Nashville City Paper: Proposal To Evaluate Curby

Despite the fact that I support the idea of recycling, I have been very critical of Nashville's recycling program (a.k.a. "Curby"). As far as I can tell it has not been working well in Salemtown.

A story in yesterday's Nashville City Paper (NCP) supports my perception. Reportedly, Council member Lynn Williams is calling for Curby to be evaluated because she believes that there are parts of Nashville where the program is not operating as well as in others. I wholeheartedly support her on this one.

According to the NCP, Williams received a Public Works list of participation rates of different areas. Not surprisingly:

At the bottom of the list is North Nashville, which received 1,764 carts and has a participation rate of 21.2 percent. Bordeaux has a participation rate of 27.7 percent of 4,010 distributed carts and is listed among the 10 lowest participating neighborhoods.

Not having the list myself, I cannot tell whether Salemtown is included in "North Nashville," but my perceptions about recycling here tell me that our participation would be consistent with if not lower than 21.2%.

Of course, I would be interested to see their plan for evaluating whether or not people are using the program. My bin holds a couple of plastic bottles, which are recylable, among a couple of unrecyclable items (none of which I put in). Does Curby's weekly refusal to take the plastic bottles away constitute nonparticipation on my part?

The NCP also reports that Public Works is trying to bring back bulk item (furniture, etc.) pickup. That would make more sense in Salemtown than Curby's current program of distributing recycling carts without educating residents. Recyling advocates seem to be fighting over how to educate residents to recycle. "How" is not an issue in Salemtown. "Any" education would help if they expect us to recycle at all.