commingle(d) = 'stuff to recycle'

Mon Jul 19 14:47:21 UTC 2010

Victor is not fully accurate.  Arlington, Mass. (a suburb of
Cambridge -- it was, after all, once the West Precinct of Cambridge),
now permits paper -- details below -- to be mixed with metal
(including foil and pie plates), glass (all colors), and plastic
(with symbols 1 thru 7) in one container.  We call it (or actually
the DPW does -- I'm too grumpy early on recyclable pickup morning to
converse with my neighbors) "single stream".  Homeowners are allowed
to use any container they desire; if it is not the standard,
town-authorized and -sold barrel, the homeowner must label it on both
sides with the word "Recycling".  The town offers free stickers so
labeled for those of its residents who cannot write.

NOTES:
1)  I suspect other suburbs also now "commingle" according to the same rules.

2)  Recyclable paper includes (beyond the usual suspects) envelopes
with windows, (both polished and rude) magazines, paperback books,
fax paper, thin cardboard, and corrugated cardboard (flattened, or
used as containers for recyclables).  It does not include paper
towels, facial tissue, cigarette packs, candy wrappers, waxed or
plastic coated paper (but milk and juice cartons are acceptable),
metal-coated paper, or your greasy pizza cardboard.  Unmentioned and
perhaps unmentionable is the euphemistically-named bath tissue.

3)  Plastic bags and similar plastic are not single-stream
eligible.  Those I collect in a very large plastic bag -- they arrive
365/1 with my two daily newspapers -- remember newspapers? -- and
take to the supermarket periodically.

4)  In the interests of "just the facts", my recollection is that
when this new method was first announced, the town said the
containers were *required* to have the town-issued stickers; but the
current, two-sheet, 8 1/2 by 11, green and yellow "Trash and
Recycling Guide for Residents" does not say exactly that.)

5)  As Victor says, non-can metal, liquids, batteries, and I would
add any material or product classified as hazardous, cannot be put
into the single stream.

6)  If the OED wants quotations for this new sense of "single
stream", I can ask the town to mail them (but perhaps not postage
paid -- that might apply only to addresses within Arlington) a copy
of the town's "Guide".

Joel

At 7/18/2010 10:41 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>  I hope that's not entirely what's going on in Philadelphia. Most
>Boston suburban towns have had recycling by type of recyclable since the
>early 1990s. Sometime later (before 2000), many started gathering all
>recyclables except newsprint and cardboard in a single bin, usually
>labeled "Commingle" or "Commingles".  (But not all--some suburbs and, I
>believe, Boston proper , still collect separately.) I've heard some
>locals refer to the recyclables as "commingables". But paper/cardboard
>are not a part of that, nor are non-can metals, liquids (motor oil,
>battery acid), mercury-laden batteries, etc. It's basically a single bin
>for glass, plastic, drink cans and food cans. Different locations have
>different plastic collected--some go 1-4, others 1-6. This is quite
>different from what they used to do, which was sort all plastic and
>metal cans separately (aluminum separate from "tin"), and glass
>separated by color. In Europe, glass is still separated by color.
>
>     VS-)
>
>On 7/18/2010 10:02 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>>For a number of years Philadelphia has provided curbside pickup of
>>recyclable materials. In the past couple of years the city has been making
>>it easier to recycle stuff, instead of throwing it in with the trash, by
>>allowing waste paper, plastics, glass, and metal cans to be put out in a
>>single container instead of separately. And since they are phasing in this
>>"commingled" pickup neighborhood by neighborhood, there's an ongoing trickle
>>of announcements about it. (Ours was one of the first, and I forget which
>>types formerly could not be mixed.)
>>
>>Here are a few examples, from "about 26,000" raw Google hits on the search
>>    commingle* philadelphia recycl*
>>
>>=====
>>City of Philadelphia official document, p. 8, along with other paragraphs on
>>sanitation and recycling:
>>http://mbec.phila.gov/procurement/bids/S1YL66903AD.PDF
>>   16. Can the City provide an example of how the Average Market
>> Price Formula
>>and Base Rate Index is applied?
>>   Answer: The Commingled Container index is added to the Newspaper, Mixed
>>Paper and Cardboard index and the sum is multiplied by 75%. An example for
>>how this value is applied is provided in Section 2.14.2.
>>
>>University of Pennsylvania:
>>http://www.upenn.edu/sustainability/recyclemania.html
>>The Climate Action Plan calls on the University to reduce its overall waste
>>stream and increase its diversion rate of paper, cardboard, and commingled
>>(glass, plastic #1 and #2, and metal) recyclables to 40 percent by 2014.
>>
>>Vermont Public Radio. (Google's cached snippet has "commingle", but the live
>>page has "co-mingle".)
>>http://www.vpr.net/npr/92913195/
>>On a recent Friday morning, Arlington's environmental programs manager, Mike
>>Clem, showed up at my house to observe my recycling habits. Every week, I
>>put all the plastic, metal and glass in a yellow bin. Then I put all the
>>paper products out at the curb in paper bags. Clem tells me I can put junk
>>mail, even envelopes with windows, cereal boxes and newspapers, all in one
>>bag.
>>      It turns out there's a name for this system of recycling. It's called
>>dual stream. Put all the paper products in one place, then co-mingle all the
>>rest. Co-mingle is recycle-speak for "throw everything else together."
>>=====
>>
>>Note that the first quotation uses "commingled" as a noun, with "Commingled
>>Container index" in parallel with "Newspaper, Mixed Paper and Cardboard
>>index".
>>
>>Walking around my neighborhood, the Penn campus, and in between, I see
>>"commingle"* used as a noun, on (often handwritten) signs and stenciled on
>>dumpsters, as in
>>
>>      NO TRASH
>>COMMINGLE ONLY
>>
>>* Or possibly "commingled". I haven't paid attention, but may try to do so
>>in the next few weeks.
>>
>>My guess is that the people who put up such notices haven't encountered this
>>infrequent word before its use in this program, and that they have not
>>unreasonably inferred from context that "commingle(d)" means "mixed
>>recyclable materials", as opposed to "trash (that is not for recycling)".
>>Cf. "transistor [radio]", if you remember that far back.
>>
>>m a m
>
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