Part of the reason Boston's recycling rate sucks so much

If the biggest problem identified here is that the residents of Beacon Hill and other vertically endowed neighborhoods can't get individual blue bins for their apartments, perhaps the curb-rich denizens of JP/Westie/Rozzie could make a mass donation of our little blue bins, which are no longer necessary, as we have now been blessed by the City with personal mini-dumpsters (which, after initial trepidation, I have decided I love, because I can put a whole cardboard box or empty charcoal sack in them).

This would be meta-recycling, no? And an inter-neighborhood gesture of recyclatarian solidarity. Think how many blue bins have now become available.

I have yet to see these mythical large wheely recycle bins anywhere in JP. They're certainly not in use in my apartment block, as the recycle bins the landlord leaves out often overflow.

oh my god, these children are this helpless? 25 is the new 15, indeed....

i live in a big, scary apartment in the north end, with an old school landlord who doesn't recycle. I think the second time I saw the blue bins I googled some really clever phrase like "boston recycling bins" and probably clicked 3 times, read for 5 minutes, filled out a form, and the next recycling day I had a blue bin dropped off at my doorstep.

Likewise before the new system, which this video apparently pre-dates, you could put recyclables out in paper bags as well and they would take them.

What lazy, self-indulgent people!

They have time to make this silly video but not time to make a quick phone call or go to the city website to learn about recycling? And certainly no time to rinse out a yogurt container!

Why in the world would the trash collectors think a white trash bag contained anything other than trash? And why would anyone think he or she should use a trash bag to recycle?

They could film the bins in the basement, but for some reason they can't use them?

They are smart enough to be able to afford a Beacon Hill apartment, seems like they should be able to figure out how to recycle.

I agree with the person above about the old bins in W. Roxbury & Roslindale - what are we supposed to do with them? Maybe I'll bring mine down to Beacon Hill for those poor people to use.

ISD is selective about the neighborhoods in which they'll cite people for not recycling. I spend my day doing home-based assessments and therapy in every neighborhood in Boston except for East Boston and Charlestown (they're served by a different program). In the Back Bay and South End, there are ISD citations stuck all over the place for trash placed outside too early, overflowing trash cans, and obvious recyclables in the trash. They periodically decide to do a mass-citing in Brighton, too. Elsewhere, ISD never seems to do anything. I have a neighbor (in Roxbury) who puts all of their trash and recyclables loose in a giant wheeled trash can, usually without trash bags. Surely the trash people notice this, and ISD would if they ever came to our neighborhood.

There are some people who just don't give a rat's ass about things, and the citations wouldn't change anything for them. But other people (like my neighbor) are just complacent because they know no one's going to do anything about it. My neighbor strikes me as someone who'd recycle if there was a clear message from the city that people were expected to do so. This neighbor otherwise seems to abide by laws and social norms, but seeing the blue bins left out by everyone else on the street doesn't seem to faze said neighbor. A ticket would. The tickets don't need to be huge or anything, because the point isn't to bankrupt my friendly non-recycling neighbor. The city just needs to take steps to let people know that they're expected to recycle. In all neighborhoods.

http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

You have the time and knowledge to make and get a video onto the internet, yet you can't figure out how to get a blue bin.

I love you guys. After I saw the video, I thought I'd be the only one to call this bull spew what it is, but you all nailed it on the head perfectly.

Make a whiny video but not go out and get a damn bin for yourself? Not cleaning your recyclables to keep them around the house for less than a week between pick-ups? Can't be hassled to go to the basement to use the bins? Wow, what a pile of self-centered tripe. Grow a pair and do your civic duties, you punk pukes. Geez.

I don't know why I got this feeling, but I thought I'd come here to read a sympathy roll call for the views put in the video. I'm so glad to see it being called out for what it is by everyone here.

Because it sure looks like it. It has the air of being a Christopher Guest-style mockumentary. Afraid to go into one's basement to pick up a blue box? Perhaps she thinks the bogeyman is going to rise from the shadows to throw smelly, empty tuna cans at her.

Wow.

I mean, really.

I moved in, called the hotline in the morning, got connected to recycling, and bingo. Seriously - an HOUR later a woman who looks like my junior high lunch lady drove up in a pick-up truck and gave me a bin. In fact, she told me that they're so useful I'd better take two.

Rozzie Rules. And those Beacon Hill young people are fools.

Hello to everybody here at Universal Hub who have watched the video and commented. Just wanted to respond to some of the posts regarding my second attempt at documentary made for my Documentary Workshop class.

1. When was the film made: I filmed and edited this film last April over the course of three weeks.
2. Many people had a problem with the story that involved paying for a blue bin. The story told by John is an older story (three years old) about when he first moved to Boston and requesting an extra blue bin. Since his building had a recycling bin that overflowed, he had requested his own bin. Unfortunately, in a building with more than seven units, individual bins came at a cost to the person requesting one. So, it is true that he was asked to pay for the extra blue bin by the city of Boston. This may not be the case anymore, depending on the building you live in and the amount of bins in that building.
3. Many people felt the documentary was about stupid, rich people who don't know and don't care to recycle. As well, many noted that I didn't know how to recycle and was a hypocrite. So, I just want to say that I'm the only person in my building that recycles. I'm the one in the building who goes down into the basement and collects the bin and takes it out. I'm the one in my apartment rinsing yogurt containers and cleaning out tuna cans. The documentary, which briefly touches on the blue bins used by Bostonians, is not intended to only focus on the blue bins. The documentary is intended to draw attention to the vast amount of people who just throw away their recyclables. People are inconvenienced, unfortunately, by such things as recycling. They will throw out their yogurt containers rather than go through the easy process of rinsing the container and depositing it in their blue bin. That was the point of the doc: to call attention to most people's laziness and indifference.
4. The yogurt containers bit discussed by both interviewees was played up through interviewing and editing techniques in order to draw attention to the laziness and indifference.

So, in the end, this discussion and debate over the documentary does what it is intended to do: start debate about and fuel the movement to recycle. Although, it does seem that most of you already recycle and don't understand why others still do not. It is so clear to people like us who have been recycling for so long that recycling is a great thing - an essential process. Unfortunately, it is saddening to find others not doing there part. I'm only trying to call attention to that problem by illustrating the laziness and indifference that is out there.
-BP!-