Why or why not?

Yes. I am doing it now anyways & would live one less trip to the dump.

Can I use the money that's being sunk into the ice rinks I don't use?

No, I go now and recycle a ton, I don't think one bin would be enough, and I go for free. They also take almost everything, where curbside usually only accepts certain numbers and has to be cleaned a certain way and separated.

I would love to have the recycling service.

Does the city make any money for the items recycled at the dump?

I almost have no garbage to put out on trash day and I am proud of that, but it is not always easy to take the big amount of recycle to the dump, and it piles up sometimes. Look at what Westland does...everyone gets a big trash can, you fill it up, and you get points to spend on stuff!

Plus...It is also our civic responsibility now to recycle. We cannot ignore the benefits to our future generations. I HATE seeing people setting out all their newspapers and cardboard, how lazy they are when they can take it just like we do to the dump...but they won't...rather, if we went curbside like Westland, the same effort it takes to put out the garbage could be put forth to wheel out both the recycles and the trash and the recycles actually get recycled! Make it easy for the people and they CAN do it!

We should have been doing this for years. I still have my bin from my attempt years ago. The company involved rarely picked it up on time or at all even with phone calls from me. I think it should be part of the trash program and included without extra cost to citizens. Surely money can be made from this??? Had an opportunity to see the New Boston recycling plant in action. Go check it out. Pretty amazing. We are very behind the times and this is ONE way to change things.

practically every community has recycling of some kind, Trenton is behind the times on this, other cities didn't ask residents if they wanted to recycle, they made it mandatory!

Curbside recycling "failed miserably" because it wasn't required. I didn't even know about the program at the time, and only found out about it shortly before it was discontinued, otherwise I would have participated. Recycling is a habit, and much like the use of seat belts, a habit is easier to take up if it just becomes required.

We take our recycling to the transfer station. We recycle a TON and a weekly bin would not suffice. I'm still annoyed that the transfer station is now charging Trenton residents to use the pit or bring brush to the transfer station.

Yes, I am hauling to the dump once a week or so. For everything that goes to recycling, that's less junk piling up in landfills.

It sounds like there is a balanced number of people for and against the issue of curbside recycling with a fee. Let's keep the conversation going. Sometimes it's difficult for people to change their behavior after repeating the same act for many years. Do you think people would recycle even if it WAS free? -- NS

The only recyclables for our household are pop cans, milk jugs, and newspapers. Pop cans are recycled at a store to buy more pop, milk jugs are used in the garden or taken to my work where we have recycling bins, and newspapers are toys for our indoor pet bunny or used in the chimney starter.
If we went through more product (we're frugal and efficient), we would participate, but we have a system now that works for our household.

I didn't know anything about the old program. For $33/yr it would have been worth it to me. I would definitely recycle more. I take the papers to the bins at Hedke and return my returnable bottles and cans. I could obviously do more but do not because stuff would pile up before I found the time to get to the dump. If I could set it out weekly I would definitely participate!

Margaret and anyone else considering recycling...you have no idea the extent to which you can recycle...while I cannot find a link for you, I do have a printed copy of these things...put MORE in your bin! cardboard, paper bags, junk mail, any kind of paper- envelopes, brochures, magazines, etc, cans, plastics #1-7!!!, any paperboard (not wax coated), newspaper, kithcen cookware-metal pots pans tins utensils, plastic bags from stores, plastic bags that have recycle numbers on them, phone books...GO FOR IT

I am happy with the current free system. I use it a lot. I build up a large amount and then take it over.

I would love curbside! For people that work until 5 or 6pm its very hard to utilize the dump and take your items there! I would hope more people would recycle if they had a bin and it was picked up from their house!

I would use this service and have hoped the city would get it back. My family and I recycle all the time. My husband and I both work so it is a huge hassle to drop off our recyclables to the dump each week. And if we can't make it a week - the recyclables sit in my garage until we can. I would prefer the ease of mind that comes with knowing they are scheduled to be picked up each week with the trash.

Love to see a recycle pick-up. Very convenient. Don't make it mandatory. People still like to go to the dump.

if we recycled curbside our large busy family would be able to start recycling. i just dont have the time to make a trip to the recycling place. i also know that it would cost the city lessto pay for it themselves bc we would have a ton less trash. its sad that the largest families, w the most recyclable trash, cant afford to pay to do it. i say yes for free recycling nd yes to taking the cost from OTHER recreational facilities in the city.

I think brining back curbside recycling would be great at an appropriate fee. The key to the program's previous failure and future success (if brought back) is educating the general public. When the cost and benefits are presented in a concise, logical way, I'm sure most people would be supportive. Since the city has gotten a new recycling company and they increased the kinds of stuff that are acceptable as recyclable, my regular trash (that goes to the land fill) has been reduced to about 1/3 of its former volume. If the city implemented the same program as that in Portland, Oregon, it would be even less. I don't think it should be mandatory, but if you choose not to recycle, you should pay a premium to dispose of your garbage. If you choose not to recycle curbside, but instead want to haul it to the transfer station yourself, then you should be able to get a "credit" that would differ the cost of the premium you pay by not participating in the curbside recycling. When you go to the transfer station, they request your ID (this is how the city can keep track of your "credit".) At the end of the year, you would get a refund check with an amount reflective of the number of times you recycle, with a not to exceed amount of course. Wouldn't want people to "game" the system. People like convenience, so I think most people would opt for curbside (use large conatiners similar to the current containers and not the small orange bins like the past).

We need our recreational facilities. I do want to say that I live near Lions park and the baseball teams that use the park leave big messes behind. The garbage cans are right there and bottles and papers from snacks are everywhere. Parents and children who use the parks should be more responsible. It costs money to pick up the trash, and it is an eyesore until its picked up.. By the way the parks and ice rink and Westfield Com. Center would be great places to set up recycling bins for paper, plastic etc, A good teaching tool! And a good way to get people thinking about recycling. Communities that have publilc recycling available are always seen as being good places to live and work.On the cutting edge, so to speak. It would be good publicity for our community. People want to live where they know other people take pride in their community.

It failed because it was optional...I use the current free system although it is extremely inconvenient and I do not like going to the dump/waste-water treatment! It stinks, I have to wait in a line and it is confusing if it is your first time. (Wyandotte's is so much nicer and convenient!)

The environment is important to me and I will continue to recycle BUT we have to make it easier and more convenient so more people participate.

I cannot believe all the plastic bottles found in the park after ball games. Why can't the teams designate weekly recyclers for these events...put all the plastic bottles in a plastic bag instead of trash.

Carrie, What a good thought! I love the idea of an Eagle Scout project. Putting recycle bins in the parks is a totally wonderful idea and hopefully one that some boys looking for a project would embrace. That would include fund raising, getting the containers and knowing what can be recycled. But once in place the recycled plastic needs to be picked up on a regular basis and that is where the city comes in or a private recycling co. A lot of logistics for an eagle scout to figure out! And a great help to the community.

Wow! so many good ideas for getting recycling going again in our fair city of Trenton. Kyle Stack and City Council, are you following these comments? Come on let's get something started here in Trenton! Oh, the recycling bins at the street fair were awesome. Makes me proud to say I'm from Trenton cuz Trenton cares!
P.s. are those bins city property or loaned from a business?

i would do a lot more recycling if it was curbside. but on the bigger things i still would go to the dump and drop it off myself.

Hopefully the mayor and council will consider curbside recycling. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks! There are many seniors who would recycle if it was more convenient.

Unprofitably reflects inefficiency. If recycling was not a waste, it would be profitable for a business to buy recyclables, and we would be in fact compensated for the recyclables we have. Instead the government can barely keep it afloat wasting our tax dollars.

Just say no to nanny state ideas.

What you call profits, I call proof of concept. In a normal healthy economy, ideas that are inefficient and produce negative wealth are eliminated or never funded to start with. In the economy of government mandate, bad concepts live on forever. Ideas like the Pontiac Silverdome, that would save Pontiac. 30 years latter and 500 million dollars lost (2012 dollars) a complete wright-off and Pontiac worse than when the geniuses started to 'fix-it". The People Mover, with 5% of the traffic "expert government" claimed it would. It costs us taxpayers $10 in subsidies for every rider that uses it, and that's completely discounting the 350 million in taxes that built it. The Reminiscence Center lost more than 100% of it's government subsidized construction cost in the first 15 years. The Detroit Zoo? $14 for an Adult ticket plus 38 dollars in tax subsidies for that entrant. Now we've added the DIA to the insanity. Last year just 400,000 people used the DIA, many of them kids bused in and forced to "take-in the culture". Now we just passed a new property tax of 23 million annually to fund the place. That equates to us paying a $57 ticket for each user. That's nuts and even you must realize that. Would you take a family of four to the DIA for $228 ($57 x 4)??? Most would answer no yet through the majic of taxation, that's exactly what we are doing. Let's stop wasting resources on 500 million dollar Ford fields, 500 million dollar Comerica Parks, 310 million dollar Zilwaukee Bridge's.

Whoa, WebSpin, you must enjoy being enslaved by the Koch brothers' and corporations like them. I recall that the Koch brothers cheap plastic products replaced recyclable products in the Washington Capitol building's cafeteria...yes, this was the FIRST item of business for Republicans when they took over control. They keep feeding us this cheap product that will grow into landfills, and make lots more $$ for Waste Management, I bet. Can you not imagine a world that tries to make progress. If recycling is made easier and cheaper and is mandated, people will do it, and businesses will find a way to compete and make profits from it. The problem is that they/we don't have to, so it's easier to choose to be a wasteful society. The mind is a terrible thing to waste. Maybe Walmart can have an art gallery someday, too.

You must be writing about this; "...Dan Lungren, chair of the house administration committee, said the $475,000 per year program was too expensive and not even green. "After a thorough review of the house's composting operations, I have concluded that it is neither cost effective nor energy efficient to continue the program," he said in a statement on his website...."

Thank god (small g) that Democrats expensive society hasn't been able to completely halt progress. If they had I wouldn't have my iPhone that stores as much as 7 million type written pages or 10,s of thousands of gallons of wasted gasoline and countless hours chasing down all the information that is at my fingertips. Think of the thousands of vinyl records times the 100's of millions of phones and that's over a trillion pounds of plastic material that would have been generated. To this you'll reply "the government invented the internet" but that's such an exaggeration it's a lie. World wide networking of personal home computers started with AOL, Prodigy, BBS's and CompuServe. Without private greedy corporations the internet would still just be a file transfer medium a small number of government agencies use.

Aha! Lungren is a REPUBLICAN!

Go ahead and vote for "re-gress"...look what was next folks! I think I'll vote for progress.

"Next on the Republican agenda of environmental retro moves? Lightbulbs. House Republicans introduced a bill last week to repeal the government's decision to phase out the old energy-inefficient bulbs, which was due to start in 2012.

Environmental organisations condemned the return to plastic. "They are willing to undo progress when they should be looking at getting their own house in order. " said Tony Iallonardo of the National Wildlife Federation."

Wendy, do you practice what you preach? Does you're car get better than 35 MPG and do you drive far fewer miles than the average "wasteful America"? Do you have a nice energy efficient house like the average Japanese of only 1000 sq, feet or less? Do you refuse to waste energy and pollute the air by only vacationing close to home? How many trips to the store do you make on foot per week? Do you refuse to use air conditioning in both your home and your car? Refuse to put fertilizer and herbicides on your lawn? Do you dry your clothes on a clothes line?

I make the best decisions I can, I drive my family nuts, but we are better off, and I educate them so that they try harder to live a better life-style. I went to the council meeting and requested that pesticides not be used at the Riverside property. I don't buy things that are over-packaged for convenience. I re-use, re-gift, re-sell, donate. I get 28mpg and I drive on a plan so as not to waste gas. I hate air-conditioning, and I have a programmable thermostat, with several zone valves so if I am not in that area, I don't need to use the heat. If it wasn't for spiders I'd hang my clothes outside, so instead they hang inside. I could fill my trash can once a month and it still wouldn't be full...I could go on...and I look for all the help I can get, which is WHY WE ARE ASKING FOR RECYCLING help!

Hey all! Sorry for getting my feathers ruffled. I just can't stand when people try to be constructive and share ideas and then someone comes and trashes them and insults people for caring about the planet we live on. I fell into that person's trap too. I'm going to delete my comments because they are not constructive to the topic on hand (recycling).

Are you for real or are you just out trolling. "Luckly I saved your words I now see you deleted" Just in case your legit, have a look AGAIN at your own words and see if you can't spot the negative and destructive attitude;
"You must be a very miserable and unhappy person in life"
"I have not seen one positive comment from you anywhere".
"I'm just tired of people whining"
"you come barging in with trying to tear her (and everyone else in here down)"
"I'm sorry you are so miserable and jaded in life"
"You don't need to drag everyone down with you"
"you seem a very sad unhappy person"

Do you get it?
as for your comment " If we want to recycle, if we want to pay for it...that is our prerogative". Ah, but you demand I help finance the folly of what I now know is a net negative for the environment and society. Society needs a few more wet blankets. I wish we had a few more in each of the following;
The Nazi party.

The Imperialist Japanese.

Congress, pre Iraqi invasion

al qaeda 2 hours before 9/11

the U.A.W. before completly wiping out GM and Chrysler (and yes, those companies don't exist anymore, a difficult concept to comprehend for some unworldly to the ideas of a liquidation bankruptcy)

The secessionist south.

Gotta agree with Michelle on this one. What did the post above hers have to do with the topic on hand here? And "REALLY"?, Web Spin..... what the heck is the end of your post supposed to be about????? Never mind... I don't think any of us care to know.... and again, it would totally be off topic. Please do me a favor and DON'T respond, unless it has anything to do about Trenton recycling, that is.