Recycling? Not!

By Tiffany Craig Investigative Reporter

Our cameras were rolling as a garbage man dumped material from a recycle bin into a garbage can. What's going on here? Click this story. Recycling? Not!

Published: Mon, February 18, 2008 - 11:43 pm Last Updated: Mon, September 29, 2008 - 3:09 pm

Tiffany Craig

We're all told to reduce, reuse and recycle. But most of the recycling programs in our area require time and money.

That's why this next story caught the attention of News 5's Tiffany Craig. She found that effort and money simply being tossed away.

We camped out inside a Spanish Fort house and recorded the garbage man dumping a filled recycle bin into the regular garbage. The week before, the homeowner shot video of the same thing.

Two weeks of watching out this activity out the window leads to one big question. Why is the garbage man dumping the contents of a recycle bin into the garbage can?

Did you Know?

According to Keep Mobile Beautiful, each American generates 4.4 pounds of garbage per day!

We started by showing our hidden camera video to citizens like Christina Hollis. "I think they'll be looking at the service to make sure they're getting the service that they have wanted and two have paid for. And that their time has gone into, I think they'll be quite upset."

So, we set out in search of the garbage man behind the video. He works for Advanced Disposal. Instead we found another crew on the collection route. That worker didn't want to be identified but helped explain the process. Tiffany asked, "Some people put recycle bins out on the curb are you supposed to pick that stuff up?" The worker responded, "they have a recycle truck that comes out to pick that up."

Except that's not what the video shows us. We only saw the garbage truck at work. So we continued talking, 'It wasn't you because we have the video. Someone else that does your job dumped the recycle stuff into the garbage bin." He quickly responded, "I don't do it. You gotta check with the office on that."

What's In Our Garbage?

39% Paper
13% Yard Waste
10% Food
10% Plastics
8% Metal
5% Glass
5% Wood

Source: Keep Mobile Beautiful

So, we went to Advanced Disposal's main office in Mobile to get answers from Area President Gerald Greene. "I'm a resident and I look out my window or I'm a reporter and I see a recycle bin. It's picked up and put in a trash can. Perception is reality."

Greene is right! The reality is that Spanish Fort customers pay almost 5 dollars a month for curbside recycling. Greene acknowledges the concern we had when watching the garbage man. "Certainly, a resident or anyone paying for a service has every right to have that product or service handled properly. We do that most of the time we think."

Greene claims that his employee dumped the bin into the regular can because he spotted what's called contaminated material. Tiffany asked, "Just for the sake or argument, that garbage man didn't look down and look into the bin." Greene disagreed, "It looked to me like he did look down when he was picking it up."

Items the garbage company considers contaminated are wet newspapers, dirty plastic containers or aluminum cans, boxes not broken down and glass. "It didn't look good. It didn't look good but again it could have been all glass. I've been doing this for a long time and I couldn't tell exactly what was in the bin."

Most Often Recycled Items:

1. Auto Batteries
2. Steel Cans
3. Yard Trimmings
4. Paper

Hollis says watching this video is a reminder to anyone paying for any kind of service. "Life is too busy and I just take for granted that it's being done. Then, I see something like that and it puts you on stop. Now I've got to start checking into different things."

In this case, the garbage president promises immediate action. "So we will not be dumping any cart until the resident has had a chance to go back and rectify that problem. We'll go back on the next service day."

The promises is that they'll leave a tag on the bin and call customers if there's a problem instead of just dumping their items and money into the garbage!

Advanced Disposal employees met today to discuss the policy changes being put in place due to this story. Greene says if customers have a problem, they can call his office directly at (251) 445 2472