Dive Brief:
- The administration of DC mayor Vincent Gray assured city residents that its old trash bins would be recycled. It was uncovered that over 5,000 bins, almost 53 tons of plastic, were thrown away instead.
- According to The Washington Post, city officials admitted to discarding the bins that city workers had collected. A spokeswoman said the reason for adding 132 truckloads of bins to the incinerator was a "safety decision."
- The Public Works Director William Howland ordered a "blitz" in an effort to quickly remove old residential bins, reports The Washington Post. Residents witnessed sanitation crews loading bins onto flatbeds, not garbage trucks.
Dive Insight:
The Washington Post noted that the city had secured a contract to give the bins back to the manufacturer, but this solution was dropped because it was deemed too labor-intensive.
The Post also referred to the ongoing case involving two people arrested for allegedly stealing city bins to use as flower pots, in which the city maintains that the duo "acted to deprive the city of property value and potential profits from recycling the cans." Since the bins were not recycled, will the city drop this particular argument from the case?
