Cleaning Up Princeton's Streets--Some Lessons Learned

If you care about clean streets, now is the time to be trying to change policy. In spring, summer and fall, when yardwaste, leaves and brush, and even grass clippings (supposedly illegal), are being cast out loose upon the streets without concern for pickup dates or ordinance requirements, it's too late. Now, too, is when we usually forget all about what happens in summer and fall. Thus, nothing ever changes.

This year, amazingly, some residents fed up with the perpetual mess are seizing the moment, carpe diem-like, and calling for a new policy that will make our streets a source of pride, rather than a dumping ground. Below are some insights I've gained after years of fighting this battle for change:

• Education without ordinance enforcement has not been effective in the past: In my experience, and as the main author of Princeton's pamphlet detailing the problems with and solutions for dumping leaves and yardwaste in the street, a focus on education has unfortunately not worked. We had an initiative to give away free leaf corrals, we've distributed the pamphlets, yet more organics get dumped now than ever before. Why is this? Because our education efforts are competing with the most powerful message being sent--that when it comes to dumping organics in the street, anything goes. A focus on education places the burden on those who care (preparation of pamphlets, distribution of leaf corrals, etc), and asks nothing of those who don't care. An ordinance that is well constructed and consistently enforced is the best education. 
• People do what they see their neighbors doing. Because backyard composting--the best means of keeping streets clean--cannot be seen by neighbors, there is no means of spreading the practice through imitation. By contrast, dumping of yardwaste, leaves and brush on the street is a highly visible statement, which is then imitated by neighbors thinking that it's the right thing to do. More people are joining Princeton's program for collecting foodwaste in part because of its strong visual (the green rollout bin on the curb). Backyard composters need a similar icon to put in their front yards, as evidence of how they use composting to help keep Princeton's streets clean. I had at first thought it could be a small sign saying "Another Clean-Streets Backyard Composter", but a small icon-like object might be better. It could be pyramid-shaped, maybe 6" high, with the words "clean, streets, backyard, compost" on the four faces, and the point flattened to accommodate an "=" sign, as in "backyard composting = clean streets". The town could have a design contest, with a prize going to the winner.
• Take advantage of improved communication. Emailed reminders of when collections will take place, particularly when combined with some enforcement of the regulations, would greatly reduce dumping of yardwaste on the street weeks before the next scheduled pickup. The town sends out emails any time the website is updated, but there doesn't appear to be a list specifically for collections.
• Take a comprehensive approach. Particularly because a promise was reportedly made that no services would be cut as a part of consolidation, resistance to changing the existing organics collection will be reduced if the changes are part of a larger rethinking of services that includes additions to balance any changes perceived as reductions.
• Highlight lower visibility services. Leaf/brush/yardwaste collection is one of the highest visibility services provided by the municipality. In a town where property taxes are high and many people are unaware that town taxes are a small percentage of the total, it is very hard to cut back on what is essentially an unlimited freedom to dump organics in the street. If streamlining collections would provide significant savings or allow other less visible services to improve, that would be a useful argument for changing the status quo.
• There's a need to fully document costs of the current approach. If we don't know how much the status quo is costing, we can't calculate how much could be saved using a different approach. Responding to a request from the Princeton Environmental Commission, the town recently reported that $640,000 was spent on staff time for organics collection in 2013. But other big ticket items have not been given a dollar figure as yet. Important expenses to measure are composting costs (2006-7 borough data showed that sale of compost did not fully cover the costs of the composting operation), plus fuel (both for collection and composting--fuel consumption at the composting center is huge, according to past borough data), plus all the equipment costs (e.g. parts, maintenance, replacement). Since there is a large variation year to year in expense, depending on what storms come through, data from more than one year will be needed in order to have good numbers to work with. 
• Beware of a quick dismissing of ideas. For good policy to emerge, there needs to be an information gathering stage, during which people keep their minds open as to which policy is best. I'm always surprised how quick people are to dismiss ideas. We owe it to ourselves to explore all ideas without summarily dismissing any one of them. Having an open mind also means coming into a discussion being ready to be wrong. Ideas should be stripped of ego and bias, and considered for their own sake, regardless of their source. Those with scientific training often have an advantage here, both in having practiced keeping an open mind until adequate data is collected, and in developing radar for questionable assertions. One quick way to kill an idea is to highball its likely cost. I've seen this tactic used repeatedly over the years.
• Reflexive dismissal of the rollout bin option: I've heard the idea of using rollout bins as part of an overall collection program dismissed, and yet they are a popular option with other towns and cities. The private haulers of trash and recyclables, for whom profit and efficiency is particularly important, have largely switched to rollout bins. Lawrenceville reportedly saved $100,000 the first year by switching to rollout bins for trash collection and going from twice weekly to once weekly pickup. Judgements need to be made after collecting sufficient evidence, not before. 
• Plastic vs. combustion: Environmentalists often passionately object to plastic. Plastic is visible, while carbon dioxide emerging from an exhaust pipe is not. One argument given against using rollout bins to containerize yardwaste is that they represent a large investment in plastic. Plastic is made from fossil fuels, but as a friend in the EPA pointed out to me, plastic is sequestered carbon. If a collection program is made more efficient by utilizing plastic containers, that means less burning of fuel, which means less carbon escaping into the atmosphere over time. 
• Resistance to change is short term, benefits are long term. Changing policy will inevitably lead to some angry phone calls that town staff are understandably not savoring the prospect of dealing with. However, there are examples of towns that have shown the courage and foresight to change their policies and weather the controversy, for the sake of long term fiscal and environmental improvement. Resistance to change can be strong at first, but it fades as people adapt to a new system. 
• Exploring connection between leaf collection and tree planting: Since trees produce leaves, people's views about leaves and leaf collection can influence how they feel about planting trees to shade the street and their property. This suggests that both the shade tree commission and the environmental commission need to take an interest in leaf collection policy.

Related posts: http://princetonprimer.blogspot.com/search?q=rollout+bins