A throw-away downtown

Ever peek inside the sidewalk trash cans in downtown Manchester, NH? I do.

And what I spy, almost without fail, is an array of plastic soda bottles, aluminum beer cans, plastic Dunkin' Donuts cups and glass bottles.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, downtown is the only section of Manchester to have no recycling opportunities whatsoever, not even sidewalk recycling bins like this one I saw in downtown Milwaukee, Wis., last month:

While downtown receives daily trash pick-up, it is the only area of the city that does not have weekly recycling pickup. When I lived downtown this meant if my wife and I wanted to recycle (we did) that I had to personally cart our recyclables to the sorting facility on Dunbarton Road - a waste of time and gas that further contributed to traffic congestion and pollution in the city.

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From bin to bottle: the journey of Manchester's recyclables

What really happens to the recyclables I place on the curb every Monday morning?

I take it on faith that they are actually recycled, but as I've recently learned, just because companies tell you they are recycling items, doesn't mean they won't end up in a toxic dump site in some Third World country.

To satisfy my conscience, I posed my question to Corcoran Environmental Services, the Kennebunk, Me., company which has a 50-year contract with City of Manchester, NH, to handle the city's recycling and yard waste.

In an email, Operations Manager Mike McCray told me that once picked up at the curb, Manchester's recyclables are taken directly to this Allied Waste sorthing facility in Hooksett:

 

Here the recyclables are first separated (plastic from aluminum, etc.) and then condensed into bales like these:

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A greener Manchester?

Boasting stores like Real Green Goods and Concord Cooperative Market, New Hampshire’s capital city would appear to be a fairly green city. Certainly greener than Manchester, I thought. But I was wrong.

According to a recent report from the state Department of Environmental Services, Concord’s recycling rate is a dismal 3.8 percent. Manchester, on the other hand, came in at 24.2 percent. The state average is 20.4 percent.

Who knew Manchester had a semi-green side?

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