| Hi folks, my name is Loretta Johnston, |
| and I'm here from the Baltimore Department of Public Waste. |
| Thank you for coming out to our community meeting tonight. |
| I've got a few words to say about the waste collection here in Baltimore. |
| First, there's the sorted collection bins themselves. |
| They're made of sturdy, solid material, |
| so none of your trash can seep out or puncture the bin. |
| Also, since these things sit out on the curb overnight rain or shine, |
| they have to be waterproof. |
| We can't have water getting up in it and filling up the bin. |
| Remember to pay attention to which bin is which, |
| and sort your waste accordingly. |
| You should have a blue or green bin for recyclable garbage, |
| a yellow bin for unrecyclable garbage, |
| and a red bin for toxic waste. |
| Our citywide waste management is divided into 2 services. |
| The first is commercial waste collection, or trash collection from buildings. |
| The majority of building waste is paper, which goes in the blue or green bins. |
| You'll notice in your office buildings there are signs that warn you not to overfill these bins. |
| All that paper adds up, |
| and an overflowing bin is infinitely harder for collectors to carry to the truck and empty. |
| Aside from paper, another large source of building waste is metals. |
| Metals such as tin and aluminium can be put in the yellow recycle bins, |
| but metals like lead and copper should be disposed of in the red bins. |
| These heavy metals are harmful to the environment |
| and exacerbate our city's existing pollution problem. |
| That's about all the information you need for building waste. |
| Moving on to the second service, |
| household waste collection is probably what you primarily think of when you think of what we do here... |
| Many of the same guidelines apply - the sorting is the same, et cetera. |
| Please remember to keep garbage like kitchen waste in a plastic bag. |
| It makes collection easier and lessens the abominable rotten-trash smell. |
| So after we take your trash away, what happens to it? |
| We take all the garbage to one of a number of garbage disposal plants, |
| each of which is located in the middle of an open space of some sort. |
| No one wants to have their home or office right next door to a waste disposal plant, right? |
| Waste is collected and then disposed of once every four weeks. |
| A lot of trash can build up in that time, |
| so we're in the process of developing a plan to fund collection more frequently. |
| Ideally it would be collected weekly, |
| but we will likely have to settle for biweekly. |
| The garbage trucks make their rounds to clear the bins at night in order to avoid traffic. |
| I'm sure you've seen how much waste your own household produces in a given week. |
| Now imagine all the trash produced by all the households in Baltimore. |
| It's a lot, right? |
| It may surprise you that this amount is only marginal compared to commercial waste. |
| Yep, the main waste producers are actually businesses, industrial facilities, retail, and offices. |
| Hard to believe humans produce that much waste, right? |
| No wonder we have pollution problems! |
| Anyway, after all incoming waste is sorted, |
| recyclables are sent to a recycling plant, |
| while garbage and toxic waste are transported to their respective areas of the plant for treatment. |
| Items such as stones, which should not be disposed of in our bins, |
| are separated out and discarded. |
| Once the trash has undergone the treatment process, |
| it is compacted and disposed of with all the other trash |
| and finally, when the landfill space is full, |
| it is buried deep underground and in time something new is built on the land. |
| That's everything about waste collection. |
| Thank you for listening. |
| Are there any questions? |