Las Vegas NowConvenient Recycling Could Mean More Recycling

Convenient Recycling Could Mean More Recycling

There may be dozens of reasons you don't recycle your garbage at home, and the Southern Nevada Recycling Advisory Committee wants to know why.

Their goal for the valley is to recycle at least 25-percent of our region's solid waste.

The number one complaint most residents seem to have about recycling is its just plain inconvenient. You have to sort it. You have to store it in your garage and then it's only picked up once every two weeks.

One recycling center Eyewitness News spoke to says convenient recycling would mean more recycling.

It's the garbage right out of your trash can; barrels empty bottles, crumpled paper and even metal. But where you see trash, Tara Pike-Nordstrom sees a gold mine.

From aluminum to plastic, recycling is Tara's business. You could say it's almost like her religion.

"We don't have automated machines. We don't have a conveyor belt sorter like they big cities have, so we actually have to get in here and pull this stuff out of here," Pike-Nordstrom explains.

It's not that she really likes garbage. It isn't what Tara wanted to do when she grew up. "I wanted to be a conservation biologist, but I'm a recycling facility manager," she says with a laugh.

Her career happened by accident.

Tara said, "Had to write an undergraduate senior thesis and I was told to look at something that would make a difference to your community, your campus, your neighborhood."

She found out recycling in the valley just isn't that popular. Valley residents only recycle between 13 to 17-percent of the area's solid waste. The big problem is it's just not that easy to recycle in the valley.

Pike-Nordstrom said, "It's in small little crates and on windy days... you got to make sure you weigh it down or it's blowing all over your neighborhood. You have to separate it."

And unless you're Tara, it's just not how you want to spend your free time. "I think that when it takes work to do something people aren't going to necessarily do it," she commented.

She's hoping that will change and more people will throw out their hang-ups and recycle their trash.

That change could come soon. The Southern Nevada Recycling Advisory Committee is starting a pilot program that's supposed to make recycling easier.

You won't have to sort the trash and it will be picked up once a week instead of twice a month, as it's done now.

Email reporter Ashanti Blaize at ablaize@klastv.com

If you would like to comment on recycling, or learn more about it, you can attend a one of three public meetings this week: