Statistics compiled by the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority in 2009 show you can do it if you put your mind to it. And, there's money in it for you. East Hartford managed to recycle 2,000 tons of bottles, cans, newspapers and magazines in 2009. Based on that weight, CRRA rebated $10,000 to the town. Not bad. Those of you who diligently separated out your recyclables and placed them into the orange curbside bins, take a bow.

Soon it will be your final opportunity for recognition. That's because everyone is about to get a new big 96-gallon blue container to go along with the regular green 96-gallon container you use (if you happen to be a homeowner or rent in a smaller building). Into that big blue bin you are encouraged to deposit all the things that you recycle now, and more things that might be recyclable in the ‘single stream' recycling method East Hartford leaders have decided to go with.

There had been some dissatisfaction with CRRA which prompted Mayor Melody Currey to investigate forming a cooperative with other municipalities but evidently those concerns have been resolved. Hopefully CRRA will be more receptive to our town's wishes.

The "single stream" method offers an opportunity for the town to capture more of its recyclable waste by simply leaving it up to the sorters along big conveyor belts in Hartford to sort through your trash for you. Well, you still have to separate what is potentially recyclable from your garbage. But the operator of the recycling truck no longer has to stash each item in a separate place on the truck. In single stream, your recyclable paper, plastic, glass, steel and aluminum all goes onto one truck, while your garbage is collected by another. Two separate collection trucks are needed in order to not contaminate the recyclables with garbage residue. Once unloaded in Hartford, at the CRRA sorting area, mixed recyclable stream is dumped onto long conveyors where people stand to sort out all the recyclables.

Ironically, as Mayor Currey pointed out Tuesday, the orange recycling bins East Hartford now uses are not recyclable, and so will have to be thrown away in the green garbage bin, she said. And the stack of old recycling containers with the town seal on the side will become surplus. The mayor said the town would be willing to give them to residents who might have a use for them, but that hasn't been finalized as yet.

One of the things that makes the recycling bins not recyclable is the type of plastic they are made out of. The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. represents the plastics manufacturers in the United States, and it notes on its website that the little chasing arrow triangle which we might have assumed meant the plastic could be recycled doesn't necessarily mean that. There are SPI codes 1-6 with a "7" code for "other." Unfortunately the widespread use of the code is another irony making recycling of plastics more complex, not simpler, as the codes themselves are voluntary and over-simplify the complexity of plastics and packaging materials we use everyday.

Still, the majority of plastic packaging we use is made up of the six different resins: polyethylene terephthalate (PETE); high density polyethylene (HDPE); polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl); low density polyethylene (LDPE); polypropylene (PP); or polystyrene (PS), hence the 1-6 numbers inside the little triangles. The there is the seventh code, or "other" you sometimes see. Dan Brown might write a book about it some day. (And, by the way, the lids and caps of the plastic bottles are not made of the same material, so don't recycle those either. You won't find a triangle on them because the triangles only have to be placed on containers of 16 ounces or more.)

But whatever happens to those little lids, don't sweat it too much. The main idea is to get much more into East Hartford's blue bins than before. In towns with the single stream, savings have been dramatic. Before the changeover, the CRRA's own numbers showed that East Hartford could do a lot better. $10,000 rebates are good, but neighboring Glastonbury got a check for $21,700. South Windsor, another neighboring town less populous than East Hartford, earned an $11,700 rebate. And while the average East Hartford resident managed to remove 81 pounds of recyclables from the waste stream to CRRA - and that is tonnage the town does not have to pay the $71 per ton tipping fee on - Glastonbury pulled out twice as much, or 4.3 tons, or 262 pounds per capita; South Windsor, 180 pounds per person - 100 pounds of recyclables more per person than East Hartford.
Add the savings to the potentially bigger CRRA rebate check, and clearly East Hartford - which paid $1.3 million to have its garbage incinerated in Hartford by CRRA last year - has a lot of room for improvement. Yes, sir.

Single stream systems use better technology resulting in higher quality material to sell to the plastics market. Recycling one ton of plastic bottles saves approximately 3.8 barrels of oil. So recycled plastics are cheaper to use overall - which makes it strange that the East Hartford recycling bins are not recyclable.

One other thing that must be mentioned as well. The cost of the new blue bins - 17,000 or so - will cost the town about $901,000 - a million if you add in the interest the town will pay to borrow the money in a 7-year lease plan explained by East Hartford Finance Director Mike Walsh. The question some might have is the anticipated improvement in recycling versus the cost of the new barrels, and whether the town will realize the savings in the reduced tipping fees over time.

Yes, that might actually happen. Assuming CRRA's tipping fee holds steady, and the rebates continue with single stream recycling, a 40 percent improvement in recycling might result in a reduction in cost to the town. If the tipping fee rises - certainly a possibility - the savings would add up faster for East Hartford.

For recycling to work, residents and manufacturers and garbage incinerators all have to work together on this. It starts with each of us doing the right thing, and soon the right thing will be to load up the blue bin over what goes into the green bin.

It is a whole lot simpler to understand. No more soggy newspapers when it rains, or bottles blowing up and down the street on a windy day. All residents have to do is take a good look at those two big barrels right there at the end of their driveway. They really are two sides of a recycling scale. Soon, being more blue than green will help your town stay in the black.