Gulf Restoration Network

NOLA Needs Recycling - Ask the City for Leadership

19 months after Katrina wiped out many city services, we still are without any true recycling options. Despite signing exorbitantly priced garbage contracts, little has been said about recycling. While the city wrestles with massive solid-waste challenges, now is the time to do all we can to reduce the volume of our solid-waste stream.Take a moment right now to ask our Mayor and at-large City Council members to reinstate a curbside recycling program for the city.

November 22, 2009

Subject:

Dear City Leader

I am concerned about the lack of a curbside recycling program in New Orleans.  The city's long-time recycling contractor, Allied Waste (formerly BFI) no longer has a working recycling facility in the greater New Orleans area, and has said that its facility on L&A Road, off Airline Drive, is too badly damaged to be put back into operation.

Sanitation Director Veronica White has proposed that a series of recycling drop-off sites be set up, for residents to bring their recyclables, instead of reinstating the curbside recycling program.

We are interested in knowing which company will be collecting the recyclables and if they will be going to a sorting station or will be disposed of in a landfill.

Recycling should be considered a quality of life issue.  It would show the citizens that New Orleans is really recovering to pre-Katrina conditions.

As an alternative, the  Sierra Club suggests that, with so many of our residents returning to less impacted parts of the city, that the city should have a phased-in curbside recycling program, beginning with the University, Uptown, Garden District, and French Quarter neighborhoods, and then, as more residents return,  expanding to other repopulated neighborhoods.

Please consider this proposal, as you review the proposed solution for recycling in post-Katrina New Orleans. We would appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

We will add your signature from the information you provide.

First Name*

Last Name*

Email*

Street*

Street 2

City*

State/Province*

Zip/Postal Code*

The Gulf Restoration Network has produced this web campaign page for the New Orleans Group of the Sierra Club. Keep the 'Keep me informed' box checked to be added to the GRN's list.