Recycling program lags behind schedule

For the past two months, junior Mengli Shi has hauled giant white trash bags filled with cereal boxes, plastic bottles and aluminum cans across the street. She lives in The Marylander Apartments at 3501 St. Paul St., which doesn’t have a recycling program for its residents. But a bill that Governor Martin O’Malley signed will require apartment complexes in the state to have recycling bins by Nov. 1.

“As a state, it’s in our best interests for our prosperity, for our sustainability and for our way of life that we take positive steps towards a zero-waste future where nothing is wasted,” O’Malley said. He signed House Bill 1 in the spring of 2012.

The recycling law has been in the works for several years. Delegate Stephen Lafferty, who represents District 42 in the Maryland House of Delegates, proposed the bill in 2011. State Senator James Brochin of District 42 had raised the issue that his mother didn’t have recycling in her apartment building.

“We needed to have better recycling programs, and why not include apartments and condominiums — not just homes?” Lafferty said.

The state’s Environmental Matters Committee, on which he serves, did not approve the first draft of the bill. Since the bill initially applied to all apartment complexes, he modified it so that only buildings with more than 10 dwelling units had to recycle.

When he reintroduced the bill in early 2012, it was approved by the committee, as well as the House of Delegates, State Senate and the governor himself. However, the bill did not become law until Oct. 1 of this year.

“We had to give every government an opportunity to decide how to report recycling and how to implement the program,” Lafferty said.

So when Shi, an environmental engineering and public health double major, decided to live at The Marylander in February, she didn’t know that there wasn’t a recycling program.

“Maybe I would have reconsidered,” Shi said.

Since she moved into the building in August, Shi has had to carry her recyclables across St. Paul Street and into an alley between Wolman Hall and Barnes & Noble. She then leaves her trash bags in a massive dumpster full of other recyclables.

“It’s pretty inconvenient,” Shi said.

After multiple complaints to the leasing office, Shi, an active environmentalist at Hopkins, learned that The Marylander used to recycle but stopped their program.

“No one knew how to recycle, and the recycling got messy,” Shi said. “It was just like a dumpster, and it wasn’t very systemized.”

Then one day Shi inquired about the recycling program at the office again. She received news that The Marylander would implement a recycling program because House Bill 1 required it.

“They told me it would happen by the end of the month,” Shi said. “They said there would be recycling bins on every floor.”

Although House Bill 1 states that apartment managers must offer recycling as of Oct. 1, The Marylander still does not have a recycling program.

Micheline Rice, leasing consultant at The Marylander, said her office did not know any details about the recycling program.

“We haven’t been told anything,” Rice said. “It could take anywhere from three to nine months.”

Although her account contradicts what Shi said she was told, Rice said that the complex does plan to eventually recycle. The Marylander’s manager, Wendy Morgan, could not be reached for comment.

Jennifer Combs, a public information officer at the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, said that although the law went into effect on Oct. 1, building managers have until Nov. 1 to comply with the new law.

If managers do not provide recycling services by this date, representatives from the Department of Public Works will make on-site visits. If managers still refuse to provide recycling after that, the city will enforce fines.

According to Jay Apperson, communications director at the Maryland Department of the Environment, there will a penalty of up to $50 per day of violation.

Regardless of when The Marylander starts recycling, Shi said she hopes the office will give all residents information about how to properly recycle. She asked administrators if she could help spread the word, but they declined her offer.

“You have to reach out to every person,” Shi said. “You can’t just put a random flyer on the elevator that recycling’s coming. That’s where they failed last time.”

Shi said she thought the new legislation was key to a change for the better.

“In the end, this act is what made The Marylander do something,” Shi said.

O’Malley said that young people are much more likely to know how to recycle. Thus, the new law will have an impact on buildings like The Marylander, where a significant portion of the residents are students.

“People under 40 especially are much more conscious of how their choices and actions affect the environment and everyone around them,” O’Malley said. “I think House Bill 1 was one very positive step forward in that direction.”