Recycling Changes Effective January 1, 2023
joan_crystal said:
I now have the type of pick up entered on my calendar for each pick-up date through the end of June. If I don't get it straight by then, I am in trouble.
I put a recurring event in my (online) calendar with no end date for each type of pickup (at two-week intervals.) So, I will have them there until they change things the next time and then I can end or update my calendar entries. I suspect that it may always be hard to simply "remember" which pickup it is each week, so I like having the reminder that I can count on.
Just take a colored sharpie and make a dot on all of one set of dates. Problem solved.
Commingled was on the curb this morning and they left it behind. No idea why. Checked and double-checked the schedule and today's the day.
Thinking maybe we had a prohibited item in there I pulled stuff out, a container audit if you will. I only found a No. 6 plastic cup buried midway through the container.
I sense the answer is NO, but maybe they could tag our containers if we've offended the recycling gods?
Soul_29 said:
Commingled was on the curb this morning and they left it behind. No idea why. Checked and double-checked the schedule and today's the day.
Thinking maybe we had a prohibited item in there I pulled stuff out, a container audit if you will. I only found a No. 6 plastic cup buried midway through the container.
I sense the answer is NO, but maybe they could tag our containers if we've offended the recycling gods?
Did they take everyone else's?
Soul_29 said:
Commingled was on the curb this morning and they left it behind. No idea why. Checked and double-checked the schedule and today's the day.
Thinking maybe we had a prohibited item in there I pulled stuff out, a container audit if you will. I only found a No. 6 plastic cup buried midway through the container.
I sense the answer is NO, but maybe they could tag our containers if we've offended the recycling gods?
I had mine missed a few weeks ago when everyone else on the block was picked up and it was all the correct items. I think they just sometimes miss them. I reported it to the town, and they said to leave it out and somebody (either from the town or the recycling company) did finally pick it up on Thursday after it was missed on Monday.
They are supposed to tag them if they see contraband, but I think the challenge the towns are facing to get them to properly run the routes has to be tackled first. I know SO govt is pretty unhappy with the hauler right now.
wendy said:
Nope. That is a business group and your link doesn't work but my search pulled that up as SOMA Lounge Business Directory or another one was SOMA Realtor Lounge.
I'll be reaching out to the the TC committee and of course include Ms. Adams but thought it would be helpful to see this SOMA lounge. As I said I am no stranger to groups, both public and private. But that link does not work.
ETA to add I joined but that is not SOMA lounge. It's SOMa Lounge Business Directory and there is no post after December 14 2022
I posted in the demolishing thread the following in italics. Thought I'd close the circle about not being able to read posts on SOMA lounge:
I just sent an email to each person on the Township Committee about this and about access in general to this forum. SOMA Lounge is a private Facebook group where one has to apply to join and then be able to read and post. I found out from the current admins that the past admins blocked me twice from the Lounge in 2016 and then in 2017 and apparently that block still exists which is why the url didn't let me view the site. I have no idea why and did not receive any notice. The current admins who would not give me their names would not reconsider this. This message conversation was shared with the committee members by me. Frankly I don't care about the Lounge access in general but the TC cannot use that group as the sole way to communicate given that it is not a public Facebook page. Putting aside those who choose not join Facebook at all (like daveschmidt), this cannot be the sole way to communicate. Even when the hosts of this forum MOL have blocked folks consistently (think Strawberry as a poster not as a nice funny guy) he was still able to read things on the site. I won't be posting the committee members responses to me here but thought some of you might find this interesting.
Wendy Lauter
Guessing that there will be no apology for your comments about how we were all wrong with the url and links to SOMa Lounge.
wendy said:
I posted in the demolishing thread the following in italics. Thought I'd close the circle about not being able to read posts on SOMA lounge:
I just sent an email to each person on the Township Committee about this and about access in general to this forum. SOMA Lounge is a private Facebook group where one has to apply to join and then be able to read and post. I found out from the current admins that the past admins blocked me twice from the Lounge in 2016 and then in 2017 and apparently that block still exists which is why the url didn't let me view the site. I have no idea why and did not receive any notice. The current admins who would not give me their names would not reconsider this. This message conversation was shared with the committee members by me. Frankly I don't care about the Lounge access in general but the TC cannot use that group as the sole way to communicate given that it is not a public Facebook page. Putting aside those who choose not join Facebook at all (like daveschmidt), this cannot be the sole way to communicate. Even when the hosts of this forum MOL have blocked folks consistently (think Strawberry as a poster not as a nice funny guy) he was still able to read things on the site. I won't be posting the committee members responses to me here but thought some of you might find this interesting.
Wendy Lauter
It is the same Facebook Group, The name was changed at some point and the old name still appears on searches within Facebook.
Steve said:
Guessing that there will be no apology for your comments about how we were all wrong with the url and links to SOMa Lounge.
I apologize. It's hard to realize why a link doesn't work when one has been blocked since 2017 according to the current admins and has no notice of that. So given that while it's understandable why I thought the url was wrong or for some reason didn't work for me if I offended or hurt you Steve and others my apologies. Interesting how you need to post this by the way. Very true to the character I recall on other threads. Have a fine day.
Wendy Lauter
Wow. You were the one who circled back to this issue by complaining about unofficial sharing of information by government officials. You "apologize" but then blame me for causing you to act the way you did. Nice.
Maybe, just maybe, our officials should be shown a little appreciation for being reachable through both official and unofficial means. I suspect - and am pretty confident - that officials in both towns meet their obligations for public disclosure through either posting on the official municipal website, advertising, mailing, or otherwise. Yet, no matter what they do, they are always criticizing for not doing more. As another poster (who had the temerity to disagree with you) noted, maybe that's why there is actually less communication from officials today than there was a few years ago.
Steve said:
Wow. You were the one who circled back to this issue by complaining about unofficial sharing of information by government officials. You "apologize" but then blame me for causing you to act the way you did. Nice.
Maybe, just maybe, our officials should be shown a little appreciation for being reachable through both official and unofficial means. I suspect - and am pretty confident - that officials in both towns meet their obligations for public disclosure through either posting on the official municipal website, advertising, mailing, or otherwise. Yet, no matter what they do, they are always criticizing for not doing more. As another poster (who had the temerity to disagree with you) noted, maybe that's why there is actually less communication from officials today than there was a few years ago.
Wrong. But thanks for trying. Sheesh.
Wendy Lauter
Real poster (can't comment on you of course)
Steve said:
Maybe, just maybe, our officials should be shown a little appreciation for being reachable through both official and unofficial means.
I didn’t think a belief that it’s wrong for a public official to share information on a public matter, however informally or unofficially, only in a private group on a private platform would be controversial.
I think that the problem is that the law sets the minimum requirements for officials to make things public. When they use alternate additional means that not all see, they are criticized. While they cannot block people from accessing posts for which they control access, it seems detrimental to limit the additional ways for them to reach out to people.
just saying that it seems that more is better and they tend to be more available to the public this way I’m in no way suggesting that Facebook is or should be a replacement for official means of communication.
Sheesh.
Steve - clearly not a real poster.
Steve said:
I think that the problem is that the law sets the minimum requirements for officials to make things public. When they use alternate additional means that not all see, they are criticized. While they cannot block people from accessing posts for which they control access, it seems detrimental to limit the additional ways for them to reach out to people.
They’re criticized not for additional means but for exclusive means.
More is better. More is officials copying informative and explanatory comments that they post to a private Facebook group and pasting them in a Hot Topics blog on the township website.
DaveSchmidt said:
Steve said:
I think that the problem is that the law sets the minimum requirements for officials to make things public. When they use alternate additional means that not all see, they are criticized. While they cannot block people from accessing posts for which they control access, it seems detrimental to limit the additional ways for them to reach out to people.
They’re criticized not for additional means but for exclusive means.
More is better. More is officials copying informative and explanatory comments that they post to a private Facebook group and pasting them in a Hot Topics blog on the township website.
Thank you Dave for being clearer than I have done. It is not easy being a town committee member and I have great respect for all they do in what is a challenging and basically volunteer position. Whenever I have publicly addressed the TC I always first thank them before I proceed to discuss the reason I am there. Yes Steve is correct that there are requirements for how officials make things public but Dave's response to that is right on.
I don't think that it is fair to expect them to copy and paste everything that they post to a town blog. Aside from possibly being overwhelming, it would not provide context for the statements. I think that the best evidence for the impact of responses to past posting is the decrease in current posting by local officials.
Steve said:
I don't think that it is fair to expect them to copy and paste everything that they post to a town blog. Aside from possibly being overwhelming, it would not provide context for the statements. I think that the best evidence for the impact of responses to past posting is the decrease in current posting by local officials.
I thought there might be some liability or bureaucratic (like a TC desire to approve each post) concerns regarding an official’s posts on a township website versus in a private Facebook group. That it’d be too onerous to copy and paste info and add some context, if needed, didn’t cross my mind.
Think about the frequency with which they are tagged in posts on Facebook (though, given that you may not be on Facebook, you might not be aware of that).
I think that the better way to look at these interactions is to view them more as if they were conversations between and among people (like we used to have in the pre-COVID, pre-social media days) where if you weren't present, you might not get the information directly.
Steve said:
Think about the frequency with which they are tagged in posts on Facebook (though, given that you may not be on Facebook, you might not be aware of that).
Right, except it’s not because I’m not on Facebook. (I can see posts on public Facebook pages, like for the Union Pork Store.) It’s because the group is private, which is the crux.
DaveSchmidt said:
Steve said:
Think about the frequency with which they are tagged in posts on Facebook (though, given that you may not be on Facebook, you might not be aware of that).
Right, except it’s not because I’m not on Facebook. (I can see posts on public Facebook pages, like for the Union Pork Store.) It’s because the group is private, which is the crux.
Bingo. That is the point I made to each of the committee members I made in my email to them yesterday.
Steve said:
You wouldn't hear it either if it were a conversation on the street.
I don't believe that is equivalent. If a TC member wants to converse with a large group of people on a social media site, that site should be available for all to view that conversation, which if a private group can choose who can view it all regardless of posting rights.
Steve said:
You wouldn't hear it either if it were a conversation on the street.
To echo wendy: If a conversation on the street was the only way that an official was conveying information about an issue of wider community interest, that’d strike me as problematic, too.
More is better.
The township email said recycling would be collected one day later this week because of Memorial Day, so I abided it by keeping my bin inside on Wednesday, my zone’s usual pickup day.
On Wednesday, a Basso truck came down the street, picking up bins that neighbors had left out. It had passed too far away by the time I emerged from my basement with my bin to try to catch it.
I called the township recycling number to leave a message registering the contra-email Basso arrival and said I’d still put my bin out for Thursday, as instructed, and hope for a pickup.
Lo and behold, my recycling was picked up. So (1) kudos to the township and/or Basso for following through but (2) the double-tracking of my street seems inefficient and unnecessary, and the next time I get a similar holiday email I’ll probably put my bin out, like my neighbors, on the regular day anyway.
Any intel on whether clean paper (often waxed) cartons (such as ice cream and other foods come in) are recyclable and, if so, which pickup? I thought they went with the cans and bottles (like the milk cartons and juice packs) but now I'm not sure.
DaveSchmidt said:
The township email said recycling would be collected one day later this week because of Memorial Day, so I abided it by keeping my bin inside on Wednesday, my zone’s usual pickup day.
On Wednesday, a Basso truck came down the street, picking up bins that neighbors had left out. It had passed too far away by the time I emerged from my basement with my bin to try to catch it.
I called the township recycling number to leave a message registering the contra-email Basso arrival and said I’d still put my bin out for Thursday, as instructed, and hope for a pickup.
Lo and behold, my recycling was picked up. So (1) kudos to the township and/or Basso for following through but (2) the double-tracking of my street seems inefficient and unnecessary, and the next time I get a similar holiday email I’ll probably put my bin out, like my neighbors, on the regular day anyway.
This was a poor communication issue. From reports I have seen here and elsewhere, Monday pick-up was on Tuesday due to there being no pick on Memorial Day but every other day had pick up on their scheduled day this week. The town needs to improve the clarity of the messages they post.
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Agreed! Frankly anything coming out of our towns should be accessible as per WCAG standards. The legibility of that site leaves a lot to be desired. I printed out the page and stuck it to my fridge but frankly I can't see anything on it so I will probably just take it down. Contrast is poor, and the color coding isn't accessible to those with color vision disability. It is federal law that government resources should be accessible and while this law is unevenly enforced, it is also a matter of values of the entity hosting the information.
Our towns make a lot of really great efforts to be welcoming and inclusive to all kinds of people. It isn't perfect, but there is at least a public expression of these values and that makes me really proud of where I live. However, like so many other places, accessibility to individuals with disabilities is uneven at best. This is a matter of social justice, civil rights, and creating a welcoming environment for all.
While I don't typically equate "seniors" with "disabled," there are perceptual changes that occur with aging and making a webpage WCAG compliant will also make our resources more accessible to adults of all ages. Indeed WCAG standards raise usability for all users.