The citizens of Seattle now have three separate services:
pickup of garbage; pickup of recyclables; and pickup
of yard wastes. These services are handled by two private
companies: Recycle Seattle and Recycle America, which is
a subsidiary of WMX. Whatever trash cannot be recycled
or composted is hauled by freight train to a landfill in the
north-central part of Oregon.
Seattle garnered international attention for its program.
Hoffman said the city has hosted visitors from
most countries of Western Europe, as well as the Pacific
Rim, who are interested in learning about the approach.
“They looked at what the specific situation was here, and
what was replicable in their own countries,” he commented.
Still, Mount pointed out that Seattle’s experience, as a
fairly new city on the West Coast, boasting a highly motivated
citizenry, could not be easily duplicated in older cities
on the East Coast, such as New York. “It’s like
comparing apples with oranges,” she said.
At the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP),
headquartered in Paris, France, Jacqueline Aloisi, director
of the division, confirmed, “one of the trends in the world
is really to produce less waste. This is the concept of ‘ecoefficiency.“’
UNEP is teaming up with countries and industry
all over the world to change production and
consumption patterns, thereby generating less waste from
the outset.