Giving business a lift

Municipal collection of recyclables has traditionally targeted the residential sector. Programs aimed at commercial waste diversion most often use mandates, technical assistance and promotion, rather than actual pick-up of materials. There are a few towns and cities, however, that are starting to collect recyclables from the business sector.

Programs are mostly aimed at small and medium sized businesses, since smaller companies face a situation not unlike that of residential households. They may want to recycle, but need the economies of scale and convenience of an organized system.

The City of Ann Arbor, Michigan, provides trash collection for the majority of its commercial enterprises and therefore has a direct stake in waste reduction. Already saddled with a $1.1 million commercial collection program, Ann Arbor was faced with a dilemma: How could it continue to provide garbage service and add recycling, without increasing the budget?

In 1992, a $174,000 pilot study was conducted, offering recycling services to 120 businesses. Both source separated and cocollection systems were evaluated. Based on the study, the city chose an unusual approach -- a green bag cocollection system for commercial recyclables, which bears some resemblance to residential blue bag systems. "We decided to go with cocollection, because we thought we could get the biggest bang for the buck," explains Tom McMurtrie, recycling coordinator for Ann Arbor. The program, called Recycle Plus, was brought fully on line in the fall of 1993.

The system is tailored to fit Ann Arbor's diverse business community and the existing program. In most of the city, commercial waste is placed in dumpsters. For the recycling program, the business sector was divided into "dry" and "wet" stream categories. Businesses that produce less than 15 percent food waste belong to the dry category, and are eligible to be served by green bag cocollection. Other businesses -- mostly restaurants and taverns -- are served by a source separated recycling system. The purpose of segregating the "wet" stream is not, at this point, to separate material for composting, rather to keep moisture from contaminating the recyclables.

A third category of businesses, concentrated in the downtown area, has no room for dumpsters. These businesses use the green bag system, but the recyclables are collected in back alleys separately from refuse.

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