Recycling’s not so rare
Editor,
Whenever I read an article concerning the lack of recycling in Savannah, it usually pisses me off. Last week’s article “Wanted: Green-thinking leaders” was no exception.
If you want to find the recycling leaders in this town, they aren’t going to be at a City Council meeting. The Council’s foot-dragging has been going on for years and shows no signs of letting up.
I would speculate that it’s a logistics/money issue for them. Even if they paid off and got rid of their incinerator (as written about in Connect about two years ago), do you really think they would put that money into recycling? And if so, then would recycling be mandatory or voluntary? And how much would it cost the average citizen?
As anyone who owns property knows, City services (water/sewer/trash), don’t come for free, and neither would recycling. Even if Savannah had surplus cash to develop a recycling program, it would require trucks, people, and containers for every household to sort out their recyclibles.
To be cost-effective, it’s going to take more than the 3,000 people (just over 2 percent of the local population) who signed the recycling petition. Which means that it just may take a mandatory city ordinance to make it worthwhile.
Then we get to the poverty issue. The City would have to make recycling free for those in poverty if there was a mandatory ordinance.
The bottom line is, the current debate with the City is a road to nowhere. Entrepreneurs are the solution to Savannah’s recycling problem and some have been in our midst for a few years now. It’s called Rare Earth Recycling, a Savannah-based curbside service. My wife and I have been using them for almost 4 years.
They’re at rareearthrecycling.org and they’re in the phone book. They placed an ad in Connect Savannah about 4 to 6 months before we moved into our house -- we held onto that issue forever just because of that ad.
Why are people still waiting on the City for a recycling service? It’s already here. So get rid of your “Savannah Recycles?” bumper sticker, put your money where your mouth is, and give them a call.
J. Stevens
Time to rise above ‘charming mediocrity’
Editor,
I found “Wanted: Green-thinking leaders” very disturbing as it highlighted exactly why Savannah seems doomed to remain a one-star city. It seems the leaders of the city actively pursue mediocrity!
To dismiss “low-hanging fruit” solutions as being crafted by the “elite” is not only short-sighted, but downright reckless. It should be no more difficult to recycle than it is to take garbage to the curb on garbage collection day.
Secondly, it is exactly the people who our mayor condescendingly claims are too busy struggling with poverty to care about recycling who should care. It is exactly these people who often find themselves with a toxin-producing incinerator as a neighbor because they are perceived as powerless.
All cities have poverty, but they don’t all use it as an excuse to ignore the future. Sustainability may seem of little concern now to people struggling to make ends meet, but in a short time we will have reached a point where the damage we are causing the earth will become obvious to even the Rush Limbaughs of the world.
Maybe instead of hoping for a “Chris Miller of sustainability,” our civic leaders should take an active role in creating an atmosphere where this person could thrive. If they won’t, we should elect people who will.
Otherwise, these “elites” will find better cities to live in, leaving Savannah to its charming mediocrity.
Curtis Bartone
Cuckoo for Kokopelli’s
Editor,
I have been wondering why you have not done a feature on Kokopelli’s Jazz Club? The club has been an amazing addition to the culture of Savannah, and hasn’t received a formal introduction to the community.
My wife has been there several times to see some great legends of the music as well as rising stars of jazz. We feel like we are being offered something very special in Savannah. You can usually only find this in the big population centers of the country. Otherwise, you are stuck with the mediocre that has long been the norm here.
It is a surprise to find that many people are unaware that the place even exists. You did a feature on the new director of the Savannah Choral Society, the Savannah Music Festival... why not this?
Ron Imboden
Editor’s Note: Kokopelli’s is indeed an outstanding venue, and that’s why our music editor, Jim Reed, has recommended the performers playing there on a weekly basis and has done so since the club’s inception.
