1Hi folks, my name is Loretta Johnston,
2and I'm here from the Baltimore Department of Public Waste.
3Thank you for coming out to our community meeting tonight.
4I've got a few words to say about the waste collection here in Baltimore.
5First, there's the sorted collection bins themselves.
6They're made of sturdy, solid material,
7so none of your trash can seep out or puncture the bin.
8Also, since these things sit out on the curb overnight rain or shine,
9they have to be waterproof.
10We can't have water getting up in it and filling up the bin.
11Remember to pay attention to which bin is which,
12and sort your waste accordingly.
13You should have a blue or green bin for recyclable garbage,
14a yellow bin for unrecyclable garbage,
15and a red bin for toxic waste.
16Our citywide waste management is divided into 2 services.
17The first is commercial waste collection, or trash collection from buildings.
18The majority of building waste is paper, which goes in the blue or green bins.
19You'll notice in your office buildings there are signs that warn you not to overfill these bins.
20All that paper adds up,
21and an overflowing bin is infinitely harder for collectors to carry to the truck and empty.
22Aside from paper, another large source of building waste is metals.
23Metals such as tin and aluminium can be put in the yellow recycle bins,
24but metals like lead and copper should be disposed of in the red bins.
25These heavy metals are harmful to the environment
26and exacerbate our city's existing pollution problem.
27That's about all the information you need for building waste.
28Moving on to the second service,
29household waste collection is probably what you primarily think of when you think of what we do here...
30Many of the same guidelines apply - the sorting is the same, et cetera.
31Please remember to keep garbage like kitchen waste in a plastic bag.
32It makes collection easier and lessens the abominable rotten-trash smell.
33So after we take your trash away, what happens to it?
34We take all the garbage to one of a number of garbage disposal plants,
35each of which is located in the middle of an open space of some sort.
36No one wants to have their home or office right next door to a waste disposal plant, right?
37Waste is collected and then disposed of once every four weeks.
38A lot of trash can build up in that time,
39so we're in the process of developing a plan to fund collection more frequently.
40Ideally it would be collected weekly,
41but we will likely have to settle for biweekly.
42The garbage trucks make their rounds to clear the bins at night in order to avoid traffic.
43I'm sure you've seen how much waste your own household produces in a given week.
44Now imagine all the trash produced by all the households in Baltimore.
45It's a lot, right?
46It may surprise you that this amount is only marginal compared to commercial waste.
47Yep, the main waste producers are actually businesses, industrial facilities, retail, and offices.
48Hard to believe humans produce that much waste, right?
49No wonder we have pollution problems!
50Anyway, after all incoming waste is sorted,
51recyclables are sent to a recycling plant,
52while garbage and toxic waste are transported to their respective areas of the plant for treatment.
53Items such as stones, which should not be disposed of in our bins,
54are separated out and discarded.
55Once the trash has undergone the treatment process,
56it is compacted and disposed of with all the other trash
57and finally, when the landfill space is full,
58it is buried deep underground and in time something new is built on the land.
59That's everything about waste collection.
60Thank you for listening.
61Are there any questions?