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Rentals need to sign on to the recycling program
During a family gathering in a rental house on the Nags Head oceanfront, my sister-in-law insisted on collecting recylcables.
With a houseful of 20 or so people, you can imagine how much stuff we had generated by the time the week was out. But we did our duty. The problem was, it all had to be taken to a recycling center.
Later, when our summer venue switched to Corolla, we didn’t have to spend our vacation with old bottles, papers and cans. A bin was provided at the house, and the castoffs were hauled away from the curb.
Nags Head has a curbside recycling program, but it’s voluntary. Households pay a fee of about $7 a month to have an Outer Banks Hauling truck come around once a week and pick it up.
But if you drive down the beach road on any trash pickup day, you can see from the stuffed garbage bins how much is still being thrown away — by people on vacation. In fact, townwide, the willingness by households to voluntarily recycle is not overwhelming, with the numbers averaging about 269 a month.
Dave Smiley with Bay Disposal, which runs Outer Banks Hauling, says that monthly volume increases during the summer months. So there is evidence that some rental properties are beginning to join up — or people who live here have more to recycle in the summer.
Outer Banks Hauling also picks up recycling in Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Colington and Manteo, but households in those communities also have to volunteer. The towns of Southern Shores and Duck contract for recycling pickup and everyone gets the service.
Earlier this month, Dave Clark, the public works director for Nags Head, made a push to the Board of Commissioners for ideas on how to get more rental property owners on board. The first step would be to make sure they realize Outer Banks Hauling offers a three-month program. The cost: A little over $22 for all three months.
That’s a small price for a huge gesture of goodwill. So many renters come from areas where recycling is the norm, they have to be taken aback that it is not SOP here.
In fact, Clark reported, the town’s recycling drop-off areas are overwhelmed in the summer.
Clark said that recycling could be listed by the rental companies as a feature of a cottage. The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau has suggested providing refrigerator magnets that urge renters to tell the rental company that if their vacation house doesn’t have recycling, they want it.
One possibility discussed was that renters, on their own, could call and have their recycling picked up during their week here. But Smiley said that would be impractical for his company, which sends its trucks from Hampton Roads.
Another would be for the town to work with the Outer Banks Association of Realtors to make sure the word gets out through the rental management companies on what is clearly a good deal.
These are all great ideas, but why does it have to be so complicated? Why can’t the rental companies set it up and include the $22 in their fee for handling properties? Or even absorb the cost. A savvy marketer could make it pay dividends in public relations. Include in your advertising. Promote it. It comes out to about $1.75 a week per house.
Better yet, go for the solution I’ve advocated before and will be happy to recycle: Eliminate one of the weekly trash pickups, or charge for it, and provide recycling as a town service.
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Bill says:
I agree I agree!!!! Most of the towns and cities that a vast majority of summer renters come from fine you if you have recyclable materials in your regular trash. They are used to recycling at home because they have to, it is mandated by their local government. Dare county and the individual towns need to step up to the plate. Dare county and each township (that does not provide a curbside recycling program) has had their heads in the sand for too long. There needs to be a mandatory curbside recycling program. Oh yea, by the way, taxes might go up! But they will go up anyway, with or without a recycling program!!!
ekim says:
Taxes might go up. You must work for county BILL. I can’t handle any more taxes. It’s said 60% recycling goes to the dump! Is this true?
Maslin says:
I’m all in favor of your idea, but want to point out one thing: although some communities in the Corolla area either contract with a recycling service or require their homeowners to do so, Currituck County does not even provide any recycling drop-off centers on the beach. At least visitors in Dare County have somewhere to take recyclables if their rental home doesn’t provide curbside pickup!
Tim says:
While recycling is a good thing it will be difficult for rental homes to sign on to. I recycle at my personal home here in Kitty Hawk and they check in the can to make sure it has the correct type of trash in there that they accept. If it does not have the correct stuff they leave it and will not empty it. This is where the problem will be at rental homes. All it will take is one renter to throw the wrong things in the yellow top can and it will not be emptied. How many weeks will it go unemptied and who will have to go out and clean it out? I don’t mind paying each month for the privilege to recycle, but I don’t want to pick through the renters trash to remove trash they won’t accept in the recycle can.
Selena K says:
If more vacationers either voluntarily recycled or were made to/encouraged to recycle by the rental companies and owners, there would be a lot less trash blowing down our streets in the wind…at least soundside in Nags Head, anyway.
I think it is far past time that this became a reality, no matter who pays for it.
We pay OB Hauling/Bay Disposal only about $7/month to come pick up the bin, which gets pretty doggone full in only two week’s time. We are full time, year-round residents.
No way the rental owners can’t afford that!
Missy says:
Nags Head needs to take the money they want to spend on beach nourishment & provide curb-side recycling to all homes. We used to have curb-side recycling in Nags Head that was provided by the town. The Town said that they stopped the program because folks didn’t turn in a survey. I was a participant, but never received the survey. Go figure.
Perry says:
Go to a resort area in Arizona and recycling is mandatory in the hotels and resorts. They charge a fee if recyclables are in your trash.
And every ton of plastic, aluminum, etc, picked up by curb-side hauling is one less ton taken to the landfill at a cost of approximately $50.00 per ton.
Informed says:
We use outerbanks hauling but lately they have either been late to pick up or skip weeks altogether. We have had to call 3times in the past month just to get them to pick up. Our bill is paid up, they are just not responsible. I think we need a new company who is interested in doing the work they are paid for!