commingle(d) = 'stuff to recycle'

[Victor Steinbok]

  My experience is mostly with Western suburbs and the Cape, i.e., areas
with drop-off rather than pick-up garbage collection. Needham and
Wellesley have been labeling "commingles" at least since 2003 or 2004.

FWIW, University of Delaware also has "single stream", but this one is
in collection dumpsters, not pick-up. I believe, the change to "single
stream" occurred last summer.

     VS-)

On 7/19/2010 10:47 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> 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
>

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