At a time when carbon emissions and global warming issues draw American concern, Dallas residents are eagerly trying to establish green status. The Texan metropolis started with a recycling program.
And most of the time, it seems, they are good at it.
The huge amount of recycled matter has even doubled since Dallas started its blue curbside cart program about 18 months ago. The city’s contamination rate – the percentage of garbage that isn’t recyclable but deposited in trash cans anyway – is 50 percent of Fort Worth’s. The city collects three times more Coors cans, Honey Nut Cheerios boxes, peanut butter jars and other recyclable items collected than the larger city of Houston. Dallas makes Houston look like a garbage dump.
“Our city is doing all it can to become a greener place,” said John Barlow IV, Dallas’ recycling operations manager. A 12 months education effort has contributed to the program’s success. “And so far this is only one step in the entire process,” he proudly explained.
When, last January, the single-family residents blue cart program was launched, Mr. Barlow said the recycling department estimated it would receive 65,000 phone calls for trash bins. Instead, the department got requests for 90,000 of the sea-blue wheeled cart.
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