables" were ending up in the landfill. That's bad for at least a few reasons. One, because stuff that could recycled was being stuck in the ground. And two, because the Albany landfill, which takes trash from 16 municipalities, doesn't have a lot of space left -- it's anticipated to be full by the end of 2016. There's now discussion about creating a regional trash authority to deal with the problem. [TU] [Albany Landfill] [TU]

A flier with details about the constant "Can this be recycled?" question is after the jump.

* Right or wrong, we've been one-binning for months after we didn't get a green container. The stuff disappeared each week, so... uh... maybe it was OK.

(there's more)

Noted: incinerators, like stomachs, get upset when they eat too much ice cream

stewarts recall ice cream incineratorStewart's posted on its Facebook page today about what's happened to all that ice cream it had to recall:

We are disposing of the recently recalled ice cream at an area landfill, as well as a burn plant. We can only send 40 tons of recalled ice cream, a day, to the burn plant -- more than that will put out the fire. We are destroying a total of 250 tons of ice cream!

In other Stewart's ice cream news, Jessica spotted Crumbs Along the Mohawk, back in circulation. (Crumbs has reportedly changed lives.)

Earlier on AOA: Stewart's ice cream recall info

photo: Stewart's Shops

That is a lot of garbage

landfill from distance

We took this picture from the Washington Ave overpass at Rt 85. It's been cropped a bit.

We noticed this a little while back, but only snapped the picture yesterday: you can see the Rapp Road landfill all the way down Washington Ave where it crosses over Rt 85.

According to the Gmaps Pedometer, that's 3.3 miles as the crow (or, in the case probably, seagull) flies. That is a big hill of trash.

By the way: it's projected that the landfill will be full by the end of this year. So, where's all the trash going to go? Good question. The City of Albany is still trying to work things out with the DEC for an expansion of the facility.

And it's not just Albany that would be looking for a place to dump its trash -- more than 200,000 people in the Capital Region send their garbage to this facility.

Earlier on AOA:
+ How does pay-as-you-throw smell?

How does pay-as-you-throw smell?

San Francisco garbage cans

Garbage cans being distributed for San Francisco's pay-as-you-throw program. The city is aiming to someday have zero waste. (Photo by Flickr user ToastyKen.)

The Albany landfill is running out of space. In fact, it's expected to be full by the end of next year. The city has been trying to get the state DEC to approve an expansion of the facility, but the DEC bounced the first few proposals and said something along the lines of "Come on. You're not even trying."

So the latest draft proposal includes a few strategies for reducing the amount of garbage thrown into the landfill. Among them is something called "pay-as-you-throw." It's pretty much what is sounds like -- the more you throw out, the more you pay.

OK, so does that actually work? We went dumpster diving for answers.

(there's more)

The Scoop

For a decade All Over Albany was a place for interested and interesting people in New York's Capital Region. It was kind of like having a smart, savvy friend who could help you find out what's up. AOA stopped publishing at the end of 2018.

Recently on All Over Albany

Thank you!

When we started AOA a decade ago we had no idea what was going to happen. And it turned out better than we could have... (more)

Let's stay in touch

This all feels like the last day of camp or something. And we're going to miss you all so much. But we'd like to stay... (more)

A few things I think about this place

Working on AOA over the past decade has been a life-changing experience for me and it's shaped the way I think about so many things.... (more)

Albany tightened its rules for shoveling snowy sidewalks last winter -- so how'd that work out?

If winter ever gets its act together and drops more snow on us, there will be sidewalks to shovel. And shortly after that, Albany will... (more)

Tea with Jack McEneny

Last week we were fortunate enough to spend a few minutes with Jack McEneny -- former state Assemblyman, unofficial Albany historian, and genuinely nice guy.... (more)

Recent Comments

My three year old son absolutely loving riding the train around Huck Finn's (Hoffman's) Playland this summer.

Thank you!

...has 27 comments, most recently from Ashley

Let's stay in touch

...has 4 comments, most recently from mg

A look inside 2 Judson Street

...has 3 comments, most recently from Diane (Agans) Boyle

Everything changes: Alicia Lea

...has 2 comments, most recently from Chaz Boyark

A few things I think about this place

...has 13 comments, most recently from Katherine