RECYCLING - Operating a Recycling Program: A Citizen's Guide, EPA #SW-770), 1980, 96 pp., free from: EPA Solid Wast~ Publications 26 West St. Clair Cincinatti, OH 45268 If you w~nt t<? start a recycling project in your community, your first question will probably be, "Where do we.begin?" The best·advice is to get a copy of EPA's new • publication Operating a Recyclin~ Pro- ,. • gram: A Citizen's Guide and read it as if your project's life could depend on it ... because it just ~ight. "If only we'd known that when we started this" rings throughout recycling history. Two old-timers to the recycling field have compiled this guide, under an EPA training grant, which will take "learning the hard wa'y" out of starting a recycling project. Jerry Powell and Kevin Mulligan, who each played an intrinsic role in developing recycling in Portland, Oregcn, have compiled a well-designed 'and specific manual. Operating a Recycling Program carefully examines nearly every aspect of starting and maintaining a recycling depot. Do you want to use steel barrels, bins or nesting containers, self-dumping hoppers? Do you want to be a drop-off center, periodic project, commercial collection or buy-back system? These are just examples of the • , ,specific nature of each section. Advantages and disadvantages of methods of operation, handling, equipment, processing, publicity and education are all discussed in a manner that only someone who knows the recycling scene could write. Watch for gems of advice like "Top dollar (for recyclables) is not l)ecessarily top deal" or ."Publicity-and education constitute a never-e1'ding task which must be done throughout your program and not just at the 01:1tset." Additionally, it is great to see a recycling guide 'Vhich finally deals , with the biggest1. quaRdaries in recycling, funding and business/legal requirements. A Citizen's Guide should be used for more than its title suggests. Its professional approach should help recycling achieve the credibility it deserves with municipal governments loo.king to recycling as part 'of their waste reduction plans. -Nandie Szabo How to Start a Recycling Center, 37 pp., fr.ee from: • • California Solid Waste Management Board 1020 9th Street, Rm. 300 Sacramento,. CA 95814 This pamphlet offers good, _practical advice on the economic considerations and drawbacks for different kinds of recycling opera- , tions (i.e., centers where people "drop" off their recyclables.but are not paid for mate- ,rials, centers where recyclablls are purchased from the public and,then processed,, and curbside op_erations that colfect "at the door"). However, potential recycling organizations-especially outside of C~lifornia/should realize the "faqs" this guide so boldly asserts may not apply to their state. A recycli~g d·epot in a non-bottle bill state RAIN Page 19 . may depend on aluminum beverage cans for-its revenue, whereas depots in bottle bill states may depend on-a strong office ledger paper program. A "fact" like "your greatest problems will be staffing, material, preparation, storage and transportation" may be true from an operational perspective, but 1n states where recycling efforts . must start from scratch, public and municipal education and actual participation may be the clincher. • While this guide stresses universal recy: cling needs like markets and the importance of daily accounting, the au'thors are upfront in their approach to profit vs. community service projects-objectives which often don't mesh but need to be clarified. Perhaps the best advice this straightforward little pamphlet offers to live up to its name is: don't he afraid to ask for help and advice. Talk to people in the recycling field. Couple tha,t,withl:he suggestions it offers and you have a r~cycling depot's key to success. -Nandie Szabo
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