Council recycling excuses

So I’m sitting in a Crested Butte Town Council meeting with the July 5 hangover… figuratively more than literally… and the council is talking about recycling. In a bit of a tired fog, I listened as they put out their wish list for an upcoming town trash contract. They were asking about requesting a bid for recycling residential yard waste and Christmas trees, compost and household electronics. Interesting stuff.
Later in the meeting, I was perusing the application that accompanies all special event requests. A big part of all such applications deals with recycling. It is plainly stated in the form that “all events are required to have a plan for handling recycling and garbage…”
It goes on to state that “Please note that any plan should emphasize increased recycling and decreased waste production… Please note that any event application without a detailed recycling and refuse plan will not be accepted as a complete application.”
So the council clearly wants recycling to be a part of any event in town to the extent that it won’t even consider an event without a recycling plan. Recycling is not a bad thing and in fact is a laudable goal.
Then I’m flashing back to the recycling this past July 4 weekend. Monday, I watched as the two open bins in the middle of the food court were getting filled quickly with everything from food to dirty napkins and diapers. “Hmmmm, I wonder where the recycling bins are,” I pondered, looking for a bin to drop in a plastic cup. Someone from town flipped the lids to one of the bins and it had a sign on the top stating that both the bins were meant for recycling. Oops. Too late as another half-eaten bun got tossed into the mix. So, even when the council demands recycling, through really no fault of the event organizers, the recycling plan doesn’t always work.
But on Tuesday the fifth, I’m walking down Elk Avenue and can’t spot a recycling bin as far as the eye can see. I know there are some at the softball field. I know there’s one by the library. Why isn’t there one (or ten) along the town’s main business street?
“We all want it but haven’t been persistent about it,” admitted mayor pro tem Dan Escalante. “I wanted to hire local welders to come up with some cool-looking bins but we won’t go there.”
“It’s money and manpower,” added mayor Leah Williams. “We don’t have enough of either right now.”

Now wait a minute. I won’t win a Recycler of the Year award but the council pretty much demands anyone else holding an event emphasize recycling. But they don’t ask it of themselves in the busiest section of town? They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk? What’s up with that?
Money is an issue? Go ahead and recycle that excuse.
The council members had pledged to themselves for several months that they would raise the $10,000 to pay for this past Sunday’s fireworks. It was a good display (although Mt. Crested Butte’s finale wins the prize) but in the end, the council raised less than $2,000. The rest will come out of town funds. And that’s fine since thanks to the fiscally conservative staff the town of Crested Butte has a very solid fund balance.
But fireworks will be a memory in a week, while recycling at Third and Elk would be a reality for the rest of the summer. So money obviously isn’t a critical issue for the council.

This board and town councils of the recent past all pride themselves on how green they are. They talk about it a lot. But every year, they allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars in their budget process and every dollar they spend is their real stated “walk,” not just their “talk.” And basic recycling in the heart of town that can be found in most small communities across America isn’t a real priority.
I understand the money issues, the manpower issues, the “it’s not as easy as it sounds” issues. But if you can’t deal with an effective and high-profile recycling plan, how can you have the gumption to ask others to deal? Is it hypocritical? Lazy? Cheap? All of the above?
A council should do more than talk the talk. And when it comes to something like a few recycling bins on each downtown block where the people are, it is time to start walking the walk.