As many of you have heard, the official waste diversion rate for
the City of Morgan Hill recently dropped from 53 percent to 47
percent. Your city government is taking several actions in
response.
As many of you have heard, the official waste diversion rate for the City of Morgan Hill recently dropped from 53 percent to 47 percent. Your city government is taking several actions in response.
First and foremost is asking you, the Morgan Hill public to continue recycling, if you are a recycler, and to start recycling, if you’re not. We are also working with South Valley Disposal and Recycling to discuss adding additional materials to the city’s curbside recycling program and are expanding our efforts to work with local businesses on recycling. In addition, staff will be renewing efforts to divert waste from municipal operations.
We in Morgan Hill pride ourselves on being a community that doesn’t rely on economic mandates to recycle. Nearly all our neighboring communities have limited garbage collection programs in which each resident pays based on the number of cans of garbage they set out. Instead, we maintain our unlimited collection program, because it’s more convenient for the residents, with the expectation that people are going to recycle because it’s the right thing to do – not because they don’t have room for their recyclables in their garbage can.
So – I know that I’ve written this many times before but here it is again. If you need additional recycling containers at home to help you recycle, please let us know. We are committed to providing you with the tools you need to make recycling work You can get more bins, more toters, deskside containers for indoors, calendars to remind you when your recycling week is, and even promotional posters for you laundry room wall if that will make your household recycle more. Contact us at 779-7247 or en*****@************ca.gov .
Many have asked me why the diversion rate has dropped. Due to the way the state law works, the 47 percent diversion rate is the value for 2001 and we do not yet know the value for 2002. We have identified three likely major causes for the decline in 2001. These are:
• Waste disposal was up – In 2001, 3,000 more tons of Morgan Hill garbage was disposed than in 2000 – despite a drop off in the economy. This is a jump of nearly 10 percent.
• Jobs were down – The diversion calculation formula relies heavily on the number of jobs in a community. Morgan Hill had nearly 1,300 fewer jobs in 2001 than 2000.
• Recycling tapered off – The amount of material recycled in the latter one-half of 2001 was less than we would have expected.
The waste disposal and recycling data for 2002 indicate that disposal was down in 2002 and recycling was reasonably climbing. (Note: this is raw numeric data and does not necessarily directly correlate to enhanced diversion given the multi-faceted official state formula used to calculate diversion.) With this good news and your ongoing cooperation, we should see our numbers rise in the future.
