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If you live in an apartment or condominium in Orem, chances are you don't have direct access to a blue recycle container to deposit your paper, plastics and junk mail.
Steve Golieb, a native of New York who graduated from Mountain View High School and is currently attending Utah Valley University, became concerned after he learned his apartment complex, Courtside Condominiums on 1230 West in Orem, doesn't offer recycling to tenants. He requested that his apartment managers consider making the service available to tenants and even agreed to help pay for a bin, but owners did not respond to his inquiry.
If the complex were to sign on to the idea, Golieb found he could even get a recycling bin from Waste Management company to serve all 100 units at his apartment complex at a cost of only 49 cents per apartment per month.
"Of course I'm more than willing to pay for it," he said. "[But] I don't think we should have to pay for it. It should be a service [offered to tenants]."
A representative for ProStar Management, the company that owns Courtside Condominiums and other apartment complexes in Orem, couldn't be reached despite several calls for comment.
Golieb, an environmental management student who saves up his recyclable items in a cabinet and takes them once a week to a local business for recycling, contacted seven other apartment complexes in Orem. None of them offered a more green-friendly way of dealing with waste than tossing it in garbage bins and from there to a landfill.
"If every apartment in Orem would start recycling, or even half of them, I mean, the amount of resources and trees saved is just enormous," he said.
Susan Hayward, a spokeswoman for Waste Management, which provides recycling service for community programs in Orem, Lehi and Cedar Hills, said recycling is available to apartments and businesses in Orem. But the carelessness or lack of education by even a single tenant misusing the recycle bin can ruin the whole batch if someone deposits garbage into a community recycle bin.
"All it takes is one ice cream cone ... [and] the whole thing has to go to the dump," she said.
To combat the problem, Waste Management is conducting a pilot program at five smaller apartment complexes in Orem, Hayward said. In some instances, they've found success in providing key access to those dropping off recycling items at the manager's office or neighbors coming together to form a recycling association to prevent contamination.
"It basically started because people kept on calling us and needed the service," she said.
With the permission of apartment owners, individual apartment tenants can subscribe to Waste Management to get a 90-gallon blue recycle tote for the Orem curbside program, Hayward said.
But Golieb won't rest until apartment owners offer recycling as a basic service -- the same as water or garbage utilities -- to tenants. He wrote a letter to the editor for the July 8 edition of the Daily Herald, began collecting signatures (he's got about 500), and on Monday, met with Orem Mayor Jerry Washburn to demonstrate that he's not the only one who supports recycling for those in medium- and high-density housing.
During their meeting, they discussed possible options that the city could explore, including making the currently voluntary residential curbside service mandatory for apartment complexes or locating more recycling-bin drop-off points in Orem neighborhoods. Curbside single-flow recycling is currently available to residents for $3 per month through Waste Management.
"He was very, very helpful," Golieb said. "He definitely wanted to help me."
Washburn said he would consult with assistant city administrator Richard Manning, the city's recycling program expert, and Waste Management officials to see what options might be available to the Orem City Council.
"It's certainly something we need to look at," Washburn said.
General city-wide recycling container drop-off points are located in Orem, he said.
But Washburn urged caution with the idea of the City Council making the service mandatory by law by singling out a specific segment of Orem when Council members have already decided that it should be optional. "That could be problematic," Washburn said.
Jim Reams, Orem's city manager, said the city was able to revive its recycling program that just under a decade ago was failing due to non-participation. Today nearly 5,000 residential customers in Orem subscribe to the curbside recycling program.
"We almost lost the program, and to see the numbers now is exciting for us," he said. "We like to encourage everyone to recycle. It's in the community's best interest."
Golieb said he will continue his advocacy for recycling at Orem apartment complexes until it becomes a reality. He is hopeful the City Council and the parties involved will see its value and come up with a workable solution.
"No one has to recycle," he said. "But it should be mandatory that everyone has the opportunity to recycle, and that's not the case." |
