Pittsburgh overtakes Los Angeles as "sootiest city" in America

[Humanoid]

they are both in the business of collecting and analyzing information that would be useful to their customers.

Who paid for the "studies"? A good study is done by 1.) people that know what they are doing, 2.) People that don't benefit from the study showing a particular out-come.
It should not be surprising the companies, local governments etc pay groups to do studies that show particular results. It is really hard to get unbiased information out of private groups unless their profitability is directly tied to the information being unbiased. Unfortunately that is rarely the case.

You can take paper to any of five drop off locations. See here:

Note, I said "process". I know their are drop off locations, but note there aren't many of them. And your round trip from many locations is at least 10 miles. So in order to recycle in Pittsburgh you need both a big car to transport (a truck really) recyclables and a storage place for recyclables. So lets review the situation. The city makes it mandatory that its residents recycle, but it requires its residents to:

1.) Transport dirty material in their cars - This right here is a deal breaker! Nobody wants to transport, yard waste, dirty cans etc in their clean car.
2.) waste gas - Given current gas prices this also reduces residents willingness to recycle.
3.) waste time - The amount of time wasted is amazing!
4.) add to local pollution - Wants the point of recycling if it produces more waste in the process?

Are you seriously trying to justify the city here? I mean really? knock knock, anybody home? So the city makes it "mandatory" (this is a joke in itself), but gives its resident 4 big reasons not to recycle. The idea that Pittsburgh is green is....amusing.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

Who paid for the "studies"?

I believe it was Mercer and Forbes respectively. In other words, I don't have any particular reason to believe they were operating as a front for some other group.

A good study is done by 1.) people that know what they are doing, 2.) People that don't benefit from the study showing a particular out-come.

Right, and that is why global business consultancies and national business publications are good choices for people to do such rankings. They do this sort of thing on a regular basis, and have no particular stake in how Pittsburgh, say, ends up being ranked.

It should not be surprising the companies, local governments etc pay groups to do studies that show particular results. It is really hard to get unbiased information out of private groups unless their profitability is directly tied to the information being unbiased. Unfortunately that is rarely the case.

As an aside, governments and non-profits also have their own agendas, so I am not sure one can say that they are systematically less subject to bias than for-profit entities. In any event, I guess I just don't find it plausible that the Pittsburgh government bought off Mercer and Forbes.

Note, I said "process". I know their are drop off locations, but note there aren't many of them. And your round trip from many locations is at least 10 miles.

Really? There seems to be one or more recycling centers well within easy reach of most places in the City. And keep in mind that geographically, Pittsburgh is a pretty small city.

So in order to recycle in Pittsburgh you need both a big car to transport (a truck really) recyclables and a storage place for recyclables.

No, they have a curbside program for newspaper, plastics, glass, and metal containers. But you asked about office paper, which does require drop off. And I don't think most people are generating truckloads of office paper on a regular basis.

[Humanoid]

I believe it was Mercer and Forbes respectively.

And why would they waste the money? To do it in a meaningful way would require millions.

But you asked about office paper, which does require drop off. And I don't think most people are generating truckloads of office paper on a regular basis.

Paper in general, and yes people do produce a lot of it. Likewise for yard waste. The city's curb side pick up is inconsistent at best and is not practiced in apartments. Not to mention, they don't take everything and you have to divide it rigidly for them. My claim is not that you can't recycle in Pittsburgh, but rather there are many barriers to doing so in Pittsburgh. Which makes it so funny that its "mandatory". The city pretends people are going to go out of their way to recycle, they don't. People will only recycle if 1.) Its forced in some way, 2.) and its made easy for them. So long as you can easily throw all your recyclables in a can with everything else and throw it out as trash most will not recycle. Its no different then telling people not to buy SUVs when gas was 99 cents a gallon. Nobody cared, they sure care now!

Claiming a city is "green" in which can't even handle recycling correctly is dubious.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

And why would they waste the money? To do it in a meaningful way would require millions.

I have no idea what the costs would be, but the reason they spend money on these sorts of things is that this is part of their business. Again, one of the things Mercer does is advise multinational corporations about the relative merits of different places they could potentially locate their employees. Forbes has actually carved out a niche as a provider of lists of this kind. So, presumably they make these investments because they get a return on them.

Paper in general, and yes people do produce a lot of it.

How many people produce truckloads of paper on a regular basis?

The city's curb side pick up is inconsistent at best ...

I'm not sure what this means or what basis you have for claiming it.

... and is not practiced in apartments.

This is incorrect. Apartment buildings of five units or less are covered by the ordinary curbside program. Apartment buildings of six or more units can use curbside pickup, and the city will even supply rollout carts.

... you have to divide it rigidly for them.

The city is phasing in single-stream recycling, starting this year.

My claim is not that you can't recycle in Pittsburgh, but rather there are many barriers to doing so in Pittsburgh.

Well, any recycling program is going to impose some burden on the participants. And if you as an individual find these burdens too difficult to handle, that is your subjective opinion and you are entitled to it.

[guylocke]

I don't know why you even bother or waste your digital breath, Brian, but I give you credit. Kudos.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by guylocke

I don't know why you even bother or waste your digital breath, Brian, but I give you credit. Kudos.

Partially it is because I tend to learn new things in the course of preparing my responses, and interested third parties may learn something useful as well (e.g., in this case some details of the Pittsburgh recycling program).

[Humanoid]

Well, any recycling program is going to impose some burden on the participants.

If the burden is too high most people won't do it. If there aren't any incentives to do it then most people won't do it. This is basic economics. As you reduce the burden, and create incentives more and more people will recycle. Pittsburgh has a long way to go.
But we can pretend like its a green city if you'd like.

Apartment buildings of six or more units can use curbside pickup, and the city will even supply rollout carts.

I lived in 3 apartments in Pittsburgh that were 6+ units, no such thing was done. In fact there was really no curb to put it on in the first place, and nobody came in the back to pick up recyclable material. I know because I tried. But it is nice that you quote the city's website as if its accurate description of what actually happens. I mean do you even live in Pittsburgh?

Again, one of the things Mercer does is advise multinational corporations about the relative merits of different places they could potentially locate their employees.

Why would it do a study on something that is already available? Why would the corporation want to know about how clean the environment is? They are more interested in the local environmental regulations, but the regulations are just laws and don't imply too much about the actual levels of pollution (Having laws on the books doesn't mean they are enforced, or practiced). But here is the real issue. Why would the company publish the information? The most important thing these company's have is there data, openly releasing data would be like openly giving out your patented manufacturing process. The fact that the data was published in some way would imply 1.) Its useless to the company for whatever reason (but why would they collect it then?), 2.) Its paid research done for marketing. Note, I'm not really claiming Pittsburgh city officials paid for it. Just that it would appear someone did.

Forbes has actually carved out a niche as a provider of lists of this kind.

Right and they are all rather banal. They aren't done in any serious way, they just pick some easy to measure variables and then publish some nonsense on it.

[fleetiebelle]

Recycling in the city of Pittsburgh could be better, I agree. Are the suburbs any better? I would like to have my own blue bin and be able to do magazines and phonebooks curbside, but running to Construction Junction every so often on my way home from work isn't terrible. And I do like that they take plastics 1-5 instead of just 1 and 2 like a lot of other cities.

And when I lived in apartments I never had any trouble with recycling--the stuff went to the curb every other trash day, as usual.